Halswell Quarry Friday 20 Oct. An enjoyable morning and a couple of old birds.

 We had a banding session near the middle car park of the Quarry yesterday. With very comfortable conditions, perhaps a bit much bright sun but I didn't hear anyone complaining about that. With several of the nets in the shade the lack of wind was a big advantage. With Della, Vanessa, Ruud and Chris we had a small but very experienced team of banders and Jan was our chief helper out.

It wasn't a big catch with 23 birds processed, 16 being new and 7 recaptures. The recapture rate was, I think, very good and included a couple of reasonable old birds. Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)

Chaffinch - 1 (1)

The new bird was a young female.

Silvereye - 2 (1)

House Sparrow - 7 (3) one of the recaps was banded 10 May 2018 and at 1989 days our 2nd oldest House Sparrow recaptured at about a month short of beating the oldest bird which is the oldest of any species.

Blackbird - 4 (3) another old bird amongst the recaps. It was banded 25 May 2018 and it is now our oldest Blackbird recap.

Surprising all the Blackbirds were older birds with no juveniles caught.

An attempt to catch Yellowhammers.

A couple of weeks ago a large flock of Yellowhammers was found feeding on the Rugby League field at the Halswell Domain. A few days later Ruud and I had a not very successful attempt to catch some. Our timing was poor as the field had been mown the afternoon before, cutting off all the seeding weeds. As well there were two vehicles roaring around re-marking the field and spraying around all the edges.

We ended up catching only 7 birds, 5 yellowhammers 1 House Sparrow and a Starling.

One of the Yellowhammers, aged as a young bird.

The Starling was a female, probably breeding in the area.

 

Only a little bit of banding recently - mostly rehab birds.

 There hasn't been much banding lately. We went to the Queenstown area for a few days a couple of weeks ago and it was an eventful trip. Gale force winds then an earthquake followed by a very large fire. When we got to Queenstown the weather had turned and it was teeming down. The following day we had almost continuous thunder and lightning. On the Friday we were woken by our phones sounding an alarm to let us know that a state of emergency had been declared in Queenstown due to slips and flooding. That night it snowed, and we had a trip back with everything except the road covered with the white stuff.

We made a detour to Timaru on the return trip to band a couple of Harriers that were in rehab and almost ready for release.

Back in Christchurch I banded a couple of nestling Blackbirds at Jan's place. Their mother was a bird Jan calls Mrs Green. She was banded with a green colour band a couple of years ago so Jan could keep an eye on the birds around the garden. This is the first time we have been able to definitely identify her chicks.

This last Friday I assisted Pauline the vet at the South Is Wildlife Hosptial to band some birds she had in rehab. There were 3 Harriers, 2 Little Owls and a Kingfisher.

A Little Owl waiting for its bling 

I will just have a little peek.

Getting my new band, first of its kind.

The Kingfisher almost ready to go

The Harriers had a colour band as well as a metal one.

Two of the Harriers, 1 in Timaru and 1 in Christchurch had repair jobs done on their tails. 
As tails are used a lot in maneuvering this procedure helps their survival when released.