Queenstown Wed 27 Dec - Chaffinch & Redpoll

I had two totally different banding sessions yesterday. In the morning I caught Chaffinch in the neighbour's hen house and in the afternoon I set a couple of nets up at the stream at the bottom of the property.

AM - Hen House

Caught 17 Chaffinch, 4 new and 13 recaps. There were also about 40, mostly juvenile House Sparrows but I avoided catching them as I will probably run out of BP bands if I was to band them all. Of the recaps 3, AP 18306, 08, 09 were originally banded on the first day of banding here so at 837 days from banding they are the oldest birds of any species caught here. They beat the Blackbird caught on Tuesday by a day.

PM - Stream

The afternoon catch was a total contrast, 52 birds of 11 species with 47 new and just 4 recaptures. The 11 species in one session is I think the highest number caught down here although several species were only represented by 1 or 2 individuals.
Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Song Thrush - 1 (0) a newly fledged juv.
Redpoll 16 (0) surprised not to recapture any of the 400 or so birds banded at this site over the last few years.

Several of the male Redpols are very well coloured while others have only a reddish wash.

One of the Redpolls was actually an Orange Poll

Goldfinch - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Yellowhammer - 2 (0)

Both Yellowhammers were females

Dunnock - 1 (1)
House Sparrow - 0 (2)
Silvereye - 2 (0) One of the birds appeared to have had a broken tarsus that had healed well but slightly out of alignment.

The broken leg now healed

Tui 0 (1) the same bird as recaptured on Tuesday about 500m away.

Houghton Bay, Sunday 16 Nov - Another old bird

We had a very successful session at the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon, catching 76 birds of 9 species with 68 new and 8 recaps. There was a good attendance of banders with Kate, Mary, Ross, Yvan and Sarah, Kyle and little Finn. We also had a number of people who are doing a course on bird recognition.

Kate showing some of the course participants the finer points of a Silvereye

Three course participants about to release a Chaffinch

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (0)
Song Thrush - 2 (0) In 6 years of banding at this site we have only previously caught 4 so 2 in a day is exceptional.
Starling - 3 (0)
Chaffinch - 3 (1) the recap had been banded at the Zoo on 29 December 2005 and is at 3244 by far the oldest Chaffinch we have ever recaptured at any site. The old record was 2574 days held by another Zoo banded bird.

The 'Old' Chaffinch

Goldfinch - 4 (0)
House Sparrow - 6 (0)
Silvereye - 46 (6) 2 of the recaps were banded here at Hornsey Rd and another at the Houghton Valley School and all were banded this year.

Sarah and Finn admiring one of Kyle's Silvereyes

Grey Warbler - 1 (1) the recap was banded in Dec 2010 and at 1442 days is the oldest recap at this site and the 2nd oldest at any,

The'Old' Grey Warbler

Tui - 1 (0)

Kate with a yellow headed Tui which has obviously been feeding on NZ Flax

Island Bay Wed 1 May - Sparrows & Chaffinch

Kate, Mary, Otis and I had a successful banding session at Island Bay this morning. We caught a total of 78 birds of 6 species with 74 new but only 4 recaptures. This compares with a total of 61 birds in a session this time last year.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 6 (1) the majority of the birds were 1st year males.

One of the 1st year male Blackbirds appeared to have moulted  P5 which is a bit unusual.

Dunnock - 4 (0)
Chaffinch - 15 (0) this is the most Chaffinch we have ever caught at this site in 1 day.

The wings of 2 different aged male Chaffinch

Greenfinch - 5 (0)
Fantail - 1 (0)

Mary, our chief scribe about to release the Fantail under the watchful eye of Ken,our host.

House Sparrow - 43 (3) The oldest recap was banded Feb 2011

One of the Sparrows had a streaked belly similar to a juvenile Greenfinch

As usual we had great hospitality with a superb morning feast as shown below.