No banding but a few recovery reports

With the heavy rain this afternoon the banding session at Houghton Bay tomorrow has been cancelled and it will probably be a few days before it clears enough for a session, especially at our stream sites.

We have had a few recoveries reported recently, but none of them had moved very far from their banding site -
A Blackbird banded at Melrose Park in Oct 09 was found dead in the Zoo in Dec 2013.
Another Blackbird which was banded at Newtown Park on the other side of the Zoo was found dead near the Giraffe enclosure within the Zoo on 24 Jan.
A House Sparrow that was banded 20 Nov 2013 at Prince of Wales Park was found dead nearby a couple of weeks later. This is the first recovery report from this site.
A house Sparrow that was banded at Bridie's on Hornsey Rd in Dec 10 and recaptured at the Zoo in March 13 was found dead on Russell Tce. So although not big distances it had still moved around quite a bit.
Yesterday I picked up a banded Sparrow on Houghton Bay Rd.  It was one of a few juveniles that I banded at my place a couple of weeks ago, so hadn't survived long.

Houghton Bay 1 Feb - another slowish session

We had a session at the Houghton Bay stream this morning and, as it was at the Zoo stream yesterday, birds were again in low numbers. There was a great turnout of banders with Sarah (the Te Papa one), her partner Kyle and a friend Jim as well as Roisin, Kate and Ross with Neil and Lee joining us later. Despite the lack of birds I think we all had an enjoyable time.

We caught a total of 26 birds of 8 species with all but 1 being new and almost all were juveniles.
Species caught were -
Greenfinch - 6 (0)
Chaffinch - 4 (0)
Goldfinch - 5 (0)

Two Juv Goldfinch were caught together, the one on the right was assessed as a male, the left one female by the amount of white on the tail as well as the nasal hairs.

Silvereye - 2 (1) an extremely low catch for this site. The recap was banded up the valley at the Houghton Valley School in July 2010

The recap Silvereye, now aged as a 5+, a reasonably old bird.

House Sparrow - 5 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (0) this bird was processed by Ross, his first Grey Warbler. He has been banding for a long time, and with our group for the last 5 years.  He looked like the cat that had swallowed the Canary when he brought it back.

Fantail - 1 (0)

Roisin banding her first Fantail

Tui - 1 (0)

The Tui, a juvenile by the look of it's neck tuft about a month after fledging.

Zoo Stream 31 Jan - just a few birds

Sarah (the one that works at the Nest at the Zoo) and I spent a couple of hours at the Zoo stream this morning. Birds were fairly scarce possibly due to a heavy sea fog overnight that provided most of their H2O requirements. The slow catch rate gave Sarah a chance to hone her skills as she hopes to get her Level 2 banding permit.  She is under the tutorage of Lisa the Chief Vet at the Zoo and holds a Level 3 permit.

We caught 17 birds of 6 species with 13 new and 4 recaptures.

Species caught were -
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 3 (0)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 5 (3) the oldest recap banded at the same site almost exactly a year ago. 1 year and 2 days to be exact.

Sarah removing a Silvereye from a net's bottom shelf.

Dunnock - 1 (1) the recap was banded Sept 2012
Fantail - 2 (0) both juveniles.

Sarah taking a "Bragging" photo for her colleagues of her first Fantail

Houghton Bay Stream - Saturday 25 Jan

A group of us gathered at the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon. Mary, Kate, Ross, Sarah, who is part of the bird team at Te Papa and is an experienced bander joined us for the first time, and Kyle her partner also joined us before and after going away to have a loss at a football match. After a fairly slow start bird numbers increased and we ended up with a respectably tally of 57 birds of 6 species with 50 new and 7 recaps. A feature of the day was the number of children and their parents who joined us from the near-by playground for a close look at some birds.

This young chap was especially enthusiastic, I doubt if the grin will come off his face for a day or 2.

Species caught were -
Chaffinch - 2 (0)
Goldfinch - 2 (0)

Sarah who is Canadian and has done most of her passerine banding there with her first European Goldfinch

Sarah after  prematurely releasing  "her" Goldfinch (it had been banded)

Greenfinch - 11 (1) the recap was banded at the Prince of Wales Park last Feb it is the first bird banded there that has been recaptured away from that site.
House Sparrow - 11 (0)
Silvereye - 22 (5) the oldest recap was banded Nov 2011 another was banded on Mt Albert and another at the Houghton Valley School on June 12.
Fantail - 2 (1)

Sarah was also able to band her first Fantail while Ross (in the background) is still waiting for his first Grey Warbler

Zoo Stream 24 Jan - mostly finches

I spent about 3 hours at the little stream over the fence from the Zoo this afternoon. Caught 43 birds - all new - and although there were 9 species the catch was dominated by finches, especially juvenile Goldfinch.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 2

This Blackbird, a juvenile appears to have moulted most of its body feathers in one go

Dunnock - 1
Chaffinch - 8
Greenfinch - 5
Goldfinch - 20 all but 5 were juvs and of the first 12 birds caught 10 were juvenile Goldfinch

Several birds especially adults are in active primary moult.
This Goldfinch has moulted P1 & 2 and still retains the outer 7.

House Sparrow - 1
Silvereye - 4
Fantail - 1
Tui - 1 this Tui probably reduced the catch considerably as he aggressively chased any bird it saw. It manged to avoid the nets until it made a mistake, just before I packed up.

Prince of Wales Park Sunday 20 & Monday 21 Jan

We had a session at the Prince of Wales Park on Sunday afternoon with a reasonable flow of birds. There was a good attendance with Katherine, Roisin, Mary, Kate, Ross, Love, Gen & Nick over from Kapiti Is and Brendon, a local Vet, as well as Matu and myself.

Most of the team busy with scribe Mary keeping tally

The supervisor doing his duties - Photo courtesy? of Ross

 Matu spent a short time there also this afternoon until he was in the stream when the earthquake happened and he decided to pack up. Yesterday we caught 40 birds of 8 species with all but 1 being new. Today Matu caught 9 new birds of 4 species.

Combined totals of species caught were -
Blackbird - 1
Dunnock - 1
Chaffinch - 6
Greenfinch - 5 and 1 recap, a bird banded at the Zoo in May 2010
Goldfinch - 8
House Sparrow - 19 the 15 on Sunday was the most caught at this site in a day, possible due to the removal of some large trees making it more suitable for this species.
Silvereye - 5
Tui - 1
Eastern Rosella - 2  what appeared to be a pair and the first of this species caught at this site.

Kate putting the bling on the male while I control the biting bit

Roisin banding the female

Love, our Swedish visitor moves on to the South Is this week, we wish him well and have enjoyed his company. He banded his first Kingfisher at the Karori Cemetery

 

Houghton Bay Thu 16 Jan 14

Kate, Mary (our chief scribe) Love (our Swedish visitor) and I had a successful session at the Houghton Bay stream on Thursday.

The team, Love, Kate & Mary

 Despite an unfavorable forecast and a period of light rain which threatened to disrupt proceedings we had a steady flow of birds. We caught a total 63 birds of 8 species with 61 new and 7 recaptures. As with last weeks Island Bay session a large % of birds were unbanded juveniles which affects the new/recap ratio. Love was able to band several new species including a couple of "European" ones.

Love with his first bird of the day, a new one "Silvereye"

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 3 (1) the recap was banded Nov 2010 so a reasonable old bird.
Greenfinch - 7 (0)
Goldfinch - 7 (0) all were juveniles.
House Sparrow - 19 (0) we don't usually catch a lot of H Sparrows at this site and I think this is the highest number caught in a day.
Grey Warbler - 9 almost all juveniles

Love about to release his first Grey Warbler

Silvereye - 12 (7) 1 of the recaps was banded at Hornsey Rd and another at the Zoo. But the most interesting was banded 27 Jan 2008 a week after we started banding at this site and is now at 2181 days our oldest bird of any species banded and recaptured at this site.

The Old Silvereye

Tui - 1 (0)

Love with his first Tui, lucky for him a young female with small claws

A colour banded Tui Report

I received an e-mail with a photo attached from Tony in Northland (a northern Wellington suburb) of a colour banded Tui. The bird was easily identified even though the metal band had moved inside a coloured one. It was banded by Ralph at his place in Roseneath (before he defected to the South Island) in August 2008 so a great report to get, thanks Tony.

The colour banded Tui - photo courtesy Tony Smith