Bridie's 5 Jan - first birds for 2014

With the skies clearing after this mornings deluge I spent a couple of hours banding this afternoon down the road at Bridie's. Didn't catch a lot of birds but at least it is a start for the new year. Caught a grand total of 11 birds of 4 species.
Chaffinch - 1 (0) unusual to catch one in a cage trap.
Silvereye - 0 (1)
House Sparrow - 5 (3) the oldest recap was banded Feb 2012
Starling - 1 (0) I was surprised to find it had moulted its 3 inner primaries and had a moult score of 9.
Although the forecast is not all that good I hope to get some more banding in later in the week.

Ruth and I had a great time in Auckland over the festive season and I did manage to catch a couple of Tui. Tried the yellow kind for a change.

A couple of "Tui" of the yellow variety

On the North Shore where we were staying Tui (of the feathered kind) appear to have increased in number like they have in Wellington. A few years ago I would have been lucky to have seen 2 or 3 in a week, now they are frequently sighted. Spotted Doves are another species that are showing a big increase there.
The big surprise of the trip was a Myna on the side of the road as we drove through Foxton, by far the furthest south I have ever seen one on SH1.

A quick look at 2013

Just back from a week in Dunedin so no banding and very little birding but did get a quick look at the Tomahawk Lagoon on the Otago Peninsula. Not a lot of birds but there were 4 White Heron in a group which is unusual, especially at this time of year when they all should be at Okarito breeding. Some of the birds appeared to be adults with plumes on their back.

The 4 White Herons, the most I have ever got in a frame at once.

There will be no banding here for the rest of the year as I am off to Auckland for the next week so I thought I would have a quick look at some of the stats for 2013.The overall totals will be tallied at the end of March when the banding year officially ends but I keep calender year tallies for several of our main sites.

Wellington Zoo

We caught 549 new birds and made 164 recaptures, this is about an average number for this site which includes birds caught over the fence at the small stream. Both Greenfinch & House Sparrows were up on the average with both Starlings and Blackbirds well down.

Hornsey R

Including birds caught at Bridie's 543 new birds caught and 732 recaps. Greenfinch numbers were well up with the highest ever tally of 134 new & 85 recaps. Most of the recaps were birds either banded this year or over the last couple with very few older birds caught. Silvereye numbers were also well above average with most caught during July when there appeared to be a big increase in numbers and we caught our longest distance control with a bird from Kaikoura.

Island Bay

A another site which had about an average number of birds with 683 new and 104 recaptures. House Sparrows numbers were well up on average with both Starlings and Silvereyes well down. Silvereye numbers were lower than other sites possibly due to not having a session in July when numbers peaked.

Houghton Bay

Numbers were down from previous years with 584 new and 109 recaps. This site was badly affected by the southerly gales in early winter (this also affected the site at the Houghton Valley School where no banding was possible due to fallen trees). Silvereye and House Sparrow numbers were down but with 48 new and 14 recaptures Grey Warbler were twice as many as any previous year.

Not likely to do a lot of birding in Auckland but do hope to catch a Tui or two (or similar) 

This type of Tui is best processed with sausages near a barbie.

I hope you all have a great festive season and we will commence banding in the new year.

Hornsey Rd Round Up

I have had several banding sessions both here and down the road at Bridie's in the last few weeks, mostly with traps but also a bit of mist netting. The combined total of all sessions at both sites was 114 birds with 49 new and 65 recaptures.
Blackbird - 6 (28) a number of birds were recaptured several times. one bird recaptured twice was originally banded at Island Bay, although this is not a huge distance it is the fartherest we have had one disperse. The old Blackbird we called White Eye that was banded in Aug 04 and had been seen almost daily has not been seen for nearly a month so possibly has died.
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 4 (0)
Greenfinch - 5 (10) most of the recaps were banded at other sites mostly at the Zoo or Houghton Bay
House Sparrow - 21 (12) Juvs are starting to show up in increasing numbers. Oldest recap was banded Feb 09.

The oldest Sparrow caught recently

Silvereye - 0 (3)
Starling - 12 (12) 2 of the recaps were banded in Sept 06 and at 2638 & 2655 days from banding are starting to get near old age.

The oldest Starling now aged as 9+ but looking good.

I had hoped to have a session at one of our stream sites but with almost daily rain it hasn't been possible. Now I am off to Dunedin for most of the next week and then up to Auckland for Christmas so there will not be much done for a while.

Zoo Stream Tuesday 3 Nov

Anneke and I spent a couple of hours at the little stream over the fence from the Zoo on Tuesday afternoon. Anneke is now back in Wellington after a period on the West Coast at Hokitika and then some travel including assisting with cannon netting and banding Red Knots in the States (no I am not jealous, the green shade is a reflection off the trees)
Our catch was not a big one with 15 birds but with 8 species we did have variety. I also spent a couple of hours at the stream a couple of weeks ago, mainly to check on the net lines after a large tree had fallen across them. I managed to reorganise things and got some nets up for a while and even caught a few birds.

While some of the nets had to be moved this one was able to go over the smaller end of the tree trunk. 

The combined tallies for the 2 days were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 6 (0)

Anneke about to release her first Chaffinch

Goldfinch - 4 (0)

A couple of the Goldfinch showed a bib difference in head colour

Greenfinch - 2 (0)
Silvereye - 0 (3) 1 was banded Jan 08 so a reasonably old bird.
Song Thrush - 2 (0) this brings the number for the Zoo area to 3 for the year

Anneke checking the band on one of the Song Thrush.

Tui - 3 (1)

Recovery

I received a report of a House Sparrow recovered by a Keeper at the Zoo, it was banded in Feb 07 and is our second oldest Sparrow so far. It was one of a cohort we colour banded and is the first record of one for several years. The fact that it only had 1 colour band left might be a factor in this.

NZ Birds on Line

I have been privileged to be one of the NZ Birds online photographers featured in the Te Papa blog. A series of photos I did of NI Fantail at their nest from the website have been highlighted.

http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2013/11/25/meet-the-photographers-of-nz-birds-online-2/

The female of the pair was banded but I did not manage to get the male banded. All the 11 young that they fledged were banded but I only managed to catch 1 after they fledged. It was caught 28 days after banding about 1 km away.

The female was banded  but the male wasn't.

If you wish to find out any information on a NZ bird or want to get an identification confirmed NZ Birds online http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/is a fantastic source of information.

With the current weather of strong southerly wind with rain, and the forecast for this to continue for the next few days, it is unlikely there will be much banding for a while. Although I hope I might be able to set a trap or two near the end of the week.

Island Bay 24 Nov - Mostly Sparrows

Roisin, Ros and I had a successful session at Island Bay this morning catching a total of 80 birds with 63 new and 17 recaptures. But with only 4 species there wasn't much variety andHouse Sparrows dominated the catch.  For the first time this spring/summer there were a significant number of juveniles.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 10 (4) the oldest recap was banded in June 2010

Roisin banding her first Blackbird, one of several Juv's banded.

Song Thrush - 1 (0) only our second S Thrush at this site, the other was back in 2007 a short time after we started banding there.

The Song Thrush, a recently fledged Juv.

The "thorn" pattern on the coverts which indicate a 1st year bird

Starling - 2 (0)

The 2 Starlings, adult male on left with dark eye and juvenile female on right with pale ring around eye.

House Sparrow - 52 (13) the oldest also banded in June 2010, another was banded in Blythe St, Berhampore.

Several of the Sparrows were newly fledged.

As usual we were treated to great hospitality by Marion and Ken including a great morning tea.

Kereru

We missed one of the highlights of the day as after we had packed up and left Ken watched a Kereru (NZ Pigeon) drink from the sugar water bowl on the bird table. This is the first time he has seen this happen and the first time I have heard of it happening.  We will wait and see if it becomes a regular visitor or if it was a one off.

Prince of Wales Park 20 Nov - a trial run

I spent a couple of hours at the stream in the Prince of Wales Park this afternoon mostly to see if it was still a suitable site after tree felling and the effects of the winter storms. The answer to that is, despite major changes and with just one net up, I managed to catch 30 birds in the 2 hours. I also had a great many bounce or get out of the net, possibly because they were approaching the net at a steep angle.

Species caught -
Chaffinch - 6 (1)
Greenfinch - 3 (0)
Goldfinch - 6 (0)

These 2 Goldfinch were caught together and are possibly a pair

House Sparrow - 5 (0)
Starling - 4 (0)
Silvereye -2 (1)
Tui - 2 (0)
Both the recaps were banded last summer but I was particularly pleased to catch them as the site has only been in use for a year.

A Recovery

I picked up a body on the road outside the Zoo after a car accident this afternoon. The body was a Blackbird banded at the Zoo in May 2009.