Island Bay - Saturday 18 August

Gen, Nick, Aussie Graeme (A replacement for Aussie Mick who has returned to Australia) Ros, Bernard and I had a good session at Island Bay this morning with almost ideal conditions; except like most of the country at the moment it was a bit wet underfoot. There was a steady flow of birds with no big catches, about 6 would have been the max at any one time. In all we caught 47 birds of 5 species with 41 new and 8 recaptures.

Species caught were – (Recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 2 (2) both the recaps were of a reasonable age, 1 banded in 09 and the other on 28 Sept 08 and is now at 1422 days the oldest Blackbird recaptured at the site. All the birds were male and over 2 year old.

Chaffinch – 6 (1) All 7 birds were also male.

Gen extracting one of the Chaffinch

A general discussion on the age of one of the Chaffinch

House Sparrow – 25 (3) the oldest recap was banded as an adult in Dec 10
We had a recovery report this week of a Sparrow caught by a cat in Russell Tce, Berhampore, it had been banded at the Island Bay site on 12 Feb 08 and at 1644 days our oldest recap/recovery of a Sparrow from this site. 

Silvereye – 3 (0) a very low tally, they seem to have left most artificially fed sites. 

Tui – 5 (0) the first 3 to hit the nets bounced out and then they started to stick.

Nick & Bernard taking the Head-Bill measurement of a Tui

Interesting that the total number of birds caught today was very similar to August last year when we caught a total of 49 but the species were very different, as last year it was dominated by Greenfinch with 36, this year I didn’t even see one.

Thanks once again to Marion and Ken for their great hospitality including a scrumptious morning tea.

Houghton Valley School - Friday 17 August

Nick, Kate and I together with numerous little people had a busy afternoon banding at the Houghton Valley School's young forest.  In all we caught 42 birds of 4 species with 33 new birds and 9 recaps.

The first bird, a Silvereye about to be released

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (0)
Dunnock - 1 (1)
Tui - 3 (0) the first Tui caught at this site and it came as a bit of a surprise. We first caught a young female then 2 males were caught together probably having a chase and forgot to look where they were going.
Silvereye - 27 (8) 2 of the recaps were banded at the Houghton Bay stream 1 in 2010 and 1 in 2011, another was banded at the Mt Albert site in March this year and another in the Gully below my house in May 2010.
Kate's mother Mary brought us a big plate of pikelets which were very much enjoyed, she also volunteered to be the scribe for a few minutes which turned into more than an hour.  Thanks Mary on both counts.

Nick at the banding station with couriers.

Zoo - Saturday 11 August

We had a very successful workshop on aging and sexing passerines at a banding session at the Zoo on Saturday with Mike Bell and his daughter Conori over from Blenheim to assist us. 

Most of  "The Team"

The number of birds caught was a bit lower than I would expect at this time of the year but this was ideal for the workshop with no pressure and the time to look closely at various features. The number of species was also lower than usual but once again this enabled us to concentrate on a few rather than getting confused with a big variety.

In all we caught 61 birds of 6 species with 24 new birds and 37 recaptures; the ratio of recaps to new birds is surprising as it is usually the other way around.

Species caught were – (recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 1 (2) the new bird was a first year Male with some unusual wing features with broken wing feathers and P3 replaced, there is also a growth/fault bar across the wings at the break point.

1st year (1) Male Blackbird 

1 of the recaps was banded as a Juv in March 09 and had an unusually shaped bill.

Male Blackbird with unusual bill

The other was banded as an Adult on 12 Aug 2006 1 day short of 6 years ago which makes it an 8+ bird. It was almost the last bird caught for the day and was caught at the same net site as the original capture. This is the first recapture so where has it been for 6 years?

Greenfinch – 12 (2) numbers are way down on recent years.

Two male Greenfinch, the older on the bottom

House Sparrow – 3 (5) most unusual to have more recaps than new birds but a new net position had an effect - probably won’t work next time?

Silvereye – 3 (26) an incredible recapture rate, I think we must have most of the resident birds banded and that there has been no influx of new birds this year. Most of the recaps were banded in the last couple of years but there were 2 from 2010 and 1 from 09 with another banded at Houghton Bay in Sept 2011.

Dunnock – 4 (2) I think 6 is the highest number we have caught at the Zoo in one day. The 2 recaps were both banded as Juveniles last spring.

Starling – 1 (0)

There were no Tui caught which was surprising as there are a large number in the Zoo grounds at present, mostly feeding in the red flowered gum tree. But we did actually band one which is in rehab at the "Nest" (The Zoo animal hospital) and is nearly ready for release.

There were signs of the (hopefully) approaching spring around the Zoo.  A pair of Fantails are nest building (the female is banded and just missed a net a couple of times), the Kea were seen mating in their cage much to the amusement of watching kids and Tui were also doing the business. 

The odd coloured Tui that has been at Berhampore for the last couple of weeks is still there and I managed to get a rough photo of it.

Houghton Bay, 6 August

Ros and I spent a couple of hours at the Houghton Bay Stream today with limited success. In the first hour we caught only 1 bird a Tui which I managed to let go prematurely. We were trying to work out it's sex in order to fit the correct sized band and as it had a couple of broken primaries on the right wing which I usually measure I turned it over to measure the left and next thing it was off. I have learned that I am not very good left handed. We caught a Chaffinch next and then 23 new Silvereyes with no recaptures until the last bird caught which was a banded Grey Warbler.  It was banded as an adult on 8 Oct 09 and I think is our third oldest Grey Warbler caught at any site. The catch was a bit lower than I had expected possibly because of recent rain providing other water sources.

I spent the last week or so in Auckland, didn't do a lot of birding partly due to it raining almost every day, but there were a couple of highlights. Saw  Pipits on the Desert Rd on both of the journeys, the first I have seen there for several years. The other highlight was a flock of at least 12 NZ Dotterels  in a field in Albany near the shopping center. There has been a small number there for several years but this is by far the most I have seen at one time.

A pair of the Dotterels in the water logged field

The Dotterels were with in a few 100m of a very busy shopping center and car park

Banding Here and There

Hornsey Rd 25 July

Set the funnel trap here this morning and had a greatly reduced catch with 2 new Silvereyes and 13 recaptures. Amongst the recaps were a few birds not caught here this year including 1 banded in July 09 and not caught for two years. So there has been some movement. Also caught 2 Blackbird recaps both banded in the last couple of years.

Island Bay 24 July

Annette and I spent Tuesday morning at Island Bay and as expected had a much reduced catch. Marion and Ken have had a couple of weeks in Australia and hence the birds haven't been fed on the property but were being fed at a neighbours. I thought it would be interesting to see how quickly the birds returned but obviously not that quick. We only caught 13 birds, 2 Tui, 3 Sparrows, 2 Greenfinch and 4 new Silvereyes and 2 recaps, 1 banded July 09 the other July 10. 

Also re-sighted a colour banded Tui, it had been banded at this site in July 08, then was seen feeding at a sugar water feeder in Crofton Downs during June & July 09 so had moved from Wellingtons's most southerly suburb to one of the most northerly. In August 09 it was back south at Melrose Park and now is back to where it was banded. I would like a summer record to find out where it breeds.

Houghton Bay  20 July

Had a couple of hours at Houghton Bay last Friday to see if birds were coming to the stream in the morning. The short answer is that they are.  I caught 37 birds with 33 new and 4 recaps, 2 Blackbird, 4 Chaffinch, 1 Dunnock, 1 Greenfinch, 3 Grey Warbler and 22 new Silvereye and 4 recaps. One of the recaps was banded here at Hornsey Rd so there might be some movement from here to there.

I am off to Auckland for some R & R and to catch up on family so there is unlikely to be any posts for the next 10 days or so.

Wellington Zoo Sunday 22 July A busy day for the Few

We had a successful session at the Zoo on Sunday with a total of 103 birds of 9 species caught; there were 75 new and 28 recaptures. As expected there was a very low turnout of banders with the majority of our regulars on Kapiti Is. catching Robins for a transfer.  This resulted in only half the usual number of nets being put up. Even then we had to foil the most productive net (and furthest from the banding station) for a couple of hours in order to keep up with the flow of birds. So we can only guess at what the numbers might have been with all nets up.

We had a group of youngsters who did a good job as couriers. The battery in my camera was flat so this photo is courtesy of Karyne.

The couriers with birds, some of the bags have several birds in.

Species caught were – (recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 1 (1)

Dunnock – 2 (0)

Chaffinch – 1 (0)

Greenfinch – 14 (2) the oldest recap banded June 09 and the other banded at Hornsey Rd.

House Sparrow – 8 (3) the oldest banded July 10.

Starling – 1 (1)

Song Thrush – 0 (1) the bird we caught a couple of months ago and the first recap for a number of years.

Silvereye – (20) no really old birds this month with the oldest banded March 09. Another was banded at Bridie’s in Hornsey Rd 4 days ago, I wonder if it flew over or around Mt Albert?

Tui – 2 (0) surprised we didn’t catch more as there are a lot around the Zoo especially in the red flowered Gums including a colour banded one. This was banded in Houghton Bay Dec 08, seen in Island Bay Jan 09 and later in the Month in Karori. It was then seen at another Island Bay location in Aug 09 but not seen again until it turned up at the Zoo a couple of weeks ago.

Hornsey Rd 17 July Pure Silver (eyes)

Set the Funnel Trap again this morning for the weekly check on the Silvereye population. Caught 36 with only 3 unbanded and the other 33 recaptures. With the 3 new and 7 of the recaps not caught at this site this winter it appears there had been some new arrivals.I had the trap set for longer than usual and the slower catching rate suggests that a number of birds have left the area. There were no other species caught today making it a Pure Silvereye day.  The other species appear to have learnt about traps but some of the Silvereyes are slow learners with 1 bird caught about 6 times.

The 2 older birds from last week did not show up today but A-168374 banded in June 07 did. It was part of a cohort of Silvereyes we colour banded that year to check on the colour fastness of some new bands and this bird appears to be about the last one left. It was banded Yellow/Metal - Orange/Pale Blue but now the Pale Blue looks more like a Green.

A-168374 with its colour bands.

 Also had a visit from a Falcon this morning that caught a bird over the gully below the house and carried it off up the hill. Had a flyover of a Kaka a couple of days ago so a few interesting birds other than Silvereye in the area.