Some "Little" Little Owls and a few others

 Over the last few days we have banded seven Little Owlets in two of our specially designed nesting boxes. This is our highest number banded in a year. The first 3 to be banded were in a box on the outskirts of Rangiora. This box was erected about 18 months ago and appeared to have been used last spring but unfortunately access problems prevented us from checking it out properly. We were more successful this year. On Monday we were able to gain access and got a bit of a surprise as the three chicks were of a bandable size. I had expected them to be much smaller with their mother still in attendance, and hoping to band her also. With the aid of a borrowed ladder and a workshop bench we were able to band the three youngsters.

Collecting the victims

Yesterday, Tuesday, Jan and I checked the occupied box at our Cashmere Rd site and found that the four chicks there, although slightly smaller than the Rangiora birds, were still bandable so they duly received their bling.

One of the chicks had what appeared to be a half-swallowed wing protruding from its beak.

A week or so ago we had a banding session at the Halswell Quarry using the same net sites as the previous session. As is usually the case numbers were down, but we still managed to process 15 birds.  Except for 2 recaps all were new but these 2 were interesting. A Chaffinch that was banded on 12 Sept 2019 is now at 1533 days our oldest recapture of this species. The other was a House Sparrow that had been banded 25 May 2018 and at 2008 days a reasonable old bird but it is not our oldest.

Yesterday I received a message from the Banding Office about the death of a Tui that I had banded when I was banding near Queenstown on 20 Sept. 2019. It was found about 3km from its banding site but other details a bit sketchy because of the way it was reported.

Raptor Banding - Harriers and Little Owls

 Arrived back from a trip down to Queenstown last evening. On the way south I called in at the NZ Raptor Trust operation in Timaru to assist Jenni and Angie with banding some Raptors that are in Rehab. It was also planned to band a Falcon, but it wasn't available on the day. Seven Harriers and eight Little Owls were banded, with one of the Harriers being a TV star. The folks at the Trust are currently having their busiest year on record.

If anyone has watched the TV series "One Lane Bridge" you would have noticed that a Harrier features prominently in it. The bird in question was injured and taken into care by the Trust. Unfortunately, it did not make a full recovery and has become an advocacy bird, being taught to fly with a handler in control. If it gets into another series, I am not sure how the band will be handled. The Harrier is flown for visitors, especially school groups.

The TV star in the hands of its Handler.
Note the very pale legs. This was due to when it was originally injured it was kept for a period before being brought into the care of the Trust. Unfortunately it was fed an incorrect diet causing the unusual coloration.

Of the Harriers banded the majority were juveniles although there were a couple of older birds including one that was originally in rehab back in 2017. It was identified by comparing x-rays of its healed breaks. 

One of the young birds with it's dark brown eye.

This bird, a yearling male was in wing moult

One of the birds getting its "bling' Angie banding and Jenni holding.

The Little Owls were also mostly juveniles with a couple of older ones. One of the Little Owls was also in wing moult.

Little Owl newly banded.

Jenni banding Angie holding.

Angie banding and Jenni holding.

In the last few weeks we have had a couple of attempts at trapping Harriers. The first was a total failure not catching any. The second was a little better with 2 being caught. One was a recap, originally banded last May only a short distance from where it was recaptured. The other was a new second year male. The birds were caught together in the same trap which I thought was unusual. 

The new bird was another bird in wing moult.

The recaptured bird, still showing a little white on the back of its head but now has the yellow eye of an adult. 

Gill, one of a couple of visitors from the UK, about to release this bird.

Not much Banding as we get ready to relax.

 There hasn't been much banding recently. We had planned to set traps in an attempt to catch Harriers yesterday but were thwarted by the weather. The plan was to set the traps at my niece's property near Southbridge. The forecast was for light rain to develop in the afternoon, but it arrived several hours early just as we were starting to set the traps up. The trapping attempt was abandoned, and we will be unlikely to try again until next year. 

We did manage to band some interesting birds last Tuesday when Jan, Ruud and I banded some interesting Puli. At the Cashmere Rd property there were 4 Little Owls in one of our nest boxes which were duly processed and returned to their box. This is the largest brood we have managed to band. 

Ruud removing the Owlets from their box

One of the little, Little Owls getting its bling

Dan the property owner looking very happy with one of "his" owls

 

A photo of one of the chicks taken a fortnight ago.

After the Owls we then went to the Quarry to check out a Kingfisher nest hole. Judging by last year's records I thought that the chicks would still be too small. I was wrong they were well feathered and ideal for banding. The 4 chicks duly received their bling while they squawked and pooped as Kingfisher chicks do. Interestingly last year in a nest hole in the same bank we banded 3 chicks on Jan 4, so about 20 days later than this year.

Jan, who had the smallest hands extracting the youngsters from their nest hole

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The chicks were all well feathered, not like last year when there was a big variation.

Recent banding - Four little Owls in Rehab and a few other birds

 We haven't done much banding mainly because of some health issues I have had. On Wednesday Phil and I banded 4 Little Owls that are in rehab at the Wildlife Hospital. These birds have made good progress towards better health and all going well will be released soon, if possible, back into the area where they were found. Pauline who is the head Vet at the Hospital also took the opportunity of starting her banding training.

Phil banding the first bird of the day while it is being controlled by Pauline.

Pauline banding her first Little Owl, a bird that was rescued from a cat here in Halswell.

This little chap has unfortunately lost an eye probably in an encounter with a Magpie.

As it has made very good progress with feeding itself it is, hopefully still going to be released.

Amazingly this newly fledged youngster was found in the very busy car park at "The Hub" in Hornby.


Pauline also has this little fellow under her care. She has cared for it since it was laid as an egg. Its mother was caught by a dog when a farmer was clearing a pile of wood. The farmer took her to the Hospital thinking it was a young bird. It was then found to be a female which duly laid an egg. Pauline has not only hatched it but continues to feed and care for it. It is now 6 days old. Amazingly the mother proved to be uninjured and was released.

Other birds caught recently were 2 new Harriers caught by Phil at his property in Motukara and a recap of a bird banded there about a month ago.

We have also banded 6 Starling puli, all from little Owl boxes that have been commandeered.

A couple of Little Owls Banded

 We have recently banded two Little Owls, both presumed females, in nest boxes each with 3 eggs.

The first was at our Cashmere Rd site. It was in the same nest box as the birds banded last year but to my surprise it was unbanded and we had banded an adult a year ago. According to the reference books it is the female that incubates during the day so unless this bird is an exception to this rule it is a new female. If anyone knows if this is correct, could you please let me know.

The Cashmere Rd Bird.

The other bird was in a box erected by Kenny at his property in Loburn. In my opinion he had erected the box in a completely unsuitable place. I spend hours trying to work out the best place to erect boxes with very limited success and Kenny sticks one up and has almost immediate success. I think I might have to change my strategy.

Kenny and one of his sons Stanley had built the box from plans taken from the internet. The box was erected high up in a sapling eucalypt tree at a height that I wouldn't even attempt. One of the main considerations being that they wanted to be able to observe any activity from the house. Kenny in a previous life was an Arborists so had no trouble erecting the box and checking it. 

Kenny and Stanley with their Little Owl

Kenny making his way up to the box.

Kenny banding the bird

Kenny replacing the bird in the nest box

 

Some Little Owl & Harrier Banding, mostly in Rehab.

Yesterday Ruth and I drove down to Timaru to band some Raptors that are in Rehab awaiting release back into the wild. The main purpose of the trip besides banding the birds was to help with the banding training of two of the women who assist with the birds' care. The two women, Jenni & Angie are very comfortable handling these birds and are picking up Banding very quickly and competently.

We banded eight birds in total, 5 Little Owls and 3 Harriers. The number of Little Owls I find amazing, we had a total of 9 birds in a large flight enclosure. 3 had already been banded and are waiting release. The other 6 were meant to be all banded but one bird avoided us. They are experts in zooming from one of the many hidey-holes to another and it was almost imposable to track individual birds, so to avoid undue stress we left the one without bling.

A couple of the Little Owls were showing clear indications of being in their first year. This one has two moulted primaries with the outer ones being browner juvenile feathers

This one still has the brown outer coverts of a young bird

Angie holding a bird while Jenni does the deed.

The three Harriers had come from as far afield as Twizel, Fairlie and Waimate. We were very fortunate to have 2 Vets with us both of whom are very interested in the care of wild birds. Both are very competent in handling them, and although they don't band it was great to discuss aspects and ideas about the practice.

The Timaru folk tend to use some Falconry techniques, probably due to a couple of their members being keen on Falconry.

Angie watching while Jenni bands one of the Harriers which is held by Zoe, one of the Vets.

A couple of the Harriers were old birds with very pale yellow eyes.

After the banding was done we were invited to participate in a BBQ including Fallow Deer sausages and a cold beer before starting our journey home. 

Wild bird catching

I have twice set the traps in attempts to catch Harriers in the last few weeks. The first was a bit of a disaster. I went out with high hopes to find that at least 3 birds had been let out by someone  unknown. Unfortunately by the way the traps had been moved about the birds would have been very stressed before being released.

The second attempt was a little more successful and although only one bird was caught it was our first recapture. It was great to be able to check the condition of the colour band which was, except for being a bit dirty, in good condition. This is the first time this particular type of band has been used in NZ as far as I know.

The bands of the recap still looking good, but only after 25 days. Hopefully we can check them again in a year or two.

Sun 22 May - Some Timaru Rehab Raptors Banded

 On my way back from Dunedin after watching a Grandson graduate I stopped off in Timaru. The purpose was to check out the NZ Raptor Trusts operation and see if birds about to be released were suitable for banding. We banded five birds, 2 Harriers and 3 Little Owls that are all progressing well towards release. Jenni and Angie who are very involved in the birds rehabilitation are keen to obtain a Raptor permit so that the majority of birds can be banded prior to going back into the wild. This is something I am very much in favour of and hope to assist them achieve this. There were two birds that we did not band, a Harrier with an infected wing that might not make the journey back to the wild and a Little owl that is blind in one eye. This bird is the subject of some discussion as to whether it should be released or not.

One of the Harriers originated in Fairlie and we are not likely to encounter it up in our area but the other came from Burnham and will be released back there so it is possible that we might catch up with it again.

The first Harrier banded (named Victor) after banding, possibly wondering what was that all about.

(They give all their birds names)

Angie banding her first Owl, Joey

Joey with the new bling.

The first Owl Banded named Iggy

Some Raptors and a couple of Kingfishers

 After months of frustrating delays, due to Covid and other issues, on Tuesday we finally had a trial run with our newly developed Harrier trap. Although we were only successful in banding one bird it was a very useful  trial and another attempt will hopefully be made soon.

Tuesday's Harrier, an adult female

Today Thursday, I went to the South Island Wildlife Hospital at Willowbank to band some rehab birds. It was planned to band a Harrier and a Little Owl. As it turned out there was a second Harrier and two Kingfishers as well as the Little Owl. I thought it was a very successful visit, the first of hopefully many more.

The bright eyed Little Owl

One of the rehab Harries both of which were male.

No recent Banding Sessions but some Pulus have new bling

 Although we have not had any organized sessions recently we have managed to band a number of youngsters.

Little Owl - Two banded in a nest box at the Cashmere Rd site These were eggs when we banded their mother a month or so ago.

One of the Little Owls held by a very Happy Bloke.

Starling - Three youngsters banded in a neighbour's nest box. They fledged on Christmas Eve, the second brood from this box this year.

Kingfisher - A brood of five banded at a property across the road from the Halswell Quarry. They also have fledged.

There was a huge difference in the development of the Kingfisher chicks, from well feathered to only just bandable.

Redpoll - Four were banded this morning at the Quaifers Rd Wetland.