We had a session at a Vineyard this morning, not far from the Halswell Quarry as a bird flies. But a bit further by car. It was a bit of a frustrating morning. Firstly I elected to put nets up on the wrong side of the field, and this should have meant that the nets would have been in the shade. Unfortunately we found out that this side had the weeds cut between the rows of vines but the other side hadn't. This meant that the seed eating finches etc. were not near our nets. Also, it clouded over and a stiff breeze sprang up. The other frustrating thing was watching flocks of 50+ Starlings managing to avoid the nets.
Although we ended up with only 10 birds I still found it a pleasant morning, as usual, good company helps. With 6 species caught we did have a bit of variety. As this was our first session at this site all birds were new and consisted of - 3 Song Thrush, this equals our highest daily catch. 2 Blackbirds, 2 Goldfinch and 1 each of House Sparrow, Chaffinch and Silvereye.
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The first two birds caught, Alice with a Blackbird and Della with a Song Thrush. Note the fancy banding table - the trusty car boot | | Both the Goldfinches were juveniles moulting into adult colours. |
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