We had a session at the Cashmere Rd site Thursday morning. A week ago there was a huge flock of birds, mostly Starling, Blackbird & Song Thrush feeding on plums on several large trees. Unfortunately by the time we got over the New Year and subsequent holidays the birds had departed and we had a very poor catch rate. We only caught two birds a Blackbird and a Song Thrush, before it started to rain. We were packed up and on our way home by 10am.
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| It looks like the Blackbird had a close encounter with a predator as it was replacing four feathers on the right side of its tail. |
The only highlight of the morning was that Rudd on his bike ride home spotted a dead Starling on the side of Cashmere Rd. Being a good birdman he checked it out and found that it was banded. The bird had been banded at the Halswell Quarry last September, so not very long and at about 1km not a great distance but still a good record.
Last Tuesday we did some more Pulus banding. We banded 3 more Kingfisher chicks from a nest in a retaining bank below the workshop in the Quarry and 3 Welcome Swallow chicks from an old concrete bunker behind the workshop.
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| The three Kingfisher youngsters. A much more even sized brood than the one last month. |
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| Jan with her arm in the Kingfisher hole. Reminds me about a song about a Woodpecker hole |
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One of the Welcome Swallow chicks |
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