A New Banding Site At the Styx River

 Under the Guidance of Anita and Phil a new banding site has been created at the Styx Living Laboratory Trust field Centre at 75 Lower Styx Road. Anita as well as being the Regional Rep of Canterbury Birds NZ is the manager of this Field Centre. Phil is a Ranger with the CH-Ch City Council and as a L3 bander/trainer for Passerines is able to train trainees in the dark arts of the process. The hope is that enough suitable people can be trained to enable transfer of suitable species into relevant habitat in the city.

A couple of trial sessions have been held and now with some improvements in net site selection and pre feeding this site is proving to be a good one.

A total of 36 birds were caught, 35 new banded and 1 banded bird recaptured. The species caught were 1 Song Thrush, 1 Dunnock, 2 Chaffinch, 3 Greenfinch, 12 Silvereyes plus a recap and 16 House Sparrows. There were also a number of other species seen near the nets including, Bellbird, Grey Warbler, Fantail, Blackbird and a Shining Cuckoo was heard but unfortunately not by me so I can't tick off my first for the year.

I have attached a few photos of the day's activities Taken by Anita.

Not much Banding But some interesting Recoveries

 For a variety of reasons, I have done very little banding over the last few weeks, but we have nevertheless had some interesting birds. Both alive and dead. Here is a summary of some of what I think is the most interesting.

AP-27099 A Silvereye that was banded at our Cashmere Rd site on 30 June 2022 and recaptured there a month later. On 27 August 2024 it was caught by a cat in Milton Rd, Mt Eden, Auckland. It was taken to a Vet but later died. This is a minimum distance of approx. 800km but of course it would have travelled much further. This is possibly the longest distance recorded by a Silvereye moving in New Zealand.

L-49538 A Swamp Harrier That was also banded at our Cashmere Rd site. Banded on 19 April 2024 and found dead on the side of a road just outside Hastings on 25 May 2024 after probably being involved in a collision with a vehicle. It had travelled a distance of at least 541km in 38days including of course a crossing of Cook Strait. It averaged at least 15km per day.

L-49131 Another Harrier, banded at Motukarara on 11 June 2023 and found near dead on the Main Road of the Township of Oxford on 19 May 2024 58km away.  I doubt if a Harrier would normally be on the road in the middle of Oxford and suspect that it had been hit by a truck and tangled up in the grill dropping out when the truck slowed down. 

Phil has had several banding sessions at his place in Motukarara and is starting to get some interesting recaptures. Including a Song Thrush banded 30 Dec 2020 recaptured 5 Sept 24 after 1345 days

Also, a couple of recoveries

Starling banded 21 Nov 2019 found dead 4 Sept 2024 after 1749 days. And a House Sparrow Banded 25 Jan 2019, found dead 4 Sept 2024 after 2048 days.

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