Halswell Quarry 19 March, a Blackbird Day

 We had a very pleasant morning under a grove of old pear trees this morning. Americans have a saying about "A Bluebird Morning" ours was rather a "Blackbird Morning" or more like  a Brown-bird one. All except 1 bird was a Blackbird and as all except one of them was a youngster so they were mostly Brown ones.

We were able to sex most of the juvenile Blackbirds by the colour of their tail.

There was a good keen group of us with Jan, Ruud, Della, Vanessa and her son Ewan. Ewen is a keen lad and hopefully we can get him a Level 1 permit so he can get some banding experience. Although we caught only 12 birds of 2 species it was pretty much as expected. Of the 11 Blackbirds caught all were new and all birds of the year. The other was a recap that had been banded exactly 2 years ago at the same site. It had also been recaptured about 500m away in the Japanese Garden part of the Quarry last December.

The only non Blackbird caught was a juvenile female Bellbird. Juveniles are rarely caught, this being only the second caught at the Quarry.

Ruud looking very pleased with "his Bellbird".

Halswell Quarry 2nd March - A few birds and then it rained

 We had a session at the Quarry on Wednesday morning. We started with marginal conditions, a light drizzle or as some would say more of a mizzle. Birds were caught at a reasonable rate for the first hour or so and then the rain became heavier. As the nets were getting wet the decision was made to pack up and call it a day.

We processed 11 birds of 3 species with 6 House Sparrows, 1 Dunnock and 5 Silvereyes. All were new except 1 Silvereye, this had been banded in 2019, recaptured in 2021 and now in 2022. All at the same site.

Latest Newsletter from the Banding Office

I have just received the latest BirdBanD newsletter from the Ne Zealand Banding Office, it's well worth a read. As well as Birdy Stuff there is Batty Stuff and a great Kakapo chase. It can be found at 16th edition of BirDBanD 

BirDBanD Feb 2022 (doc.govt.nz)