Hornsey Rd - A mixed bag

I have done a bit of banding in the last couple of days both here and down the road at Bridie's. I caught 33 birds of 6 species with 11 new and 22 recaptures.
Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird 1 (6)
Chaffinch 1 (0)
House Sparrow 2 (0)
Silvereye 0 (9) The oldest recap was from May 09
Starling 6 (5) Included in the recaps was another bird over 5 years making 7 in the last week or so.
Tui 1 (0) It is very unusual to catch a Tui in a trap, this bird was entering the trap and licking the juice out of half eaten apples.

We had an interesting recovery report yesterday. A Silvereye that was banded on Mt Albert in March 2005, recaptured by Ralph in Roseneath in Nov 07, was caught by a cat in Hataitai. It is now in the bird collection at Te Papa.

Hornsey Rd - Some Old Starlings

I have done some trapping both here and down the road at Bridie's in the last few days. The main target was Starlings which are easier to catch when they are feeding young because they loose some of their usual caution.  Managed to catch 12 of which 8 were already banded, and amazingly 6 of these recaps proved to be at least 5 years since being banded.

These birds were banded (with days from banding to recapture in brackets)
Nov 07 (1834)
Oct 07 (1853)
Oct 06 (2532) Banded at the Zoo
Nov 05 (2532)
Aug 05 (2651)
May 04 (3092) This last bird is now the oldest Starling recaptured by the Group at any site.

Houghton Bay Friday 9 Nov

Spent a couple of hours at the Houghton Bay stream this morning, caught 34 birds of 6 species with 32 new but only 2 recaps.
Species caught -
Blackbird - 5 (1)
Greenfinch - 3 (0)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 22 (0)
Grey Warbler - 0 (1)

Island Bay 6 Nov - Lots of birds

Ros, Danielle and I had a busy morning at Island Bay yesterday. There was a strong southerly wind blowing which made it very cold but the threatening rain held off and fortunately the net site is sheltered from the worst of the wind. Danielle is an avian Vet at the Zoo and wanted some more experience with handling and banding small passerines so with a constant flow of birds I think she achieved this.

Danielle and Ros busy at the net

And busy at the banding table

The "Totem Pole" with bags of birds

In all we caught 93 birds of 8 species with 75 new and 18 recaptures. Among the recaps there were several interesting birds. Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 7 (4) Most of the recaps were banded as Juvs last year.
Dunnock - 1 (0) This continues the trend of the last 2 years of very low Dunnock numbers at all our sites. Not sure why, perhaps they have had poor breeding success.
Chaffinch - 4 (1) The recap was banded 15 Sept 07 and at 1879 days is not only the oldest Chaffinch but the oldest bird of any species banded and recaptured at this site. It is also the second oldest Chaffinch recaptured at any of our sites.
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 0 (1) A bird banded in June 09
Starling - 10 (2) One of the recaps was banded at Houghton Bay in Jan 08 and is now at 1752 days the oldest Starling recaptured at this site.
House Sparrow - 46 (10) Most of the recaps were banded in the last 2 years but one was banded in Nov 08
Tui - 6 (0) A bit disappointing not to get any recaps as there were a number about but then I think Tui are quick learners. The brown/fawn (Leucistic/Isabelline?) that has been at this site for a while was about but having hit the net last month avoids it with ease.

As usual we were treated to great hospitality by Marion and Ken including a great morning tea feast and several hot warming drinks.

The morning's feast waiting for a break in bird numbers

Not much banding being done

My projected 3 days in Hospital turned into nearly 3 weeks so no banding done. Yesterday 30 Oct I had my first attempt setting the funnel trap and managed to catch 12 birds before a side effect of my surgery caused the unsetting of the trap and I was back in Hospital for the night.

Of the birds caught there were 3 new House Sparrow + 1 recap, 1 new Greenfinch +1 which was banded at the Zoo last year in May and 2 new Silvereye with 4 recaptures.

Probably won't be much banding for a while but I am hoping to have sessions at Island and Houghton Bays and possible the Zoo in the next few weeks.

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. 

Not much banding this week.

With 2 grandchildren staying and a bad forecast most days there has not been much banding going on. I did manage to get down to the Houghton Bay Stream for a while but there were very few birds about, only caught 4 Silvereyes with 1 in moult.

Also set the trap at Bridie's for a while one evening but didn't catch many birds. However, I did recapture a Blackbird that was banded 5 Sept 2004. This bird is now our oldest recaptured Blackbird at any site, although we have had an older bird but that was recovered dead. The latest recapture was banded as an age 1 and now is age 11. This bird has been recaptured 10 times already and hopefully we will catch it again over the next few years.