Christchurch - a couple of sessions.

On Thursday we had a session at the Halswell Quarry. We used the same site as last week which proved to be a mistake as we had a very poor catch. A total of 6 birds for the morning, 2 new House Sparrows, 1 new Dunnock, 2 Blackbird recaps (both from last week) and a recap Greenfinch. The Greenfinch was at least a bit interesting being the oldest recap for the species and the 2nd oldest of  any species.

On Friday Phil had a session at his place in Motukarara. He at least was reasonably successful, catching 21 birds of 9 species with 18 new and 3 recaptures.
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 2 (1)
House Sparrow - 6 (1)
Yellowhammer - 3 (0)
Goldfinch - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (1)
Fantail - 1 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)

Halswell Quarry May 16 - Blackbirds and others.

We had a session at the Quarry this morning. We set up 3 nets around a fruiting Strawberry/Arbutus tree. This was with the hope of catching some Blackbirds that were feeding there. One of the reasons for this was to give some of the Trainees experience with larger birds. We were joined by two banders from Newcastle in Australia who were in town and wanted to experience handling NZ birds. With almost all the birds caught being introduced species their NZ bird experience was limited but what they banded were new species to them.

We caught 23 birds of 5 species. All were new and most were in their1st year. With 9 Blackbirds our main object was achieved, this being our highest daily total at the Quarry. Other birds banded were 10 House Sparrow, 2 Silvereye and 1 each of Chaffinch and Grey Warbler. The Grey Warbler was the first for the year.

Eleanor with Greg & Judith.

Judith with one of the first House Sparrows she has banded.

Me takin a photo of Greg taking a photo of Judith with "her" Sparrow. Kenny in the background doing nothing!

The latest NZ Bird Banding Office Newsletter

Just received the link to the latest NZ Bird Banding Newsletter, It's well worth a look, hopefully you can get to it via the link below.

From the Banding Office:

·         Vacancies in DOC Terrestrial Science Unit

·         Reminder to order bands and equipment (and submit outstanding band returns!) before June

·         Life cycle of a bird band

·         African Ringing Expeditions

For these and other banding banter, download the 9^th edition of BirDBanD.

Previous newsletters can be downloaded from the bird banding webpages of Department of Conservation and BirdsNZ.

Kind regards,

Michelle and Sandy