Halswell Quarry Thu 12 Sept - a cracking morning

We had a session at the Quarry this morning with near perfect conditions and plenty of birds. Seventy three birds of 10 species were caught with 60 new and 13 recaptures. Ten species in a session is a record number for the Quarry even if several were only represented by one individual.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 3 (0)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 0 (1) there are heaps about the Quarry but only the one found the net but at least it was a good one, banded 1 Feb last year it is the oldest Sparrow recap and was for a while the oldest of any species.
Greenfinch - 10 (0) a high number for this site.
Chaffinch - 2 (0)
Goldfinch - 2 (0) the first for 2019.
Starling - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 40 (11) several of the recaps were older birds with the oldest also banded on 1 Feb 2018 the same day as the Sparrow. At 588 days from banding it is the oldest Silvereye and joint oldest with the Sparrow of any species.
Bellbird - 1 (0)
Fantail - 0 (1) the first Fantail we have recaptured. It was banded back in Jan as a juvenile so good to see it has made it through the winter. It was enticed into a net by Andrew who is our resident Fantail whisperer and uses a variety of ruses to catch this hard to catch species.

Andrew with "his" Fantail