Queenstown - a couple of sessions.

We arrived down here on Friday evening and since then I have managed to get a couple of banding sessions in. On Saturday I went down and checked out Bridget's hen house on Moorhill Rd. Didn't catch a lot, only 10 birds. 8 new Yellowhammers and 1 recap and a solitary House Sparrow.

The first bird caught on this trip.

Yesterday (Sunday) I had a couple of nets up here. It was a slow start due to light rain which persisted to around 9am and then started a couple of times meaning the nets had to be furled. Otherwise the weather was near ideal, calm and cloudy, meaning I could leave the nets up till late in the day. Caught a total of 53 birds of 8 species, with 40 new and 13 recaptures.

Species were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 0 (2)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 8 (4) one of the recaps was banded 13 Sept 2015 which was the second day of banding here (started on the 12th). So it is the oldest recap of any species.
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 22 (5) there was in interesting pattern to the new birds caught. The first 6 were all female, the next 11 were all male. Then it alternated.

The male Sparrows are getting reday for spring and are looking quite dandy.

Silvereye - 5 (3)
Yellowhammer 2 (0) caught together and probably a pair.

Californian Quail - 1 (0) the last bird caught for the day - and it got banded as I have a permit for down here.