Due to Wednesday's session being cut short because of rain, and Annemieke being keen to get a bit more training in before heading back to Wellington, Annemeike and I decided to try again at the same site. Going back to the same site is not always a good idea but as there was just going to be the two of us I thought we might get enough birds to be worth while. This proved to be the case as we processed 33 birds of 5 species with 22 new and 11 recaps. Once again by far the majority were Silvereye with 20 new and 9 recaps. Other species were Blackbird 1, Dunnock 1 and recaps 1 each of Greenfinch and House Sparrow.
Amongst the recaptures were some interesting birds. The Greenfinch was the same bird caught 2 days ago, and most of the Silvereyes were also banded 2 days ago, but one was banded back in July 2018 and is now at 1408 days from banding. This is our oldest Silvereye recap. Not to be outdone the only House Sparrow caught was banded June 2018 so at 1457 days is the oldest bird of any species recaptured at the Quarry.
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| B-75206 The old House Sparrow |
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| A-129414 The old Silvereye |
Interestingly, although both these old birds were banded within a couple of hundred meters of today's site neither have been recaptured before.
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| Annemieke with a long billed Silvereye |
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This long billed effect is caused by balding at the top of the bill. I am not sure what causes this but possibly due to something that is being eaten as it often occurs at this time of year.
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| Annekieke - Displaying and weighing her first Blackbird. |
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