Hornsey Rd Early May

Over the last week I have put nets up several times both around here and also down the road at Bridie's. Have only had limited sucess with a total catch of 19 birds of 6 species with 12 new and 7 recaptures.
Species caught (with recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 1 (0)
Tui - 0 (1) The recap was the resident colour banded female originaly banded in July 08 and has been sighted just about every month since. She raised several broods over the first 3 years with a colour banded male who disapeared and has been replaced with an unbanded bird. I had hoped to catch him but no luck (or is he too clever for me?)
House Sparrow - 8 (6)


House Sparrow originaly banded as a unsexed Juv on 1 March and recatured 11 May, now obviosly a male but still to complete its moult but at a weight of 31.7g might still make it through the winter.



Karori Cemetery Sat 5 May

 We had a very low tally of birds this morning with nearly as many cats about as there were birds. We caught 8 birds; 4 Tui, 2 Blackbirds and a pair of Eastern Rosella with at least 5 cats in the area. We made no recaptures but a colour banded Tui was sighted which had been banded in June 09. 

Net erecting while Gen distracts one of the cats otherwise it would be in the net.

 

The Moggy



The Eastern Rosella Pair



Taking a Tui's Head-Bill measurment

Monica keeping an eye on the dangerous ends of a tui

David and Kate banding a Blackbird (Brownbird?)

Barry and David adding some bling to a Tui leg






Island Bay Sunday 29 April

The session yesterday morning was cancelled because of rain so Annette and I tried again this morning. We managed to catch 61 birds of 5 species with 53 new and 8 recaptures. The catch was all introduced species and was dominated by House Sparrows with 48 new and 6 recaps. All the recaps were recently banded with several banded as unsexed Juvs which we have now been able to sex. There were 2 new Chaffinch with 2 recaps both of which are now into their second year i.e. now aged as 2.



Chaffinch 2 M



 Other species were 1 each of Dunnock, Blackbird and Starling. The Starling must have been a late fledgling as it was still completing both body and wing moult.



Moulting Starling J F



The strong wind affected the numbers caught but even so not a bad catch.

Houghton Bay Wed 25 April

Went to the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon in another attempt to catch Fantails, but only managed to catch 3 which was disappointing. Caught a few other species though; 4 Silvereye, 1 Grey Warbler, 1 Tui and a Chaffinch. It was a change to have a catch dominated by native species. There is a huge drop in numbers from this time last year, in 5 sessions between the end of March and the beginning of May we averaged 87 birds per session, mostly Silvereyes, which are almost absent from stream sites this year.

Zoo Stream Fantails

I have had two attempts to catch Fantails at the Zoo Stream (at the moment more of a trickle) with some success. They come in to bathe in the evening just before dark and seem easier to catch than during the day, but even then they frequently hover in front of or bounce out of the net.

The Zoo Stream site, a net is on the left with another behind the foliage on the right.

 Last Monday 16 April I caught 5 with the bye-catch of a Chaffinch. This evening, 23 April I also caught 5 and 3 Blackbirds and a Chaffinch recap as well.

Pied Fantail

Packing the nets up when it is getting dark is interesting with the Lions roaring.  They sound very close just as though they are on the other side of the bushes!

Zoo Saturday 21 April

We had a very successful day’s banding at the Zoo on Saturday. Conditions were near perfect for banding most of the day, a little too much sun for brief periods but then some cloud would role over. In all we caught 114 birds of 9 species with 92 new birds and 22 recaptures. There was a good turn out of people with a couple of keen youngsters, even so, we were very busy for the first couple of hours and perhaps could have done with another experienced bander. After the initial rush there was still a steady flow of birds and as we were taking nets down every net contained birds.

Hine with Silvereye

 Species caught were – (Recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 1 (0) a surprisingly low tally.

Dunnock – 1 (0)

Chaffinch – 4 (0)

Greenfinch – 6 (7) One of the recaps was banded in April 08, one in June 09 another was banded at the Zoo in April 11 recaptured at Houghton Bay in Aug 11 and is now back at the Zoo.

House Sparrow – 38 (2) one of the recaps was originally banded at Bridie’s on

Hornsey Rd.



One of the Sparrows had an unusual moult pattern on it's right wing with two very bent feathers



Starling – 1 (0)

Silvereye – 39 (12) 3 of the recaps were banded at the Mt Albert fennel patch last month.

Grey Warbler – 2 (0)

The first Grey Warbler rated on eye colour as a 1

Tui – 0 (1) a colour banded bird caught in the same net in Sept 09. It has been sight recorded a couple of time around the Zoo area and has now lost one of it’s bands.



The Tui, a female and now at least 5 years old



As well as the banding the opportunity was taken to collect blood samples from some birds for avian malaria screening as part of a study being undertaken by DOC.

Blood being collected from a House Sparrow







Mt Albert Sunday 15 April

Annette, Anneke and I had another attempt to catch Silvereyes at the Fennel patch this morning with limited success. Numbers were way down on a couple of weeks ago but we did manage to catch 7 new and 4 recaptures with a bycatch of the usual Dunnock and a Goldfinch. Three of the recaps were recently banded birds with the other banded at Houghton Bay (about 2km away) back in December 11.

Dunnock

Looking back at the records for the last 10 years a sudden drop in Silvereye numbers at this site is usual about mid April, as well we had a Falcon do a swoop over the nets. This bird has apparently been in the area for a while and no doubt makes smaller birds keep their heads down. Also, someone probably City Council water works, people have cut a considerable area of the Fennel.

The Fennel patch showing the cut section