Houghton Bay 13 June - An unexpected good catch

I had a session at the Houghton Bay stream this morning. I only went down because plans A & B failed so with a bit of time on my hands I thought I would check out the stream. At this time of year and after recent rain I didn't expect to catch much, perhaps 10 - 20 birds if I was lucky. I was very wrong and caught 64 birds of 6 species with 47 new and 17 recaptures. I had trouble getting the nets down as birds kept flying in and I was an hour late in getting home. Fortunately I was forgiven (it's actually not the first time).

Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Chaffinch - 7 (0)
Goldfinch - 1 (1) the recap was banded Dec 2010 so a reasonably old bird and the oldest recaptured at this site.
When I arrived home I received a recovery report of a Goldfinch that had been caught by a cat near Vic University in Kelburn, it had been banded at Newtown Park next to the Zoo last June.

The Goldfinch recap

House Sparrow - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 31 (14) the oldest recap was banded April 09, another Nov 09, 1 in 2010 and 2 in 2011. There were 2 birds from other sites, 1 from Bridie's in Hornsey Rd and 1 from Witham St in Island Bay.

One of the Silvereye recaps has lost all except its back claw on the right foot. I wonder if it was caused by a mouse trap?

Grey Warbler - 4 (1)

The first 2 Grey Warblers were caught together, perhaps siblings?

Fantail - 3 (1)

The first 2 Fantail were also caught together, both have retained brown tipped juvenile covert feathers so were aged as 1

Island Bay 7 June - Tui

Monica, Ros, Annette and I had a successful morning's banding at our Island Bay site today. Bird numbers were down considerably from recent sessions but as Monica was over from Sydney it was as much a social and story telling session as it was a bird banding one. So, in regards to this it was a great success as it was interesting to catch up with her Australian activities.

We caught a total of 41 birds of 6 species with 32 new and 9 recaptures. This is a lot lower than recent sessions and was about half of the numbers caught in June last year. The big difference in numbers was due to the almost complete absence of House Sparrows. Ken our host reported that they were there in their  hundreds last week.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 4 (3) one of the recaps was banded as an adult in Nov 07 and is now at 2042 days our oldest recaptured Blackbird at this site. It was its the first recapture so where has it been for the last 5+ years? Probably in the area but playing hard to catch.
Chaffinch - 9 (2)
Dunnock - 4 (1)

Monica banding her first Dunnock for a while.

Tui - 6 (0) the first 3 birds caught were Tui, with all but the last caught being male.

The 3 "girls" with their 3 "boys"

The last Tui caught, a female with a pinkish neck tuft, looked as if it had  some different food recently.

Two of the male Tui wings showing the notch in 7p, the older bird with the bigger notch is at the bottom

House Sparrow - 8 (3) the oldest recap was banded Dec 11
Yellowhammer - 1 (0) our first Yellowhammer at this site for a couple of years.

We had an interesting discussion on aging and sexing the Yellowhammer

As is usual we enjoyed a scrumptious morning tea, (actually 3 coffees and a  milky drink).

NZ Birds Online

A new web site was launched last weekend at the The Ornithological Society of NZ (OSNZ) AGM in Dunedin and it is a great addition to the New Zealand birding scene. It is a joint venture between OSNZ and Te Papa. Colin who works at Te Papa and is a long term and very active OSNZ member was the main driving force behind the site. He has done a fantastic job and has I believe spent most of his waking hours working on it for months. Well done Colin and your team.

http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/

Tui Recovery

I am in Auckland for a week so there hasn't been any banding but I have just had a recovery report from the DOC Banding Office of a Tui recovery. It was recovered at the Lyall Bay School and banded at the Zoo back last November so not a long recovery. I think this is the second Tui we have recovered from this school which is a bit of a surprise as I would have thought that there were not many in that area. Will check up when I get back to Wellington later in the week.

Wellington Zoo 25 May - lots of Silvereyes

We had a session at the Zoo today and after a very busy first hour it quietened down considerably. Once we had the first few nets up we were inundated with Silvereyes with them almost queuing up to jump into the nets.

A few of the early Silvereye rush.

The weather at that stage was reasonable, with low sun and only a moderate Northerly wind blowing. As the morning progressed the sun of course got higher and affected some nets and the wind strength increased to near gale by midday.It was late morning before we could get more nets up but because these were in more exposed positions and with the increasing wind they were taken down early afternoon. Due to the wind we had all the nets down a couple of hours earlier than usual. Over 75% of birds were caught in the first 3 nets erected.

There was a very good turn out of participants with a number of experienced banders able to help several newcomers. As well as banders we had Shannon from the Dept of Conservation documenting the session for  bander training resource purposes.

Katie and her mentor Ross with her first banded bird

We caught a total of 77 birds of 6 species with 60 new and 17 recaptures. Numbers were up a little on last May when we caught 54. The biggest difference was almost twice as many new Silvereye today.
Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 0 (1)
Dunnock - 0 (1)

The recap Dunnock, although banded Dec 11 as an Adult, still has brown eyes

Greenfinch - 5 (2)

Kate with one of the Greenfinch she banded

House Sparrow - 4 (2)
Grey Warbler - 0 (1) it was banded Feb 11 and is probably the 2nd oldest Grey Warbler recaptured at the Zoo
Silvereye - 51 (10) two of the recaps were relatively old birds, 1 banded Jan 06 is the 2nd oldest at the Zoo the other banded May 06 is not far behind. Another bird was banded at Houghton Bay in March 11.

Hornsey Rd - An old bird is back

Over the last couple of days I have done some banding both at my place and down the road at Bridie's. Didn't catch a lot of birds but at Bridie's did catch old White Eye again after an absence of several months. The bird was named by Bridie due to it having several white feathers on the side of its head and she keeps an eye out for it. She reported he had returned about a week ago and he will probably stay around now for the winter. He was banded on 8 Aug 04 and at 3207 days is the oldest Blackbird we have recaptured. There has been an older recovery of a dead bird and White Eye will have to go another year to match that age. This was the 20th time he has been caught and he appears to be in good condition with a weight of 96g which is near the top of his weight range.

Birds caught at both sites were -
Blackbird 0 (3)
Dunnock 2 (0)
Greenfinch 1 (0)
House Sparrow 5 (5) the oldest recap was banded Nov 11.

The next Zoo banding session will be this Saturday 25 May and at this stage the forecast looks good so hope it stays that way.

Houghton Bay 17 May and other bits & bobs

With rain forecast to start around lunch time I hoped to get a couple of hours banding in at the Houghton Bay stream this morning. The rain was a bit late so I managed a bit longer than 2 hours and although not a big catch there was still a steady flow of birds.  Caught a total of 34 of 6 species with 27 new and 7 recaps.

Species caught were -
Chaffinch - 3 (0)
Greenfinch - 6 (1) the recap was banded in Feb this year.
House Sparrow - 2 (0)
Silvereye - 10 (5) the oldest recap was banded at the Zoo in Aug 10, was recaptured at my place 2 days later and has now made it to Houghton Bay.

The first 2 Silvereyes caught were cuddled up together in the net.  I thought they might have been a pair but the were banded years apart so were probably just friends.

Fantail - 1 (0) the first bird caught and although there were a lot about they made a bit of a mockery of my attempts to catch them.
Grey Warbler - 5 (1) the recap was banded in April 11 and although not our oldest probably makes it into the top half dozen or so.

Colour Banded Tui

I recently received a list of Ralph's Tui sightings at his place in Roseneath. Between Aug 07 and Oct 09 he and Mary colour banded 58 Tui and many continue to be seen regularly. All but 3 have been seen at least a month after banding, 37 were last seen between 30 and 1000 days, another 13 between 1000 and 2000 days and 1 has now made it past 2000 days which is very close to the maximum possible. In this last list there were 3 birds seen over 5 years since being banded.

Arapawa Island.

Ruth and I have just spent several days at an old homestead in a bay on Arapawa Is hence there has been no post or any banding for a while. We had an interesting time getting over there as a strong southerly wind blew up and the ferry was unable to dock at Picton.  So after many attempts it chugged back to Wellington in a rather rough sea but we managed to get back across the next day. It was interesting to see the changes in bird life since I first went there about 35 years ago when the area was a recently abandoned farm. There has been a huge increase in Bellbird numbers and they now appear to outnumber Tui. Tomtits have also re-colonised in the area and are now seen regularly.

Male S I or Yellow-breasted Tomtit

N I Saddleback Transfer

Three of our group (Nikki, Sussie and Annette) have just returned from a week on Cuvier Island, helping mistnet Saddleback (tieke) for a transfer to Cape Sanctuary near Napier.

The bird's journey, from Cuvier Is to Cape Kidnappers

N I Saddleback in mistnet waiting processing

 At the start of 20th century N I Saddleback were extinct on the mainland and found on only one island - Hen Island. Cuvier Is was one of the first islands they were translocated to, in the 1960's and now has a very healthy population.

The plan was to transfer up to 120 birds over 2 weeks, but the Saddlebacks were so numerous and the weather so good that 120 birds were caught in three and a half catching days, and the whole operation was over in a week. They had great weather but it wouldn't have been so good the following week when there were gales and torrential rain.

A bird receiving its bling

After banding a sweet drink was welcome (sorry the image is on  its side, can't seem to correct it)

The birds were transferred by helicopter in 2 trips, but Annette and the others had to travel by boat. There is a steep track between the sea and the house where the lighthouse keeper used to live (which is now used for accommodation) and so the down side to this speedy conclusion was that after carrying gear and food up for 2 weeks, they then had to carry much of it down again although there was only half as much and the going was down hill.

The birds being loaded ready for the longest journey of their life

Surprisingly, although Saddlebacks are plentiful, there appeared to be quite low numbers of the other native species. Birds that are present such as Bellbird, Red Crowned Parakeet, Grey Warbler, Fantail and Morepork were few in number and there were only about a dozen birds caught as bycatch. There were some large flocks of Silvereyes, but even Blackbirds and Finches were comparatively scarce.

The link below shows a video of the birds being released, great to see so many young folk involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kXKa8Ry7w8&feature=em-share_video_user