Zoo Stream 28 Jan. - Lots of Juveniles

I went to the little stream over the fence from the Zoo this morning for a couple of hours. There were a lot of birds about, mostly juvenile finches, and I put up 3 nets but had to foil one after about 15 minutes so I could cope with the numbers. In all I caught 50 birds of 7 species with 46 new and 4 recaptures.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 12 (0) almost all juvs
Greenfinch - 8 (1) the recap was banded July 10 it, and 1 other bird, were the only adults - all the rest juvs.
Goldfinch - 15 (0) all were juvs.
Silvereye - 6 (3) the oldest recap was banded July 10, the other 2 in 2011
House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Fantail - 1 (0)

Two Silvereye and two Goldfinch waiting processing

Island Bay Wednesday 23 Jan - Lots of Sparrows

Annette, Ros, Tansy, Nikki and I had a successful mornings banding catching 122 birds with 107 new and 15 recaps. By far the majority were House Sparrows which was good for Tansy's training as they are similar in size and have the same size bands as the Black Robins she is hoping to band back in the Chatham Islands. She was able to band a good number and also practice putting on and removing colour bands.

Tansy practicing with colour bands.

  Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 8 (4) one of the recaps was banded on 8 Dec last year when it had a large head wound. It still has the wound but it is starting to show signs of healing. Hopefully we will catch it again to follow progress.

The wound 8 Dec 2012

The wound 23 Jan 2013

Chaffinch - 2 (0)
Dunnock - 3 (0)
Starling - 4 (0)
Silvereye - 1 (1) a bird banded June 2010
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)
Tui - 0 (1)
House Sparrow - 89 (9) the oldest recap was banded March 2010. Sparrows appear to have had a long and successful breeding with around 75% being juveniles.

Both this morning as well as on Monday we found a considerable number of the birds caught have started to moult, especially juvenile Sparrows but also Starling Silvereye and Blackbird.

Once again we had great hospitality from Marion and Ken including a very enjoyable morning snack.

Houghton Bay 21 January

Annette, Tansy and I had a banding session at the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon with a steady flow of birds. Tansy is a ranger on the Chatham Islands and is getting some additional experience to enable her to band Black Robins etc on the Islands.

In all we caught 54 birds of 8 species with 41 new and 13 recaptures.
Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 0 (0)
Chaffinch - 4 (1) the recap was banded on 27 Jan 08 4 days short of 5 years.
Greenfinch - 16 (1) all except 1 new and the recap were Juvs, Greenfinch appear to have had a good breeding season.
Goldfinch - 2 (0)
House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Fantail - 2 (0)

Tansy putting some 'bling' on a Fantail

Grey Warbler - 2 (0)
Silvereye - 12 (10) the oldest recap was banded Jan 08. In contrast to Greenfinch there appear to be very few juvenile Silvereye.

While away over the last few weeks I didn't do any banding and not a lot of birding but did manage when in Hawkes Bay for a family wedding to see the 3 Plumed Whistling Ducks that have been there for a period. This was the first time I have seen the species in NZ so was rather pleased to find them.

The three Australian visitors

A bit of banding and an old bird confirmed

Spent a couple of hours at the Houghton Bay stream yesterday (Friday). I didn't expect to catch much after heavy overnight rain but still caught 13 birds.
House Sparrow - 3 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (1)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 4 (1) the recap was banded in 08 so a reasonably old bird.
Tui - 2 (0)

I have also done a bit of banding both here and down the road at Bridie's with not a lot of birds.
Blackbird - 2 (4)  the recaps included the old bird "White Eye" who was caught for the 19th time and at 3064 days is the oldest live Blackbird recapture at any site, but has a while to go to beat a couple of recoveries.
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 5 (2)
Tui - 1 (0)

Called in at the Zoo a couple of days ago and spoke with Nathan who was the keeper who found the dead Blackbird mentioned in the last post. He confirmed that it had only been dead for 2-3 days.  It apparently has been around the Giraffe enclosure for some time and was very confiding and well known to the keepers working there. It was last seen about 4 days prior to the body being found and the comment was made that he wasn't looking very well. As it was banded as a Juvenile this makes it just over 11 years old at the time of its demise and at 4021 days our oldest bird recaptured or recovered of any species, surpassing the Silvereye that had held the record since Nov 2007 when it was recaptured after 3817 days having been banded in May 1997.

This is the last post for 2012 and I wish you all the best for the new year. The past year has been a good one for old birds with a new oldest bird overall as well as for Blackbird, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Starling and Tui. I am away for the next few weeks so there is unlikely to be any new postings till towards the end of January.

A bit of banding and several recoveries

I have done a limited amount of banding in the last week or so with small numbers of birds caught at each attempt.
Totals caught for the combined sites were -
Blackbird - 6 (4)
House Sparrow - 9 (7)
Starling - 0 (1) a bird banded in Oct 06 so of a reasonable age.
Silvereye - 2 (2)
Tui - 1 (0)
Fantail - 2 (0)

We have also had a number of recoveries reported in the last few weeks and the most significant was of a Blackbird that was banded at the Zoo on 1 Dec 2001.  This was found and reported by one of the Zoo keepers who advised that it was badly decomposed but even if it was dead for 6 months or a year it is still the oldest recovery or recapture we have had of any species at any site. I hope to call in at the Zoo later in the week and see if I can get some further info.

Among the other recoveries there were 6 killed on the road. 1 Blackbird, 2 Silvereye, 1 House Sparrow and 1 Tui. A considerable number of birds are killed on the road over the Spring early Summer months and it is often assumed that the majority are naive young birds but as all these recoveries were adult birds so a considerable % are probably older.

I hope you all have or have had a happy and safe Christmas.

Zoo Stream - an old bird

I have had a couple of session at the little stream over the Zoo fence in the last few days. Had a 2 hour session on Saturday afternoon 15 Dec and another this morning 17 Dec. Part of the reason was to compare the catch rate between morning and afternoon and with some species there appears to be a difference. Caught 27 birds Saturday PM and 31 this morning so the overall the numbers caught were very similar. In all there were 52 new birds and 6 recaptures, the recapture rate is low but the majority of the catch were newly fledged juveniles. Among the recaps was a very good one and it is now the oldest of the species caught by the group.

Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbirds - 5 (1) all were caught in the AM session.
Song Thrush - 2 (0) this makes 3 in the last week, both caught this morning.
Chaffinch - 10 (1) 7 caught PM, 4 caught AM. The recap was banded 30 Nov 2005 and is now at 2574 days the oldest recapture of a Chaffinch at any of our sites. It was the second to last bird caught this morning.
Goldfinch - 19 (1) the 13 caught this morning is I think the most caught in one day, most were newly fledged juvs.
Greenfinch - 9 (0) 6 on Sat afternoon and 3 this morning and included the first juveniles for the year.
Silvereye - 1 (1) 1 each day and an extremely low number for this site.
Fantail - 0 (1)
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)
Tui - 5 (0) all except 1 caught in the afternoon and the one this morning was the last bird caught.

Houghton Bay 14 December - a 1 legged bird reunited

Danielle and I had a session at the Houghton Bay stream this morning. Danielle had traveled down from Palmerston North where she is a vet doing a post grad at Massey University. She is keen to up-skill her banding so she can get a permit for her study on avian disease in forest birds.

Although there were fewer birds than I had expected we still caught 30 of 8 species with 24 new and 8 recaptures
Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 3 (1)
Song Thrush - 1 (0) the first Thrush at this site since Oct 09 and the 3rd ever.
Dunnock - 3 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (1)
Greenfinch - 1 (1) the recap was banded at the Zoo 3 weeks ago when it was noted that it was missing its right foot and lower leg and that the stump had a pox like lesion on it. The foot is still missing but the stump has healed and is looking healthy. The bird is in good condition with a brood patch and is probably breeding. (It was checked over by a Vet)
Goldfinch - 2 (1) the two new birds were caught together and appear to be a pair.

Goldfinch female left, male right.

Grey Warbler - 1 (0)

Grey Warbler with the red eye of an adult.

Tui - 3 (1) the recap was banded a couple of days ago and had increased in weight which is good.

Danielle checking the wing cord of one of the Tui.

Silvereye - 10 (2) a considerable drop in number from recent sessions.