Queenstown - A bit of variety

Although dominated by two species there has been a bit of variety in banding over the last few days. Eleven species were caught during sessions near the house and one at the stream site. A total of 67 birds caught with 52 new birds and 15 recaptured. The House sessions were dominated by House Sparrows and the Stream session by Redpolls.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (0)

One of the Blackbirds had a very tatty tail and probably has trouble steering.

Song Thrush - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 16 (11)
Dunnock - 3 (0)
Greenfinch - 2 (1) this is the first Greenfinch recaptured here so at a mammoth 17 days is the oldest for the species.

The Greenfinch recap.

Goldfinch - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 2 (1)
Redpoll - 22 (0) mostly juveniles but a sprinkling of older birds.

One of the older Redpolls, a well coloured male.

A "Golden Crowned" Redpoll

Yellowhammer - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 1 (1)
Bellbird - 0 (1) the second Bellbird banded here and now the oldest for the species.

Queenstown - Final round up for 2016 and a start to 2017

I have crunched the numbers of birds banded down here for last year. A total of 1290 new birds of 17 species were banded and 465 recaptures of 14 species were made. The recap tally includes multiple captures of the same bird. This compares with 533 new birds and 194 recaptures made in the last 4 months of 2015. (Banding started in Sept)

Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)

1. House Sparrow - 422 (170) Also No 1 last year
2. Redpoll - 257 (17)  No 7 last year. Numbers were boosted by a large number of juveniles caught at the stream at the bottom of the property.
3. Silvereye - 227 (55) Down from 2nd
4. Tui - 62 (46) Up from 12th. The big mover and a pleasant surprise.
5. Chaffinch - 61 (29) Down from 3rd
6. Dunnock - 58 (44) 5th last year
7. Blackbird - 57 (47) 4th last year
8. Bellbird - 37 (43) another big mover, 14th last year. Almoat all males.
9. Greenfinch - 29 (0) 11th in 2015, might get a recap one day.
10. Yellowhammer - 28 (6) down from 8th.
11. Song Thrush - 17 (5) A  big drop from 6th.
12. Goldfinch - 16 (2) 10th last year.
13. Starling - 10 (1) 9th last year.
14. Grey Warbler - 3 (0) new for 2016.
15. Californian Quail - 3 (0) new
16. Kingfisher - 2 (0) 13th in 2015. There appears to hve been a big drop in numbers this Spring/Summer with no breeding pairs as against 3 or 4 last year.
17. Fantail - 1 (0) new. Surprised not more are not caught.

I won't be here as much this year so numbers for 2017 might be down a bit.

First session for 2017

I went down to the stream on Monday for a bit of a look and as there were a few birds about put a couple of nets up. Was pleasantly surprised to catch 24 birds. Most were Redpolls with 19, also 2 Greenfinch, 1 Starling, 1 Goldfinch and a House Sparrow recap.

Queenstown - The last session for the year

No banding today but I had nets up yesterday morning and managed to catch 28 birds of 6 species. Fourteen were new and fourteen recaps. Amongst those caught were several starting to moult their primary wing feathers which was a bit of a surprise.

Birds caught were -
Blackbird - 0 (1) this bird was banded on the third day banding here and was the oldest bird recaptured for about an hour.
Song Thrush - 1 (0) a bird starting to moult.

The Thrush was moulting the right wing out of the usual order, although the left was in the ususl sequence.

Chaffinch - 3 (1)
Redpoll - 0 (1) a female banded as an unsexed juvenile back at the begining of March, now starting to moult, but still surprisingly has a prominant brood patch.

The Redpolls moulting right wing.

House Sparrow - 9 (11) a number of juveniles starting to moult but no older birds. One of the recaps was banded on the first day of banding here and is now the oldest bird recaptured here.

One of the moulting H Sparrows

Tui - 0 (1)
Califoronian Quail - 1 (0) the third banded here and the first male.

The male Cal Quail - a real handsome dude.

I wish you all the best for the new year. For me 2016 has been an interesting and enjoyable year and I look forward to 2017.

Queenstown - Sparrows by the dozen

I have had several banding attempts over the last few days with some success, mostly with Sparrows. On Monday I had nets up for the morning and caught 62 birds which is the highest total for a day. As expected at this net site the majority were Juv House Sparrows. On Tuesday it was a bit windy for nets but I did catch some birds in the neighbours hen house, again mostly Sparrows but also a couple of Blackbird recaps. Both were interesting. One had held the record for the oldest bird caught here, it still holds it but now by a few more days. The other was one of the pulus I banded a couple of months ago. Great to know it has survived at least for this period. Yesterday I had nets up for an hour or so until the wind got too strong, but still manged 16 birds.

The combined totals for the 3 days was -
Blackbird - 1 (6)
Dunnock - 0 (1)
House Sparrow - 49 (20)Mostly juveniles but there were a number of older birds.

This juvenile Sparrow was in the process of renewing some of its tail feathers

A number of Sparrows have very prominent fault/growth bars on their tails.

A few of the juvenile male Sparrows are starting to show their "true colours"

Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 3 (3)
Starling - 1 (0)

The Starling, the first caught for a while was sexed as a female by its white eye ring.

Bellbird - 1 (0)

I think the Bellbird was a year old bird due to eye colour but not 100% sure.

Tui - 1 (1)
I was hoping to have caught some fledgling Bellbird or/and Tui by now but all those caught were older birds, mostly old boys.

Queenstown - a few more birds

I put up a couple of nets this morning in a differant site than usual, mainly to get away from Sparrows for a change and to try for a few differant birds. Only caught 9 birds but some were interesing.

Birds caught were - a new Dunnock and a recently banded one, two new Chaffinch and a Song Thrush. Three Blackbird recaps, one was banded a few months ago, but DP-6306 was banded as an adult male on the third day banding here and at 656 days from banding is not only the oldest Blackbird but the oldest of any species recaptured. Caught at the same time was DP-6309, a female which had been banded the following day and is now the oldest female BB and the second oldest of any species.

The final bird caught was a bit of a surprise, a banded Redpoll which had been banded back in February as an unsexed juvenile. It is now clearly identifiable as a male although differently coloured than normal. This bird is now the oldest Redpoll recaptured beating the old record by a couple of hundred days.

The recap Redpoll with an orange breast instead of the usual red.

I will not be doing any banding untill at least next week and possibly not untill next year so I hope you all have a great and safe festive season.

Queenstown - more Sparrows & a few others

I had nets up yesterday (Tuesday) morning and again this morning. Yesterday 30 birds of 6 species were caught, and today 47 birds of 8 species. As has been the pattern over the last few sessions the catch was dominated by juvenile House Sparrows. Neighbours on both sides of the property keep hens with one of them owning a bakery and feeding the hens and conseqently the local Sparrows on left over produce.

The combined total was 77 birds of 9 species with 48 new and 29 recaptures.
Species totals were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 0 (3)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Yellowhammer - 0 (1) this bird was banded Nov 2015 and is now the oldest YH recap.

The "Old" Yellow Fella

Chaffinch - 4 (4)
Dunnock - 1 (1)
Starling - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 40 (17) both new birds and recaps were mostly juveniles but 3 of the recaps were banded Nov 2015.

Juvenile Sparrows range from several weeks old to just fledged like this one.

Tui - 0 (3) the oldest was also banded Nov 2015.

  Tui are still feeding on Flax or somthing simular.

Queenstown - some more Sparrows

I had nets up again this morning untill the wind got  a bit strong and they came down. A sima
lar but smaller catch than yesterday with a total of 25 birds of 5 species, 20 new and 5 recaps.

Blackbird - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 1 (1) the recap was banded a couple of days after banding started here, so it is now the oldest recap of any species.
House Sparrow - 16 (4) All but 2 of the new birds were juveniles and all but 1 of the recaps were recently banded juvs.
Tui - 1 (0)

The Tui had pollen on its head most likely from Flax. As there is no flax on the property it must have been visiting one of the neighbours

With Christmas fast approaching and chores still to be done there probably won't be any more banding for a few days.