We had a very quiet morning this morning at our vineyard site. There was only a small but keen group of us and the weather was near perfect with the one thing missing being birds in the nets. We ended up with a pathetic total of 7 birds of 3 species. The one highlight was our first recap from elsewhere. A Silvereye that had been originally banded in the Conservation Area of the Halswell Quarry by Annemieke from the Banding Office on 3 June last year. Although it was only a distance of just over a Kilometer in a direct line it is hopefully the first of many. The other birds caught were all new, 2 each of Silvereye, Blackbird and Song Thrush.
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| The Little Traveler. |
An Update on our Harrier Banding.
In the last week we have managed to catch and band a further 4 birds and recaptured 1. Its almost a year since we started our Harrier banding project. In that time, we have caught and banded 23 birds, mostly in the Motukarara and Leeston/Southbridge areas, with a few at other sites. We have also made recaptures of 6 of the banded birds and there have been 3 recoveries. All the recoveries were from road killed birds and all were female.
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| Most of the recently caught birds have been youngsters with brown eyes like this one. |
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| Most of the harriers are banded with a Banding Office metal band on the right leg and a Red band on the left. The red bands have 3 large digits printed on them. If anyone sees one of the birds with these bands please let either the Banding Office or me know. We would like if possible, the band number, the Date and the location. The most likely place to see them is probably when feeding on roadkill. |
As well,we have banded 19 birds that were in Rehab in Wildlife Hospitals, 13 here in Christchurch and 6 in Timaru. Most of the rehab birds have been released in the area from which they came in places stretching from Kaikoura to Twizel.
