Queenstown - only limited banding

We drove down here on Monday but it wasn't a very good trip. By the time I got here I was crook as a dog, possibly due to a dodgy chicken pie I ate on the way down. Finally got a couple of nets up Thursday morning. Caught 19 birds of 5 species, 13 new and 6 recaps.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (2)
Dunnock - 0 (1)
Starling - 3 (0) also 2 nestlings in one of the boxes I erected several months ago. Unfortunatly they had fledged from the other 3 boxes. There are a huge number of newly fledged birds about.

A couple of the Starlings caught together, probably a mother and daughter

House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Tui - 3 (3) including a juvenile and the oldest female recap.

The new juvenile, a little girl.

One of the older recaps, a stroppy old male.

This morning Rachel came over from Wanaka, primarily for a chin wag and a catch up on her various projects. We also put some nets up and managed to catch 12 birds of 7 species.

Blackbird - 1 (0)
Song Thrush - 1 (0) a recently fledged juvenile that had obviosly had a difficulty time.

The Thrush's tail showing several growth/fault bars.

Dunnock - 3 (1)
Chaffinch - 1 (1)
Redpoll - 3 (0) the first caught since March.

All the Redpoll were female.

House Sparrow - 0 (1)
Californian Quail - 1 (0) this was encourged into a net by Rachel after I had failed miserably with a pair earlier.

The Quail was a chubby female.

Rachel with her prize.