Halswell Quarry Thu 24 Oct - a frustrating morning.

We had a session at the Quarry this morning or, rather we tried to. The forecast was bad but the day dawned with reasonable conditions. I was expecting a small turn out of banders with Phil and Andrew plus Jan assisting but unfortunately Phil was involved in an accident when a guy went through a compulsory stop and "T Boned" him. Fortunately no one was hurt and Phil's vehicle was not badly damaged but he had a lot of paper work to do. He finally got to the Quarry about 10.

We put a smaller number of nets up than usual and were catching some birds. Then the wind got up and conditions became marginal. When it started to rain the decision was made to take the nets down By the time we had achieved this it was hosing down.

We ended up with a meagre total of 14 birds of 6 species with 12 new and 2 recaps. Blackbird 2 + 1 recap, Silvereye 1 + 1 recap 3 greenfinch, 4 House Sparrows and 1 each of Bellbird and Song Thrush.

The Bellbird with a firm grasp of Andrew's finger.

Andrew reading the Blackbird recap's band.