Halswell Quarry Friday 22 July - A couple of old birds

Our planned session at the Quarry on Wednesday was abandoned due to rain. It had already been raining almost every day for the previous week and continued until around midday Friday. As I wanted to collect the feeders for use in next weeks proposed session at the Cashmere Rd site I went down Friday afternoon to pick them up. Just to make some use of the trip I erected a net and was surprised by a steady flow of birds especially as the feeders hadn't been topped up since Tuesday and one had mysteriously disappeared. 

In less than 2 hours I caught 21 birds of 5 species with 17 new and 4 recaps. 

Species caught were- (recaps in brackets)

Blackbird - 1

Fantail - 1

Silvereye - 10 (2) Both the recaps were banded this year.

House Sparrow - 4 (1) The recap was banded Aug 2019 and at 1079 days from banding is a reasonably old bird for a Sparrow.

Bellbird - 1 (1) Both birds were male and were caught together. The new bird was a youngster and was possibly being hassled by the older banded one. The recap was banded June 2019 and is now at 1128 days from banding our oldest Bellbird recaptured.

The Bellbird showing the red eye of an older bird.

All the recaps had been banded at the Quarry, in the Conservation Area, which as a bird flies is only a short distance. 

Wednesday 6 June - Harriers

 On Wednesday the Harrier traps were set in a large blackcurrant paddock in Lakeside near Leeston. It had been intended to set them on another farm but as they were shearing the site was changed. It turned out to be a fortunate move as we ended up with a record catch of seven birds. This is nearly double the previous record of four in one day. 

A very happy chappy holding one of the birds

All the birds were judged to be adults except one which still had the brown eye of a younger bird.  They were, except for two, females. Although the distance between this site and the one previously banded at is only just over 3km there were no recaps.

The younger bird with the brown eye

The pale yellow eye of an old bird

One of the females had interesting eyes with dark streaks at the bottom 

Although we have had 2 birds caught at the same time in a trap before Wednesday was the first time we have had 3.

Three birds in one trap.

Cashmere Rd 30 June - Nearly did the Ton

 We had a very successful session at the Cashmere Rd site yesterday morning (Thursday 30 June). Except for the fact that I made the decision to knock off a little earlier than usual we would have caught over 100 birds. As it was when I added up when I got home we had caught 95 with 94 new and only 1 recapture. A bit surprising to only get the 1 recap as we banded over 120 at this site last year, which was our first year there.

There was very little variety in the catch with, as expected, by far the majority being Silvereyes with 84 new and the sole recap. The other birds were 7 Greenfinch and 4 House Sparrows. Next session I might look at putting a net up away from the hordes of Silvereye to try and catch a bit more variety.

Steph banding her first Greenfinch

Laura & Steph busy at the banding station.

Three of the Silvereye had foot problems, 1 had a Pox lesion and 2 had what I call Scaly foot. I am not sure what causes this but it probably a mite infestation.

The worst case of "Scaly Foot"

If anyone knows what this problem is please let me know.