Wellington Zoo Sat 15 March - an enjoyable day

We had a good day's banding at the Zoo today which was the first for the year at the main Zoo site. Not a huge catch but there was a steady flow of birds for most of the day. The weather was surprisingly good despite the dire warning about the effects of cyclone Lusi and it was almost ideal for banding with an overcast sky and little wind and no precipitation.

We caught 35 birds of 9 species, with most being juveniles and only 4 recaptures. Interestingly all the recaps were reasonably old birds with 3 now aged as 6 or 6+. Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 3 (0)
Greenfinch - 9 (1) the recap was banded in Dec 2009
Silvereye - 3 (0)

Kyle and Sarah with one of the Silvereye - astute observers might have guessed that they are expecting a nestling later in the year.

House Sparrow - 9 (2) the oldest recap was banded in Feb 2009, just making the 5 year mark. The other was banded in Nov 2012
Starling - 0 (1) the first bird caught and banded in May 2009, not quite making 5 years.

 The Starling - she might be an old bird but she's a stroppy old bird.

Grey Warbler - 2 (0)
Fantail - 3 (0)

Gen with the first Fantail she has banded.

Kate with her fantail.

Tui - 2 (0).

Mt Albert Friday 7 March - more Silvereyes

Anneke and I had a banding session early this morning at the Mt Albert fennel patch.

Dawn breaking over the ranges with Wellington Airport in the middle

Unfortunately the birds were a bit later than usual in arriving and Anneke had to leave for work just as numbers were starting to build up.

Anneke removing a Silvereye from mist net.

Forty eight birds were caught with all but 2 being Silvereye The other 2 were the usual Dunnock and a Song Thrush which was the first bird of this species ever caught at this site.

The Song Thrush had a deformed lower bill, possibly due to injury

It was aged as a juvenile by the "thorn" pattern on the coverts among other indicators.

Of the Silvereye 8 were recaptures, all of which had been banded during the last few weeks.

Mt Albert Sun. 2 March - some more Silvereyes

Kate, Mary, Ross and I were up on Mt Albert at daylight, well actually I was, the rest arrived slightly later due to a glitch with a text message. We had nets up in the fennel patch hoping to catch some more of the Silvereyes that feed there first thing and we caught 16 with a bycatch of 1 Dunnock and 1 Grey Warbler. All birds were unbanded and it is surprising that none of the 60 banded last week weren't recaptured. Perhaps they are quick learners or do they not feed on the fennel every day?

Ross, Mary (our scribe) and Kate busy in a patch of early morning sun.

The fennel patch, photo taken a few weeks ago before I cut the net lanes.

Prince of Wales Park Sat 1 March - nearly nothing

We had a nearly zero catch this afternoon at the Prince of Wales Park with a total catch of 1 Chaffinch. This bird was the only one to come near the nets and somehow Matu managed to get it to go in. With the rain last night I had expected a reduced catch but not this low. Besides the rain reducing the birds thirst a lot of species are now feeding on the abundant, juicy berries, especially coprosma,with finches feeding on soft seeds.

The "Team" waiting for some action

Mary and friend - interesting what people do to keep amused

Houghton Bay 

On Thursday afternoon I spent a couple of hours at the Houghton Bay stream and also had a much reduced catch, although better than today's effort. Caught 11 birds of  5 species and all were new. 1 Greenfinch, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Grey Warbler, 6 Silvereye and 2 Tui.

Both Tui were juveniles, this one, a female has been fledged about a month judging by the sparse neck feathers.

Mt Albert Wednesday 26 Feb - Heaps of Silvereyes

I had a very successful morning at the Mt Albert fennel patch, caught 64 birds all except 2 were Silvereyes. The only bycatch were a Dunnock and a Grey Warbler. Only 2 of the Silvereye were already banded with 1 from the Zoo banded Oct 2011, and the other banded a week or so ago when I had a net up while cutting net lanes. The morning started off  relatively quiet and then a 9 m net caught a flock of over 30 birds. This is the biggest mornings's total at this site

Part of the "big catch" in the 9 m net

Almost all the birds were aged as 1st year with only 2 positively aged as older. The Zoo banded recap and the Grey Warbler which had the red eyes of an adult.

Several Silvereye had growth bars across their tail making aging as 1st year easy

This bird had a rather nasty looking growth under its bill.

When the sun rose above the ridge the noise from the cicadas was deafening especially when one used my shoulder to give out his raspy song. Fortunately I had the nets down before they started to fly very much as they are a devil to get out of nets, having to be dismembered piece by piece.

Cicada using a net pole as a singing post

Fortunately this was the only one to fly into any net -  the last net as I was taking it down.
Sorry the photo is out of focus but you can get the idea.

Island Bay Monday 17 Feb - Heaps of Sparrows

Annette and I had a busy time at our Island Bay site this morning. I had hoped to get a few more people along but no such luck. We only caught 5 species and the catch was dominated, as is usual at this site, by House Sparrows. Although we caught 90 birds there was only 1 recapture, and this was partly due to the vast majority of birds being juveniles.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 4

All the Blackbirds were juveniles and were a very motley lot with their partly moulted body feathers 

Dunnock - 8
Chaffinch - 7
Tui - 2
House Sparrow - 68 (1) the recap was banded Dec 2010 so a reasonably old bird

Most of the Sparrows were in primary moult with this one doing it a bit differently and not moulting in sequence.

The recap had an unusual pattern  on her lesser coverts.

Juvenile males were at various stages of moult with the one on the left nearly finished while the right one is just starting.
Others had not started and had only fledged a short time ago.

As usual we had great hospitality from our host Marion and Ken with a fine feast to keep us going. This was much appreciated especially as they had had a very busy weekend with their involvement at the Island Bay fair.

Houghton Bay Sunday 16 Feb. - lots of Juv Goldfinch

Kate, Ross, Sarah, Kyle and I had a reasonable afternoon's banding at the Houghton Bay stream today. We caught 37 birds of 9 species with 33 new and 4 recaptures. There was a surprising lack of Silvereye but the most Goldfinch ever caught at this site in a day.

Species caught - (recaps in brackets)
Dunnock - 1 (0)

Kate measuring the wing of the only Dunnock

Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 5 (1)
Goldfinch - 16 (1) all except one (including the recap) were juveniles

One of the Juvenile Goldfinch

.
House Sparrow - 1 (0) the last bird of the day and a big drop from recent sessions.
Silvereye - 4 (2) the oldest recap banded June 2011
Fantail - 2 (0)
Grey Warbler - 2 (0)
Tui - 1 (0)