Congratulations Kate

This afternoon (Sunday 19 Oct) I had the privilege to attend the Pride Award Ceremony which is to acknowledge the achievements of some of Wellington's younger folk. Our very own Kate was awarded the junior award in the Conservation and Environment category. Well done Kate!

Kate has been banding with us for the last 5 years or so and has developed into not only a very competent bander and bird handler but now has a very extensive knowledge of New Zealand's fauna and flora. The award was given in part for her bird banding skills as well as her general conservation ethics.

Kate Sept 2012

Kate June 2014

Zoo Saturday 18 Oct - We did the Ton

We had a very successful banding session at the Wellington Zoo on Saturday capturing over 100 birds. After a dire forecast earlier in the week the weather was kind with a light northerly wind, overcast in the morning and then sunny and hot in the afternoon. There was a good turn out of people including a good number of experienced banders which was fortunate as at times there were large numbers of birds to deal with. The team had a bit of an international flavour with a bander from Mexico and another from the UK. Both were keen enthusiastic young men.

The final tally of birds was 104 with 83 new and 23 recaptures. Included in the 11 species was a new one for the Zoo, an Eastern Rosella. This was not entirely unexpected as numbers appear to have been increasing around the Zoo area over the last couple of years.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (1)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 14 (4) the oldest bird was banded Oct 2010, it and another were banded at Hornsey Rd

The oldest Greenfinch about to be released

Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Goldfinch - 31 (2) One of the recaps was banded at Houghton Bay. This is the highest number we have ever caught at the Zoo in one day, with most being caught at the small stream over the fence when the sun came out mid afternoon.
House Sparrow - 19 (11) the oldest recap was banded June 2011 and another was banded at our Island Bay site.

A house Sparrow giving Mary a farewell peck - photo taken with delight by Ross, (Mary's husband)

Starling - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 2 (0)
Silvereye - 7 (5) not a big number but better than the zero tally of last month. The oldest recap was banded in May 2009
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)
Tui - 2 (1) the recap was banded Sept 2011

Kat with her first Tui.

Eastern Rosella - 1 (0) the first caught at the Zoo, at least another 2 bounced out of nets.

The first Eastern Rosella banded at the Zoo. Extracted and banded by Ben from the UK without loosing any fingers or much blood.

Hornsey Rd & Houghton Bay Tuesday 14 Oct.

I set the funnel trap here this morning and had a mist netting session this afternoon at the Houghton Bay Stream. There was a big difference between the two sessions.

Hornsey Rd

Twenty one birds of 4 species were caught with 3 new birds and 18 recaptures. Two Blackbirds were recaptured and 1 new Dunnock, 1 new Starling, 1 new Silvereye and 16 recaps. The oldest 2 Silvereye recaps were banded together on 9 Sept 2010 and they were caught together again this morning. In the intervening 4+ years neither bird has been recaptured, perhaps they have something going on or perhaps they are just good friends.

Houghton Bay

A bit more variety was caught this afternoon with 31 birds of  7 species. I had a pretty busy time for the first hour or so until reinforcements arrived in the form of Kate and Mary, but then the flow of birds dropped to a trickle.  New birds caught were - Blackbird 1, Chaffinch 2, Goldfinch 3, Greenfinch 3, House Sparrow 4, Grey Warbler 1 and Silvereye 16. A Blackbird was the only recapture.

Kate banding a Silvereye under Mary's watchful gaze.

This bird is about an average weight but a number of the Silvereye caught especially this morning were on the light side. With many only just over 10 g and the lightest under  10 g

Colour Banded Tui

Yesterday I received a report together with a photo of a colour banded Tui seen at a sugar water feeder in Karori. The bird was banded at the Karori Cemetery on 27 June 2009 as a juvenile. Amazingly, although presumably living in the area for the last 5+ years, this is the first report of it. This site has also had another colour banded Tui there earlier this year except that one came from Island Bay which is in the opposite direction.

The colour banded Tui - image © D Shuker

 

Hornsey Rd Wed 1 Oct - a few Silvereyes are back

I set the trap here at my place on Wednesday morning and also down the road at Bridie's in the afternoon. Didn't catch a lot of birds but did catch the first Silvereyes for a couple of months.
Combined numbers for both sites -
Blackbird - 0 (1) a bird banded on 9 Oct 2009 so 8 days from 5 years.
Greenfinch - 1 (2) 1 of the recaps banded at the Zoo Nov 2011
House Sparrow - 0 (1)
Starling - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 3 (5) the oldest recap was banded Aug 2010.

I am off down south for a bit of a trip so unlikely to be any banding or posts for a week or so.

Island Bay Monday 29 Sept - a good morning

Annette, Ros and I had a good banding morning at our Island Bay site today. We had nearly ideal conditions with almost complete cloud cover and a light southerly wind, but it was cold and we appreciated the mugs of hot, hand warming coffee with tasty treats provided by our hosts.

We caught a total of 53 birds of 6 species with 38 new birds and 15 recaptures. As is usual at this site the catch was dominated by House Sparrows but there were a few other interesting birds as well.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 3 (1) the recap was banded in Sept 2011 and all the new birds were aged 1 and Males
Chaffinch - 3 (1)
Dunnock - 0 (2)
Starling - 1 (0) this bird was missing the lower right leg and foot but seemed to be managing OK and was about an average weight.

Stumpy the Starling

House Sparrow - 31 (9) One of the Sparrows had a length of cotton thread wrapped around a leg, this was very grown in. Presumably this happened from nesting material before it fledged. We removed the thread as best we could and hopefully there is enough blood flow to keep the foot alive.

The removal of the thread was a bit of a bloody job.

One of the Sparrows had both a long bottom bill and long hind claw on one foot.

A female trying to remove a piece of Annette's finger.

Ros displaying a very handsome "Dude"

Tui - 1 (2) one bird was banded as a newly fledged youngster in Jan 2011 and the other as a older juvenile in March 2010, So great to recapture 2 known aged birds.

The other highlight of the day, although not a banding one was seeing a Kereru (NZ Pigeon) feeding on Poplar tree shoots.

Houghton Bay Sat 27 Sept - A quiet morning

I spent the morning at the Houghton Bay stream and it proved to be very quiet. With the Karo having finished flowering bird numbers have dropped significantly from a few weeks ago, especially the number of Tui. I had 3 younger folk to assist me, Rory & Felix who have been to a number of sessions over the last year and Maddie who  came for the first time. All three are very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about our avifauna and are a pleasure to have around.

The three young folk, Felix with a Silvereye, Maddie with a Chaffinch and Rory in the middle. He did have a Silvereye but it didn't wait around for the photo session.

We were joined for a period by Sarah and Kyle with their little boy Finn who is growing like a mushroom.

We caught only 13 birds of 4 species, so at the moment PM appears to be better than AM. We caught 2 Chaffinch and 1 each of Blackbird, Dunnock and House Sparrow, all new and 7 new Silvereye with 1 recap which had been banded in August 2012. As was the case yesterday one of the Silvereye was still moulting outer primary feathers.

Houghton Bay 26 Sept

Anneke, Bridget, Henk and I (Henk is a South African trained banded currently working as a Keeper at the Zoo) had a session this afternoon at the Houghton Bay stream. We caught 19 birds of 7 species with 14 new and 5 recaps.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 8 (1) the recap was banded here at Hornsey Rd back in June.
Fantail - 1 (1)
Grey Warbler - 1 (2) the oldest recap was banded April 2013
Tui - 0 (1) a bird banded in Feb 2013.

Hoping to have another go tomorrow morning so will see how it compares AM v PM.