An interesting Silvereye Recovery

This morning I received a recovery report from the DOC Banding Office of a Silvereye that was caught by a cat near Cromwell. It had been banded in the apple orchard next to the main banding site in Littles Rd near Queenstown back in May and died in Ripponvale Rd near Cromwell. Although the distance is not huge by international  standards it is one of the furthest we have had for a while. The distance in a direct line between the two sites is approximately 35k but as this is over some pretty rough terrain it probably took an easier route.

 Interestingly it was banded in an apple orchard and it ended up in an apple orchard, probably a coincidence but then it just might have liked the taste of apples.

Queenstown Sat 5 Aug - a lot more little green jobs.

Now back in Christchurch after a short trip south. Sorry about this late post but things got a bit busy after spending most of Saturday with nets up. Didn't actually spend that much time banding more like recording numbers. Ended the day having caught 81 individual birds, the actual number of handlings would have been at least twice that as many Silvereyes were caught multiple times. I know I caught the first bird of the morning, Ap-19310 at least 6 times. This is the most birds I have caught in one day at this site.

There were 7 species caught with 33 new and 48 recaptures. By far the majority were Silvereyes with 24 new and 42 recaps. With a total of 66 individuals caught this is the highest number of both total birds and silvereye recaps caught in one day. Twenty four of the Silvereyes were also caught 2 days ago and 38 were new for the month which probably means that there has been considerable movement within the population. Four of the recaps had been banded in Sept 2015 within a week or two of starting banding here including the oldest bird from Thursday which is now 2 days older at 687 days.

There was also a few non Silvereyes caught -
Chaffinch - 2 (0)
Dunnock - 1 (2)
House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Starling - 1 (0)
Bellbird - 1 (4) the new bird was male and the recaps 1 female 3 male including the oldest recap for the species. Five birds in a day is the highest total for Bellbirds.

Adult Male Bellbird

Adult Female Bellbird

Wing of Adult Male Bellbird showing wingtip aging feature

Tui - 1 (0)

The wing of the new Tui showing the lack of a "notch" - aging it as a first year bird.

Hornsey Rd Sunday 2 August - An old bird

I set the funnel trap here this morning, mainly to check on the Silvereyes. Caught a total of 66 with 29 new and 37 recaps. With a big increase in new birds and a drop in birds from previous years there appears to have been some movement within the local population.  Other birds caught were 2 new Blackbirds, 1 new Chaffinch and a Greenfinch recap from 2013.

The big highlight of the day was a Silvereye that had been banded on 11 Feb 2005. This bird is now at 3824 days the oldest Silvereye that we have caught at any site. It passed the old record of 3817 days which was held by a bird last caught in November 2007. This bird is also now the second oldest bird of any species only surpassed by a Blackbird recovered at the Zoo after 4021 days.

One of the Silvereye was growing the outer 3 primaries on its right wing. As the feathers on the left wing were all full length it might have had a close encounter of the cat kind or something similar.

Another bird had a large vascular lump under its left wing, although this looked very uncomfortable the bird could still fly OK.

Tue/Wed 14/15 July - heaps of Silvereye

Houghton Valley School Tue 14 July

We had a successful session in the bush gully next to the school on Tuesday afternoon. With the school holidays on we had a number of interested younger folk join us which was great.

Some of the "Team"

We caught 65 birds with 18 new and 47 recaps. As is usual at this site almost all were Silvereyes with 16 new and all 47 recaps. Interestingly, 7 of the recaps had been banded at the stream at the bottom of the Valley in Houghton Bay.  Many had not been recaptured before and this number is more than we usually recapture in a session at the stream. The oldest bird was banded June 2010 in our second session at the school and is our oldest bird recaptured at this site.

The only other birds caught were 1 Blackbird and a Chaffinch.

Hornsey Rd Wed 15 July.

I set the funnel traps here this morning and caught 77 birds. 5 new Greenfinch and 1 recap, all the others were Silvereyes with 16 new and 55 recaps. The oldest Silvereye was banded 2009 although  this bird was recaptured quite recently. Another was banded June 2010 and hadn't been recaptured for several years.

Houghton Bay Tuesday 10 March - More Silvereyes.

Ros, George and I had another reasonably busy day at the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon. We caught 79 birds of 5 species. As was the case last week the catch was dominated by new Silvereyes with 60 but we did manage to make 3 recaptures, all recently banded Silvereyes. Other species caught were - 8 Greenfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 4 House Sparrows and a solitary Fantail (the first bird caught).

George and Ros busy at the banding table

With the high percentage of new Silvereyes being caught I wonder if there is just a big population in the area or if there is a turnover of birds. I have had reports of large flocks of Silvereye and other small passerines in parts of the east coast of the South Island. With the current drought conditions in that area I wonder if birds are moving north? Unfortunately there is very little banding going on in that area so we are unlikely to find out.

Hornsey Rd 4 July - Silvereye round up

I set the funnel trap here this morning to check on the Silvereyes that were about. Caught a total of 59 with only 10 new birds and 49 recaps. The oldest recap was banded in 2009. With the fine mild weather last weekend Silvereye numbers at the feeder appeared to drop significantly from last week but with the arrival of a cold southerly on Wednesday numbers increased rapidly.

On 4 July last year 101 Silvereye were caught with 40 of these being new birds. This year there appears to be very few birds moving into the area hence the high recap to new ratio. Last year following two major southerly storms a big influx of birds arrived with 1 being caught that was banded in the South Is at Kaikoura. Unless the weather takes a turn for the worse I don't expect that to happen this year.

Mt Albert 1 April - All Silvereyes

I had another session at the Mt Albert fennel patch this morning, it was near perfect conditions, calm with high cloud. Caught 40 birds, all Silvereye, with 30 new and 10 recaps. The oldest recap was banded last June and 2 of the birds were banded at other sites but not very far away. There was no bycatch although a Redpoll bounced, and if it had stuck it would have been the first Redpoll caught in over a year.

We have now banded 176 Silvereye at this site this year which is the most in one year. Most years we catch very few after the first week in April so I expect our numbers to drop away but still hope to catch a few more.

Mt Albert Wednesday 27 March - Silvereyes

Finally managed a session at the Mt Albert fennel patch this morning. I had tried unsuccessfully twice in the last week, on Sunday morning with perfect conditions I found that someone had nicked most of the guys and as I hadn't taken any spares had to abort. Then on Monday got there to find it was too windy. This morning was successful with good conditions of cloud and a light southerly. Caught 29 new Silvereyes and 5 recaps, the oldest recap was banded May 2012 all the rest were banded over the last month or so. The only bycatch was a single Dunnock.

Like the Sparrows at Island Bay last Saturday a lot of the Silvereyes are nearing the end of their moult with several scoring in the forties.

Silvereye with a moult score of 44 out of a possible 45

Mt Albert Friday 7 March - more Silvereyes

Anneke and I had a banding session early this morning at the Mt Albert fennel patch.

Dawn breaking over the ranges with Wellington Airport in the middle

Unfortunately the birds were a bit later than usual in arriving and Anneke had to leave for work just as numbers were starting to build up.

Anneke removing a Silvereye from mist net.

Forty eight birds were caught with all but 2 being Silvereye The other 2 were the usual Dunnock and a Song Thrush which was the first bird of this species ever caught at this site.

The Song Thrush had a deformed lower bill, possibly due to injury

It was aged as a juvenile by the "thorn" pattern on the coverts among other indicators.

Of the Silvereye 8 were recaptures, all of which had been banded during the last few weeks.

Hornsey Rd Thursday 11 July - Silvereyes

Contrary to my expectations Thursday morning was dry and I was able to set the funnel trap for a period before I started work at midday. Caught a total of 96 birds, all Silvereyes. There were only 15 new but 81 recaptures. Of the recaps 39 were banded this year, 18 in 2012, 13 in 2011, 2 in 2010, 2 in 2009, 1 in 2008, 4 in 2007, 1 in 2005 (the same bird has been caught in the last 2 weeks) and an old girl (or boy) banded in June 2003. This bird at 3681 days from banding is now our third oldest Silvereye recap but still has about 150 days to get the record. It was caught last year but this is the first time this year and I was beginning to think that it hadn't survived.

Four of the recaps had been banded in Houghton Bay and 2 at the Zoo. The 2 Zoo birds have consecutive band numbers and this is the fifth time they have been caught together.

Last night I picked up a very squashed little Silvereye on the road near the Zoo. It was banded but unfortunately the band was mangled and the last 2 digits are unreadable. The string of bands A-1889?? was used at the Houghton Valley School on 10 June 2010 and the Zoo on 12 June 20010, as most birds banded were Silvereyes there is no way of positively identifying the bird.

Obviously not this bird but an example of how the older aluminium bands can get mangled

Hornsey Rd 27 June - More Silvereyes

I had intended to put up a couple of nets this morning to catch some of the trap shy birds but the wind was a bit strong. After clearing a couple of net lanes from last week's storm I made a late decision to set the funnel trap again with the result that I caught a heap more Silvereyes. The total in just over an hours trapping was 78 Silvereye and a couple of not so bright Sparrows. There were 27 new Silvereye and 49 recaptures, 12 of the recaps were banded on Monday and 14 of Monday's recaps were caught again so a total of 116 different individuals have been caught this week.

The oldest bird was banded 11 Feb 05 and at 3058 days since banding becomes the 7th Silvereye we have recaptured after 3000 days. Five of the birds caught this morning were over 5 years from banding which is the most I can recall catching in one day. As was the case on Monday a lot of the recaps had not been caught for a considerable time.

At last some Banding - 24 June

After a week of almost constant rain and several days of gale force winds I was able to do some banding today.

This morning I had a session at Witham St in Island Bay. This site is on the other side of the valley from our usual one, and although less productive can still provide some reasonable catches. Caught 28 birds of 5 species, 1 Blackbird, 2 Chaffinch, 5 Greenfinch, 6 Sparrows and 11 new Silvereyes and 3 recaps.

With an earlier start than usual I had a chance to watch the setting of the moon, which according to the boffins on TV, is on one of its closest orbits to the earth.

Silvereyes started feeding here at my place last week with numbers building up rapidly during the bad weather.  This is about a month later than most years probably due to the mild Autumn. This afternoon I took a break from doing chores and set the funnel trap and got a big surprise with the number of birds. In just over an hour 64 Silvereyes were caught with 28 new and 36 recaptures. The oldest recap was banded in Aug 2007.
A surprising number of older birds have not been captured for some time and this is especially true of most of the 14 birds that were banded in 2011. There were 2 birds captured which had been banded in 2007 - for 1 it was the first recapture and the other hadn't been caught since 2009. This is the biggest catch of Silvereyes here in a day for several years and usually the numbers don't peak until July. Several birds were caught that had been banded at other sites including 2 from the Zoo and 4 from Houghton Bay.

It will be interesting to see if a similar pattern is found on Saturday at the Zoo. That is providing of course that the weather gods are kind and we get to have a session.

Wellington Zoo 25 May - lots of Silvereyes

We had a session at the Zoo today and after a very busy first hour it quietened down considerably. Once we had the first few nets up we were inundated with Silvereyes with them almost queuing up to jump into the nets.

A few of the early Silvereye rush.

The weather at that stage was reasonable, with low sun and only a moderate Northerly wind blowing. As the morning progressed the sun of course got higher and affected some nets and the wind strength increased to near gale by midday.It was late morning before we could get more nets up but because these were in more exposed positions and with the increasing wind they were taken down early afternoon. Due to the wind we had all the nets down a couple of hours earlier than usual. Over 75% of birds were caught in the first 3 nets erected.

There was a very good turn out of participants with a number of experienced banders able to help several newcomers. As well as banders we had Shannon from the Dept of Conservation documenting the session for  bander training resource purposes.

Katie and her mentor Ross with her first banded bird

We caught a total of 77 birds of 6 species with 60 new and 17 recaptures. Numbers were up a little on last May when we caught 54. The biggest difference was almost twice as many new Silvereye today.
Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 0 (1)
Dunnock - 0 (1)

The recap Dunnock, although banded Dec 11 as an Adult, still has brown eyes

Greenfinch - 5 (2)

Kate with one of the Greenfinch she banded

House Sparrow - 4 (2)
Grey Warbler - 0 (1) it was banded Feb 11 and is probably the 2nd oldest Grey Warbler recaptured at the Zoo
Silvereye - 51 (10) two of the recaps were relatively old birds, 1 banded Jan 06 is the 2nd oldest at the Zoo the other banded May 06 is not far behind. Another bird was banded at Houghton Bay in March 11.

Houghton Bay - Mostly Silvereyes

I have had a couple of short sessions at Houghton Bay; this afternoon and another a few days ago. Caught a total of 89 birds of 9 species, with 73 new and 16 recaptures.

Species caught were (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 3 (2) the oldest recap was banded Dec 08 and is now the oldest Blackbird banded and recaptured at this site.
Chaffinch - 6 (0)
Greenfinch -1 (0)
Goldfinch - 2 (0)
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Fantail - 1 (0)
Grey Warbler - 2 (0)
House Sparrow - 2 (0)
Tui - 1 (1) The recap was banded Nov 10
Silvereye - 72 (13) The oldest recap was banded on 19 Jan 08 at the first session at this site and is now the oldest bird of any species banded and recaptured there. It was good to get a resonable number of recaps with all but 1 being banded at this site. This is in sharp contrast to the last 12 months when very few locally banded birds have been recaptured.

Hornsey Rd 7 October - Silvereyes

I set the funnel trap here this morning and caught 31 birds.  Almost all were Silvereyes which have returned to the area in the last couple of weeks. Of the 26 caught only 2 were new but 9 of the recaptured birds had not been caught at this site this year. Of the 11 that had been banded in 2012 6 had been banded at the Mt Albert site last autumn. The oldest one caught was banded in June 2007 so was of a reasonable age.

Other birds caught were 3 new Greenfinch and 1 recap and a new Blackbird.

It's unlikely that there will be another post for at least a week as I am off for a bit of an op tomorrow which will put me out of action for a while. 

Houghton Bay 24 Sept - Silvereyes

Ros and I had a session at the Houghton Bay Stream this morning with the principal aim of catching Silvereyes and checking for moult. We were successful with this and as well caught a few other birds. In all we caught 75 birds of 5 species with 63 new and 12 recaps.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 1 (1)
Dunnock - 2 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (2) the oldest was banded Nov 2010

All the Grey Warblers had the reddish eyes of adult birds

Silvereye - 58 (9) 16 of the new birds and 3 of the recaps were in moult.  With this being just over 25% it is a significant number. Whether this is an unusual year with a lot of late fledged birds delaying the moult until the spring or whether we have not paid enough attention other years (and also not usually catching very many spring birds) I am not sure.

Of the 9 recaptures only 1 was banded at this site; with over 3300 banded there in the last 5 years this is surprising. 5 birds were banded at the Mt Albert site with 4 being from the 164 that were banded this year, 2 were from Hornsey Rd and another from Houghton Valley School.

There were several Silvereyes with pox-like lesions mostly on the foot but one had a large one below the eye.

Silvereye with pox like lesion 

  On a slightly different subject we had a report from a Zoo staff member that a band combination had been recovered from the remains (just the legs) of a bird in the Serval enclosure. On checking our records I found that this was not one of our birds. Suspecting it might be a Bellbird from Zealandia I forwarded the report on to them and was extremely surprised to hear back that it was a Hihi (Stichbird) that had made its way across town.

Hornsey Rd Friday 29 June

Set the funnel trap here on Friday morning to check on the Silvereyes. Caught 38 in all with only 2 unbanded, although 7 of the recaps hadn't  been caught at this site previously this year so there is some turn over of birds. Four of the recaps were banded in 2008, for 2 it was the first recapture.

I have also set the trap at Bridie's down the road a couple of times recently and have caught a total of 17 Silvereyes with 13 new and 4 recaptures. Silvereyes have only started to feed at Bridie's in the last couple of weeks. Also recaptured 1 Starling.

Hornsey Rd 20 June Silvereyes

Set the funnel trap again this morning to check on the Silvereyes. Managed to catch 38 with 6 new birds and 32 recaptures.  As 7 of the recaptures haven't been caught here this year it appears that there has again been a small influx of birds. Two of the new recaps were banded in 2009 (1 was caught for the first time since banding) so it appears some birds are returning or just getting hungry enough to enter the trap.

Also caught 2 new Blackbirds both 1 M's but the Sparrows that have been freely entering the unset trap to scoff the food all disappeared once it was set.

Hornsey Rd 11 June Silvereyes

With rain forecast for the rest of the week and a Southerly change expected I set the funnel trap this afternoon to check if there were any new Silvereyes about. In about an hour and a half before the southerly hit I caught 37 with 12 new birds and 25 recaptures. As well as the 12 new birds another 6 haven't been caught at this site this year  so there appears to have been a small influx of new birds. Hopefully there will be a chance next week to see if this is the case.

Houghton Valley School Thu 7 June

Annette, Gen and I had an interesting afternoon at the Houghton Valley School with a class of youngsters. We were joined after school by Kate a senior pupil who is a keen birder and is becoming very competent at handling birds.

The first bird about to be released

 In all we caught 31 birds, with as expected the majority being Silvereyes there were 19 new and 10 recaptures with 2 Grey Warblers (probably a pair) the only other species. All the recaps were banded last year, 8 at the school in July and 2 at the Houghton Bay stream in April. The high recapture ratio might mean that there has been a high survival of adults but a low recruitment of juveniles.

The second one about to take off

Going, going

Gone

Even the teachers got in on the action

Another one about to be released

And another

Gen showing one of the Grey Warblers to keen youngsters

Kate checking the weight of a Silvereye