Awarua Bay, Invercargill - Southern NZ Dotterel

After the Birds NZ Conference at Te Anau a number of attendees travelled to Awarua Bay near Invercargill in an attempt to catch and colour band Southern NZ Dotterels at their winter roost site. This particular Dotterel, which only breed on the higher parts of Stewart Is, are in a steep population decline.

They managed to catch 9 individuals with a sole Bar-tailed Godwit as a bonus. All these birds are now colour banded which will enable much better monitoring and population estimates to be done.

Setting up the cannon net. Photo Rachel Hufton.

The Bar-tailed Godwit being processed. Photo Rachel Hufton.

One of the Dotterels with her new colour combo. Photo Rachel Hufton.

Te Anau - Birds NZ conferance and a bit of banding.

I Attended the Birds NZ conference and AGM last weekend, and it was a very enjoyable and informative affair. The scientific papers presented covered a wide range of bird subjects and were all well presented and very interesting. Many covered the Fiordland area, especially the huge problems faced by our birds from introduced predators, especially Stoats which would appear to be the No 1 villain in many areas. The venue and food provided was superb, with many including myself overeating. Neil and his team are to be congratulated on the organization of the whole weekend.

On the Sunday morning we held a banding introduction & training course at Neil's property a short distance from Te Anau. This proved to be a very popular event with over 40 people registering. The attendees were split up into 3 groups with the main group banding at the house where Neil feeds food to attract honey eaters and other small passerines. Graeme & I looked after a smaller group in a patch of regenerating bush where food had been put out to attract finches etc. Another group went to another location but caught very few birds and joined the people at the house who were being swamped by birds. In fact they had to furl nets regularly in order to cope.

People busy (and some not so busy) at the main house banding station.

Our group banded 26 birds, mostly finches of various species with a few others for variety. Although we didn't catch as many as the group at the house we still had a regular flow of birds.

The total number of birds caught was 73 with 5 of these being released unbanded as we were running out of time. I haven't had a full list of the birds caught as the main recorders are involved in a cannon netting project near Invercargill to colour band the very rare Southern New Zealand Dotterel at their winter roost site. This bird has had a dramatic decline in the last few years and the colour banding is part of the recovery plan.

Here are some approximate numbers as I remember them being read out at the dinner Sunday evening.

Blackbird - 2
Song Thrush - 2
Grey Warbler - 4
Silvereye - 26
Bellbird - 2
Chaffinch - 6
Greenfinch - 4
Redpoll- 1
House Sparrow - 4
Dunnock - 6
Yellowhammer - 1
These numbers don't add up so when I get the official count I will correct them.

Graeme removing the 2nd bird we caught, the first was a Grey Warbler

The 3rd was another Greenfinch

Rachel removing a Greenfinch

A comparison between two Silvereyes, adult on left, juvenile on right.

Graeme supervising some banding.

Female Bellbird

Our sole Redpoll, a well marked male.

Queenstown - the last session here for a while

Yesterday 31 May I had a couple of nets up for the morning. Although I caught a total of 42 birds with only 5 species there wasn't much variety. There were 26 new birds and 16 recaps.

Species caught were -
Song Thrush - 1 (0) first bird caught.
House Sparrow - 7 (2) there is quite a big flock about but I think the majority have learnt to avoid the nets.
Silvereye - 14 (13) most of the recaps were recently banded, many at Mark's apple orchard which is about 2-300 m away as the bird flys.
Bellbird - 1 (1)
Tui - 3 (0) a bit of a surprise to catch 3 new Tui as I thought I had most of the locals banded.

One of the new Tui, a female

And a bigger male

While  mesuring his wing length it was found he had a hitchhicker

Queenstown 30 May - last day at the orchard

Rachel and I had a good morning's banding in Mark's apple orchard today. It will most likely be the last session there this year as we will both be attending the Birds NZ AGM in Te Anau this weekend and then I head back to Christchurch. As the apples are disappearing fast there probably wouldn't have been much more banding at any rate.

Coffee on a rather cold morning?

We managed to catch 46 birds of 7 species with 37 new and 9 recaps. Silvereye had increased in number and made up the bulk of the catch.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Song Thrush - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 5 (0)
Dunnock - 2 (1) the recap was banded in Jan 2016 and is now at 502 days the oldest bird recatured for the species.

The old Dunnock

House Sparrow - 1 (0) as the hens that used to be kept next to the orchard have gone Sparrow numbers have dropped significantly.
Starling - 3 (0)

The Starlings were aged by the shape of the rump feathers, rounded for 1st year, pointed for older.

This one is a young bird.

Silvereye - 21 (7) 3 of the recaps had been banded last year.

One of the older recaps.

The bird on the right is a 1st year bird, the one on the left is older.

Bellbird - 3 (1) all were males

All photos by Rachel Hufton, my camera packed a sad.

Queenstown - a couple of sessions

I have had two banding sessions since the last post. On Thursday I put nets up on the western side of the property and caught 24 birds of 6 species with 17 new and 7 recaptures. This morning, 28 May nets were up on the eastern side with 34 birds of 6 species caught, 23 new , 11 recaps.

The combined total of the two sessions was 40 new and 18 recaps -
Blackbird - 0 (2)
Dunnock 3 (2)
Chaffinch - 4 (0)40
House Sparrow - 15 (2)
Silvereye - 15 (8) There appears to have been an increase in Silvereye numbers in the last few days.

Silvereye recap AP-17045. Also caught AP-17046, perhaps they are just good friends

Bellbird - 1 (2)
Tui - 2 (2)

One of the Tui recaps, a male the other was female.

Queenstown 23 May - back to the orchard

Rachel managed to get over the Crown Range so we had another session in the neighbours apple orchard. Catching was steady but not spectacular with a reasonable range of birds. However bird numbers appeared to have declined over the last couple of weeks especially Silvereye numbers. I had expected for numbers to have increased after the snowfall of a few days ago but looks like I was wrong. The days total was 25 birds of 8 species with 20 new and 5 recaps.

One of the nets between apple trees and shrubs.

Yours truly off  for a wander amongst the apples

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Starling - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 2 (1)
House Sparrow - 2 (2) one of the recaps was banded the same day as the Chaffinch that took the record for the oldest bird yesterday. So now this Sparrow s the new record holder at 615 days from banding. This is the first time it has been recaptured.
Silvereye - 9 (1) Numbers per session has dropped from 31 to 15 and now down to 10.
Tui - 2 (1)  one of the new birds appeared to be a late fledged juvenie.

Rachel's first Tui

The younger Tui

Bellbird - 2 (0)

The first Bellbird aged as a1 by its pale eye

Theb second Bellbird was aged as an adult (2+) by P9 shape and bright red eye.

All photos except top Tui by Rachel Hufton.

Queenstown 22 May - not many birds but some interesting ones.

Set up a couple of nets here this morning. With only 19 caught of 8 species it wasn't very busy. But with the total including 9 recaps there were some interesting ones.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 0 (1)
House Sparrow - 4 (2)
Chaffinch - 1 (1) the recap was banded on the fourth day of banding hereand at 614 days since banding is now the oldest recap of any species.
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 3 (1)
Tui - 0 (3) including both the oldest male and female recaptured.

The oldest female Tui caught here so far

Bellbird - 0 (1) surprisingly a female
Grey Warbler - 1 (0) only the third caught down here. There had been at least 3 hooning around
for a while before one ended up in a net, the last bird of the day.

The Grey Warbler aged as a 1 by its pale eye