Hornsey Rd Thursday 11 July - Silvereyes

Contrary to my expectations Thursday morning was dry and I was able to set the funnel trap for a period before I started work at midday. Caught a total of 96 birds, all Silvereyes. There were only 15 new but 81 recaptures. Of the recaps 39 were banded this year, 18 in 2012, 13 in 2011, 2 in 2010, 2 in 2009, 1 in 2008, 4 in 2007, 1 in 2005 (the same bird has been caught in the last 2 weeks) and an old girl (or boy) banded in June 2003. This bird at 3681 days from banding is now our third oldest Silvereye recap but still has about 150 days to get the record. It was caught last year but this is the first time this year and I was beginning to think that it hadn't survived.

Four of the recaps had been banded in Houghton Bay and 2 at the Zoo. The 2 Zoo birds have consecutive band numbers and this is the fifth time they have been caught together.

Last night I picked up a very squashed little Silvereye on the road near the Zoo. It was banded but unfortunately the band was mangled and the last 2 digits are unreadable. The string of bands A-1889?? was used at the Houghton Valley School on 10 June 2010 and the Zoo on 12 June 20010, as most birds banded were Silvereyes there is no way of positively identifying the bird.

Obviously not this bird but an example of how the older aluminium bands can get mangled

Not much banding this week

After 3 days of good banding weather while I was at work it has turned to custard today with rain and high winds expected for the next few days. Then on Saturday I am off to Christchurch for a few days so the prospects of doing some banding looks bleak. To reduce the likelihood further I put some sugar water in the feeding cage this morning and within 30 minutes a Tui had found it and is now chasing every bird that comes anywhere near, Silvereyes, Sparrows, Greenfinch and even Blackbirds get the treatment.

I did manage an hour or so at Bridie's on Saturday afternoon when the weather cleared after a northerly rain squall. Caught  39 birds; all Silvereyes except 1 recap Blackbird. Of the Silvereyes there were 18 new birds and 20 recaps. The oldest recaps were 2 that were banded in 2008.

The Blackbird we've named White eye  was feeding on the lawn but didn't go near the trap. He was banded in Aug 04, 3254 days ago.

We have had a couple of recoveries this week. 1 was a Silvereye banded 9 days previously at the Zoo and found dead about 1km away. The other was a Blackbird banded as a Juv at Island Bay in March 07 and its skeleton was found in a woodpile not far away.  The wood has been there less than a year so it was at least 7 years old when it died.

Yesterday I received from the DOC Banding Office a  photo of a colour banded Tui, and one of the colours was described as Red which would make it a bird banded in May 03, therefore our oldest Tui record. In the photo this band looks to be possibly Brown which would make the bird one that was banded in Aug 08. I am trying to gather a bit more info to confirm its ID.

Red or Brown?

Hornsey Rd 4 July - Silvereye

Set the funnel trap here this morning with considerable success.  I caught 95 Silvereyes with 34 new and 61 recaptures. There were 36 recaps that were banded this year, 9 last year, 4 in 2011, 7 in 2010, 1 in 2008 and the old one that was also caught last week banded in 2005.

On Tuesday I had a net up for a while until the wind got too strong.  I didn't catch a lot but did catch a Silvereye that was not one of ours (a control).  It appears that it was banded by Lindsay Rowe in Kaikoura back in Sept 2004 so, not only is it our longest distance recap and only the second to cross Cook Strait, it is also our third oldest recapture of a Silvereye. I suspect it probably arrived last week with the 100+ km wind up its tail and probably it would have taken about 1 1/2 hours to get here. The distance as the bird might have flown is just over 150 kms

This morning I also caught a bird with an unusual band number which I am still checking out.

Wellington Zoo 29 June - A BIG day

With near ideal conditions and a small but experienced banding team we caught a large number of birds today at the Zoo. The total for the day was 191 of 10 species with 114 new birds and 77 recaptures Although 10 species is a high number for this site most were represented by only 1 or 2 individuals.With the large number of birds being caught early we put fewer nets up than usual. Also due to recapturing birds a second or third time (about 50% of the catch towards the end) we closed down an hour sooner than we do on most occasions.

The "Team" all busy at their tasks, David, Danielle, Ros and Annette

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 0 (1) an interesting recap as it was banded in Houghton Bay in Jan 2011. This is the longest distance that we have recaptured a Blackbird.
Dunnock - 0 (3)
Greenfinch - 12 (4) 1 of the recaps was banded at Bridie's on Hornsey Rd in Dec 12

The sexing and aging of Greenfinch caused some interesting discussion 

Goldfinch - 2 (0)
House Sparrow - 5 (1)
Starling - 1 (1) the recap was also banded at Bridie's in Jan 11
Silvereye - 89 (77) this is the highest Silvereye total we have caught in a day at the Zoo with the highest number of new birds and 1 less than the highest number of recaps. No really old birds were caught but there were 6 that were banded in 2009, 5 in 2010 and 5 in 2011.
Fantail - 1 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (1) the recap was banded in April last year.
Yellowhammer - 3 (0) the first at the Zoo for some time.

Ros taking one of the Yellowhammer's wing measurement

After we had packed up we were privileged to have a look at the birds that are being treated from storm injuries at the Nest (the Zoo bird hospital). What a great asset this facility is to the City but very sobering to see so many birds in care, esp. the bigger Albatrosses and Petrels.

One of the 6 White-capped Molly's that were received at the Nest after last weeks storm.

Hornsey Rd 27 June - More Silvereyes

I had intended to put up a couple of nets this morning to catch some of the trap shy birds but the wind was a bit strong. After clearing a couple of net lanes from last week's storm I made a late decision to set the funnel trap again with the result that I caught a heap more Silvereyes. The total in just over an hours trapping was 78 Silvereye and a couple of not so bright Sparrows. There were 27 new Silvereye and 49 recaptures, 12 of the recaps were banded on Monday and 14 of Monday's recaps were caught again so a total of 116 different individuals have been caught this week.

The oldest bird was banded 11 Feb 05 and at 3058 days since banding becomes the 7th Silvereye we have recaptured after 3000 days. Five of the birds caught this morning were over 5 years from banding which is the most I can recall catching in one day. As was the case on Monday a lot of the recaps had not been caught for a considerable time.

At last some Banding - 24 June

After a week of almost constant rain and several days of gale force winds I was able to do some banding today.

This morning I had a session at Witham St in Island Bay. This site is on the other side of the valley from our usual one, and although less productive can still provide some reasonable catches. Caught 28 birds of 5 species, 1 Blackbird, 2 Chaffinch, 5 Greenfinch, 6 Sparrows and 11 new Silvereyes and 3 recaps.

With an earlier start than usual I had a chance to watch the setting of the moon, which according to the boffins on TV, is on one of its closest orbits to the earth.

Silvereyes started feeding here at my place last week with numbers building up rapidly during the bad weather.  This is about a month later than most years probably due to the mild Autumn. This afternoon I took a break from doing chores and set the funnel trap and got a big surprise with the number of birds. In just over an hour 64 Silvereyes were caught with 28 new and 36 recaptures. The oldest recap was banded in Aug 2007.
A surprising number of older birds have not been captured for some time and this is especially true of most of the 14 birds that were banded in 2011. There were 2 birds captured which had been banded in 2007 - for 1 it was the first recapture and the other hadn't been caught since 2009. This is the biggest catch of Silvereyes here in a day for several years and usually the numbers don't peak until July. Several birds were caught that had been banded at other sites including 2 from the Zoo and 4 from Houghton Bay.

It will be interesting to see if a similar pattern is found on Saturday at the Zoo. That is providing of course that the weather gods are kind and we get to have a session.

Wild Weather with NO Banding

With almost constant rain all week and now severe gales there has been no banding for quite a while.

The planned session at the Zoo tomorrow (Saturday) has now been canceled due to dangerous conditions with trees down and other hazards in the area we band in (not public places) Will see if we can do something next week.