No Banding sessions but some youngsters banded including a new species for the group.

 We haven't had any sessions for a couple of weeks but there have been a number of young birds receive their bling.

Starling, - we have banded 17 puli, all were in nest boxes. Phil banded 10 in his boxes at his place in Motukarara  and I have banded 7. 3 in a neighbour's box and 4 in one of my boxes. We are likely to band some more when we recheck the Little Owl boxes, as many have been taken over by Starlings.

One of the newly banded Starlings.

Song Thrush - 9 banded, 5 in a nest at the Quarry. The nest was found during our last session, but the chicks were too small to band. Ruud and I went back a week or so later to give them their bling. Ruud also banded 4 in a nest at his property.

Welcome Swallow - Ruud banded 4 in a nest at a friend's property near the Quarry.

Spur-winged Plover - There was a successful nest on one of the playing fields at the Halswell Domain and Ruud suggested that it might be possible to catch a couple of the youngsters. He proved to be correct and 2 were duly banded. They take the same size bands as the Little Owls do and this gave us a chance to try out a new band designated as EP, which is from a different manufacturer from the old E bands.

Yours truly banding his first Spur-winged Plover.

The chick with it's bling.

Even at this age the "Mask" is developing.

Little Owls - We currently have 2 birds incubating eggs, 1 at Kenny's place in North Canterbury and 1 at our Cashmere Rd site. Both birds had been banded a year ago. The one at Kennys was unsuccessful in raising chicks but the Cashmere Rd bird raised 4 chicks to fledging. Interestingly both birds have changed boxes. We also have another active nest box but have been unable to gain access to it. Hopefully we will get to check it in the next week or so.

We got a bit of a surprise to find a band already on the leg.