Halswell Quarry, Thu 25 June - a good morning

We had a good session at the Quarry this morning. This was surprising as there was misty drizzle on the drive to the site but stopped when I arrived. Although there was low cloud and a threatening sky further precipitation did not start until we had taken the nets down and were packing up.

We processed 52 birds of 4 species with 32 new and 20 recaps. There was also a large number of multiple catches of already handled birds. The total was dominated by Silvereyes with 25 new and all of the 20 recaps. There were also 4 House Sparrows, 2 Song Thrushes and a solitary Bellbird. The oldest Silvereye recap was banded Dec 2017. This is the first time it has been recaptured and at 931 days is now our oldest bird recaptured of any species at the Quarry. Another 2 were banded in Jan 2018 another 11 were banded during the winter of 2019 and the remainder last week.

Eleanor banding the first Thrush caught, our first for a considerable time.

The second Thrush

Ruud banding the Bellbird

Halswell Quarry - Sat 20 June

We had planned to have a session at the Quarry last Thursday but persistent rain put a stop to that. The rain continued on Friday but appeared to have stopped on Saturday morning. A couple of us decided to give it a go and managed to get a net up for an hour or so before precipitation again started.

By the time we had the single 9m net up there were already half a dozen Silvereyes in it. It was a hectic time with Silvereyes constantly attempting to get caught and even though we set the banding table only a few meters from the net they kept coming. We ended up with a total of 41 birds. 3 new House Sparrows and 34 new Silvereyes and 7 Recaps. There were plenty of other birds about but with someone constantly at the net they didn't have a chance to get in. The oldest recap was banded Jan 2018 and it now our oldest recap at this site.

We caught a Silvereye with what I am calling "Scaly Foot" I am not sure what the cause of this is but hopefully we can find out soon. We have now had about 6 examples of this condition.

Jan's Place Thu. 11 June - a very green and busy morning.

We had a session this morning in Jan & John's garden on the rim of the Halswell Quarry. It was a very busy session from the start with constant stream of birds into the nets.  The total was 101 with 94 new and 3 recap Silvereyes, a new Bellbird and 1 recap; a House Sparrow and a Blackbird both new. All the recaps were banded about a year ago with all except 1 being banded in this garden and the other was banded down in the Conservation area of the Quarry about 1km away.

Todays team. Ruud, Kenny, Jan our hostess, Andrew and Susan during our only break.

Susan who is a Vet has just taken a sample from a Silvereye that had an unusual growth on a foot in the hope of discovering the pathogen causing the problem

The Bellbird recap had a very sharp spike on a primary indicating an old bird. It also had a white covert feather.