Halswell Quarry 19 March, a Blackbird Day

 We had a very pleasant morning under a grove of old pear trees this morning. Americans have a saying about "A Bluebird Morning" ours was rather a "Blackbird Morning" or more like  a Brown-bird one. All except 1 bird was a Blackbird and as all except one of them was a youngster so they were mostly Brown ones.

We were able to sex most of the juvenile Blackbirds by the colour of their tail.

There was a good keen group of us with Jan, Ruud, Della, Vanessa and her son Ewan. Ewen is a keen lad and hopefully we can get him a Level 1 permit so he can get some banding experience. Although we caught only 12 birds of 2 species it was pretty much as expected. Of the 11 Blackbirds caught all were new and all birds of the year. The other was a recap that had been banded exactly 2 years ago at the same site. It had also been recaptured about 500m away in the Japanese Garden part of the Quarry last December.

The only non Blackbird caught was a juvenile female Bellbird. Juveniles are rarely caught, this being only the second caught at the Quarry.

Ruud looking very pleased with "his Bellbird".

Queenstown - some Blackbirds

I have had nets up for a few hours on the last couple of mornings. On both days banding was cutailed due to a strong southerly wind getting up so the catch was a bit low. The combined total was -
Blackbird - 6 (5) included was the first juvenile for the year.

The first juvenile of any species caught this year

Song Thrush - 1 (1)
Chaffinch - 1 (1) the recap was banded on the first day of banding here and is now the oldest bird of any species recaptured. On the first day 8 Chaffinch were banded and 3 of these have been recaptured in the last few days, over 2 years later.

The current oldest bird.

Karori Cemetery 3 May - Blackbirds & Tui

A group of us gathered at the Karori Cemetery this morning.  The first couple of hours were a bit frustrating as despite a good forecast we had periods of misty drizzle. Consequently the nets were slow in being erected but despite this we still had a reasonable catch of 14 birds.

Katherine banding a Tui with the sharp bits controlled by Dave and Otis keeping an eye on progress.

Most were Blackbirds with 9 new and a recap.  The recap was the same one we caught a couple of weeks ago and it still holds the record for the oldest bird recaptured at this site now extended by 12 days.
One new Silvereye was caught and 3 Tui. The first Tui caught was in heavy moult in all areas - the first one caught moulting this year. By the notch in P8 it was judged to be a bird in its first year.

The Tui wing showing P7 growing and P8 with a small notch

Yesterday I retrieved a dead banded Tui from the road, probably the result of being hit by a car. It had been banded in Nov 2012 as a first year so would now be aged as a 4. The bird was in pristine condition having just completed its moult so I took the opportunity to take a photo of the wing to show the development of the notch of a known aged bird.

The wing of the dead bird showing the bigger notch of an adult.

Hornsey Rd - An old bird is back

Over the last couple of days I have done some banding both at my place and down the road at Bridie's. Didn't catch a lot of birds but at Bridie's did catch old White Eye again after an absence of several months. The bird was named by Bridie due to it having several white feathers on the side of its head and she keeps an eye out for it. She reported he had returned about a week ago and he will probably stay around now for the winter. He was banded on 8 Aug 04 and at 3207 days is the oldest Blackbird we have recaptured. There has been an older recovery of a dead bird and White Eye will have to go another year to match that age. This was the 20th time he has been caught and he appears to be in good condition with a weight of 96g which is near the top of his weight range.

Birds caught at both sites were -
Blackbird 0 (3)
Dunnock 2 (0)
Greenfinch 1 (0)
House Sparrow 5 (5) the oldest recap was banded Nov 11.

The next Zoo banding session will be this Saturday 25 May and at this stage the forecast looks good so hope it stays that way.

Karori Cemetery 4 May - A black day

We had a banding session at the Karori Cemetery this morning and it was all black, well actual half of them were brown. We caught 10 new birds and 1 recap (actually 3 but 2 were banded earlier in the morning so don't count) all birds were blackbirds so a bit disappointing not to get a bit more variety.

Hugh, Ros, Kate and Ross discussing the finer points of wing moult in  female Blackbirds.

These were all aged as 1 (in first year)

Brown/Fawn Tui

I saw a brown/fawn Tui (Isabelline? Leucism?)in Jeypore St, Berhampore yesterday. It is in the same banksia tree as one of a similar colour was in last winter, there are about 15 banksia trees in the area each with a Tui or two in so I suspect this bird is probably the same one as last winter.

It was a very overcast  day but I did manage to get some photos even if they are a bit dull.

A bit of banding and an old bird confirmed

Spent a couple of hours at the Houghton Bay stream yesterday (Friday). I didn't expect to catch much after heavy overnight rain but still caught 13 birds.
House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (1)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 4 (1) the recap was banded in 08 so a reasonably old bird.
Tui - 2 (0)

I have also done a bit of banding both here and down the road at Bridie's with not a lot of birds.
Blackbird - 2 (4)  the recaps included the old bird "White Eye" who was caught for the 19th time and at 3064 days is the oldest live Blackbird recapture at any site, but has a while to go to beat a couple of recoveries.
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 5 (2)
Tui - 1 (0)

Called in at the Zoo a couple of days ago and spoke with Nathan who was the keeper who found the dead Blackbird mentioned in the last post. He confirmed that it had only been dead for 2-3 days.  It apparently has been around the Giraffe enclosure for some time and was very confiding and well known to the keepers working there. It was last seen about 4 days prior to the body being found and the comment was made that he wasn't looking very well. As it was banded as a Juvenile this makes it just over 11 years old at the time of its demise and at 4021 days our oldest bird recaptured or recovered of any species, surpassing the Silvereye that had held the record since Nov 2007 when it was recaptured after 3817 days having been banded in May 1997.

This is the last post for 2012 and I wish you all the best for the new year. The past year has been a good one for old birds with a new oldest bird overall as well as for Blackbird, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Starling and Tui. I am away for the next few weeks so there is unlikely to be any new postings till towards the end of January.

Bridie's - a couple of old birds

I have had some of trapping sessions down the road at Bridie's over the last couple of days; on Friday evening and an hour this morning. Not a big catch with 16 birds of 4 species, 6 new and 10 recaptures.
Species caught were-
Starling - 0 (1)
House Sparrow - 4 (0)
Silvereye - 0 (5) The oldest was banded in July 07 and at 1975 days has joined the 5 year group.
Blackbird - 2 (4) A male that we have named White Eye because of some white feathers on the side of his head was caught for the 18th time. He was originally banded in August 04 as a first year bird so is now aged as a 10. At 3037 days from banding he is our oldest Blackbird recaptured at any site with only a female that was recovered after a fatal car accident at 3299 days from banding being older. Hopefully White Eye will survive another year or two and take over the mantel completely. By the look of the bill full of food he was taking away he is still breeding and is a busy boy.

Island Bay 18 Sept - another old bird

I had a good morning’s banding at Island Bay this morning with a steady flow of birds and pretty good conditions. It was a little windy early on and then a bit too sunny later. Numbers were not spectacular but fairly typical for this time of year, with a total of 31 birds of 6 species including 24 new and 7 recaptures.

Species caught were – (recaps in brackets)

Chaffinch – 3 (0)

Greenfinch – 3 (0)

Blackbird – 3 (3) D-193264 a female which was banded 26/5/08 was for a time our oldest Blackbird recap and then D-190454 a male was caught and she was relegated to second oldest (but still oldest female). He was banded 4/11/07 and is now the oldest bird of any species banded and recaptured at this site; neither bird had been recaptured before.

The old bird about to be released - until next time

Another Blackbird was recaptured twice about three and half hours apart in that time it had put on about 6 gr in weight.

First year Blackbird about to be released for the second time.

Starling – 1 (0)

House Sparrow – 11 (4)

Tui – 3 (0) the Brown/fawn coloured Tui that has been in the area for some time was seen several times, mostly while being chased by a large normal coloured male. Managed to catch the chasing bird but unfortunately not the chased!

Karori Cemetery Saturday 30 June

Gen, Nick and I spent a couple of hours at the Karori Cemetery this morning partly to see what birds were there and also for Gen to hopefully get some more samples. Although we did not catch a lot of birds it still was I believe a successful session.

Dogwood fruit a month ago now almost all consumed

 In all we caught 8 birds with 5 new Blackbirds

One of the Female Blackbirds had a very prominent growth bar across it's wings and tail giving us no trouble aging it as a 1

Three Tui were caught 1 new and 2 recaptures, they were all big males tipping the scales at near or over 200g. One of the recaps was banded at the beginning of May and has gone from 148g to a massive 210g - there must be good stuff in the Dogwood fruit. The other recap was banded 30 May 2010 at the same spot.

Gen with the biggest male Tui, she managed very well only losing a small amount of (her) blood.

Male Tui wing showing the wing slot in the 7th primary which they use to make the  whiring sound  when giving dominance displays.

Cats were again a potential problem with several prowling the area and a close eye had to be kept on the nets. When one of the Blackbirds squawked loudly when being processed several appeared almost instantly.