We had a session at Jan's place next to the Halswell Quarry yesterday, 17 Sept with very marginal conditions. There was a strong gusty westerly blowing and although we put nets up out of the worst of the wind, gusts would still catch them at times. There had also been a very marked drop off of bird numbers during the week due to the warm weather with birds dispersing to their spring haunts.
We processed 21 birds which was better than I had expected considering the conditions,. There were 19 new with 2 recaps. Silvereyes were the main species with 16 new and a recap, 3 new House Sparrows and a Chaffinch recap made up the rest. The Chaffinch was banded at this site 1 Aug last year.
I have also attempted to catch some more of the Redpolls that are feeding in a large flock in the water retention swale on Awatea Rd with mixed success. Last Sunday I caught just 4 before the flock moved to another feeding area. On Wednesday I was a bit more successful catching 12. This makes a total of 25 banded at the Swale over the last few weeks. The only bycatch was a House Sparrow. I had thought some Goldfinches might have been possible as there are 20+ feeding with the Redpolls.
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| Most of the birds are drab first year birds but there are a few brightly coloured older males. |
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| This bird is more of an Orange poll rather than the usual Redpoll |
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