Halswell Quarry - A bit of banding here and there.

We have done a bit of banding at the Quarry in the last week or so. Some was banding nestlings and some was attempting to catch Blackbirds feeding on fruit of ornamental cherries in the Japanese Garden area.
On Thursday I banded 4 Chaffinch in a nest in the corner of a car park. I then had a bit of a walk around and found a lot of Blackbirds & Song Thrushes feeding on the cherry fruit. On Friday I put up a couple of nets for an hour or so to see what I could catch. With a catch of 8 birds including a couple of interesting recaps I thought it worth another go. Monday was the only day that a session could be fitted in so a group of us gathered and had a good couple of hours.

Species caught over this period were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 6 (0)
Song Thrush - 3 (0)
House Sparrow - 0 (2) both were old birds with one at 750 days from banding, was for about 30 min  the oldest recap of any species caught at the Quarry. It now has to share this honour with a Bellbird caught later that had been  banded on the same day.
Dunnock - 0 (1) the oldest Dunnock recap at the Quarry.
Chaffinch - 6 (0) 4 were nestlings
Goldfinch - 2 (0)
Greenfinch - 4 (0)
Fantail - 9 (0)

Kenny concentrating on banding "His" Fantail

The Fantail was aged as a 2 due to several retained juvenile covert feathers.

Welcome Swallow - 2 (0) both nestlings.
Bellbird - 0 (1) This was the bird of the week. It was the first Bellbird we banded at the Quarry. When it was banded on 16 Nov 2017 it was noted that it was blind in the right eye. It is still blind in that eye and it is amazing that it has survived this long. It is now joint holder of the oldest bird record.

The blind eye, looks sad but he's a survivor.