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

Hornsey Rd Mon 4 June - Silvereyes

Set the trap and put up a couple of nets for a while today to check on what Silvereyes were about. Caught 28 with only 3 being new and the other 25 recaps. Most of the recaps have been caught in the last few weeks so it appears the population is fairly stable at the moment with few bird moving about.

As well caught 1 new House Sparrow and a recap that was banded at the Zoo back in February, also a new Chaffinch.

Newtown Park Monday 4 June - Yellowhammers

The Yellowhammers that were in Houghton Valley appear to have moved to Newtown Park about 1 k away. There seems to be about the same number of birds but my count the other day was interupted by a Falcon that caught one and put the others to flight.

Went down this morning  and put up a couple of nets and managed to catch 20 plus a couple of Goldfinch and a Greenfinch. Had hoped to get a recap or two but no luck.

A bird in the hand - a nicely coloured male

A bird in the net - another male

Not sure how long they will stay in the area as there were two Falcons there this morning.

Hornsey Rd Silvereyes 29 May

  Set the Funnel Trap for Silvereyes today with considerable success. In all caught 38 with 17 new and 21 recaps. Of the recaps 7 were banded last week, 5 from Mt Albert earlier this year and the rest from previous years including 2 from Houghton Bay. The oldest was banded July 08. This is the highest tally of Silvereyes caught in May for at least 15 years with the previous highest being 30 in May 2003. Whether this is a taste of what is to come over the next few months or just an aberration time will tell.

Inmates waiting to be processed -can't be too bad as several came back for a second go.

I had a tentative go at catching some of the Yellowhammers in Houghton Valley one morning last week with some success. Managed to catch 6 before the sun got on the nets, decided that an afternoon session would be more successful but didn't get a chance to do this as they have now moved on.


Yellowhammer

Also caught a Kingfisher which was a surprise, both for me and the bird.


Kingfisher



Zoo Sunday 27 May

Despite a strong, gusty northerly wind we had a reasonably successful banding session at the Zoo this morning (Sunday). We put up fewer nets than usual with the more exposed sites not used and we took them down late morning when the rain started to threaten. In all we caught 54 birds of 8 species with 38 being new and 16 recaptures. There was a small group of banders today however this was not surprising considering the conditions. We had a good mixture of experience and others keen to learn.

Species caught were – (recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 1 (0)

Dunnock – 1 (0)

Chaffinch – 1 (0)

Greenfinch – 4 (2) 1 of the recaps was originally banded at the Island Bay site in July 10.

House Sparrow – 3 (2)

Starling – 1 (0)

Song Thrush – 1 (0) our first for some time, still not sure why we don’t catch more there were a number singing when we arrived.

Silvereye – 26 (12) all of the recaps were banded in the last year or so and as well we caught a large number a second and third time

Hornsey Rd & Houghton Bay Tue 22 May

In the last week Silvereyes have started to feed at my bird table, this is almost exactly a month earlier than last year. This morning I set the funnel trap and had reasonable success. Managed to catch 20 Silvereyes with 15 new birds and 5 recaptures, the only other bird was a recap House Sparrow. Of the Silvereye recaps 2 were from Mt Albert and 1 from Houghton Bay.

This afternoon I went down to the Houghton Bay stream primarily to put up a couple of nets so I could make some alterations to make them easier to erect.  Also thought I might catch the odd bird in the process. Actually managed to catch 15 of 4 species with 10 new and 5 recaptures.
Species caught -
Silvereye - 5 (4)
Chaffinch - 1 (1) the recap was banded at the Zoo.
Fantail - 3 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)

On the way down Houghton Valley to the bay I discovered a flock of about 80 Yellowhammers so might try my luck there in the next day or so.

Island Bay Friday 18 May



Annette, Ros and I had a reasonable tally this morning with a total of 65 birds of 7 species. Even though there was a steady flow most of the time, it was not as many as I had expected. It wasn’t until we were getting ready to pack up that we found out why. The people in the house next door had put out a large amount of food and a lot of “our” birds were going there. We still had an enjoyable morning even though it got a bit cold for a while, especially while there was a lull in the bird numbers. As usual we enjoyed generous hospitality along with a delicious morning tea spread (no tea involved actually - 2 coffees and some warm milk!).

 

Morning Tea arriving - a feast for the eyes as well as good to eat.



Species caught were – (Recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 3 (0)

Chaffinch – 6 (1)

Greenfinch – 1 (0)

Silvereye – 1 (1)

Starling – 2 (0)

House Sparrow – 42 (7) Most have finished their moult although a few still have a couple of primaries to go.

Both these male Sparrows are in their first year but show considerable variation in plumage.



Tui – 1 (0)

2+ F Tui



Wing of the above bird showing slot in P7