A couple of House Sparrow recoveries.

After arriving home from the banding session yesterday I received two recovery reports from the Banding Office.

The first was of a House Sparrow found sick and very uncoordinated under a Rhododendron bush at the Karori Mall in Wellington. The woman finding it took it home and after some TLC it recovered and was released. The bird was banded and she reported the number to the Banding Office. It had been banded on the other side of the City in Puru Cr. in Kilbirnie on 17 May 2010. At 2734 days from banding it is the second oldest House Sparrow we have recorded. The oldest is one found dead at 2773 days. This is also the furthest we have had a House Sparrow travel even if it took an awful long time to get there.

There are two main possibilities for the bird's condition. There have been reports of a poisoning operation at the Karori Mall to control Sparrow numbers and it might have been a victim. Or it might have been sipping nectar from the rhododendron and been poisoned.

The second recovery report was far less spectacular. It was of a House Sparrow found dead about 2 km from its banding site in Littles Rd near Queenstown, only one year since banding.

Christchurch, Halswell Quarry - a better day

We had a session at the Quarry yesterday morning, 16 Nov. and had a reasonable catch of 20 birds. Although this is not a huge number it was with a steady flow of birds ideal for training purposes. All birds were new except for a Starling recaptured after being banded last week.

There were 11 House Sparrows, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Chaffinch, 1 + the recap Starling, 1 Bellbird and 3 Fantail. The fantail were 3 nestlings found in a nest next to one of the nets where we had been watching a pair of adults feeding around the net all morning. As is usual with Fantail they skillfully avoided any temptation to get caught.

Eleanor with her first Starling and our first juvenile.

The Bellbird, an adult male was blind it its right eye.

Christchurch, Halswell Quarry - another quiet day.

We had another quiet session at the Halswell Quarry this morning. We set up at a different area and although the catch was small it has as a Real Estate Agent would say "Heaps of Potential." The total caught was 7, 6 new and our first recapture there. Birds caught were -
2 House Sparrows, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Starling and 1 new and 1 recap Welcome Swallow. While attempting to catch its mate we actually caught the recap twice.

Kenny with his and our, first Starling.

The first House Sparrow, a handsome male being banded.

The two Goldfinch were caught together and are probably a pair, female on left, male on right.

We will try again next week and with a few adjustments to the setup hope to do better.

Christchurch - Halswell Quarry, a few birds

We had another session at the Halswell Quarry on Friday morning. Only caught 5 birds but with all being different species at least we had variety. There was one each of Song Thrush, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Dunnock and Silvereye.

Phil with the first bird of the day and his first Song Thrush.

Eleanor looking very serious as she prepares to band the Dunnock

Kenny concentrating on banding the Greenfinch

This morning, (Sunday) a few of us experimented with trying to catch some of the Welcome Swallows that are nesting in various buildings. Things started off very well with one caught within a few minutes but after that we didn't get it quite right so no further birds caught. We will try again, probably when they have large chicks.

Queenstown - a few more birds

I have done a bit more bird banding/catching in the last couple of days, but I caught more than I banded. On Wednesday I had a round up in the neigbour's henhouse,and caught 15 individuals. All were recaptures, and except for 2 Dunnocks, all were Chaffinch and all had been either banded or recaptured in the henhouse in the last week. Amongst  the catch were 2 Chaffinch, 1 male, 1 female banded on the first day banding here so at the moment they are joint record holders.

The old female giving me a farewell peck.

This morning I had a couple of nets up and although not a big catch at least there was a little bit of variety.Species caught were =
Blackbird - 3 (2)
House Sparrow - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 4 (1)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Yellowhammer - 4 (0)

One of the Yellowhammers.

As well, I checked a few bodies (birds) on the road and 1 was banded, a Blackbird banded as a juvenile last November, so it had a relatively short life.

Fortunately, although the band was a bit munted, it was still readable.

Queenstown - some Blackbirds

I have had nets up for a few hours on the last couple of mornings. On both days banding was cutailed due to a strong southerly wind getting up so the catch was a bit low. The combined total was -
Blackbird - 6 (5) included was the first juvenile for the year.

The first juvenile of any species caught this year

Song Thrush - 1 (1)
Chaffinch - 1 (1) the recap was banded on the first day of banding here and is now the oldest bird of any species recaptured. On the first day 8 Chaffinch were banded and 3 of these have been recaptured in the last few days, over 2 years later.

The current oldest bird.

Wellington Zoo 14th October

What could be better than to spend a sunny Wellington morning banding behind the exhibits at the Zoo?  Catching sufficient birds for everyone to play with of course.

A bird in the hand

A total count of 48 meant that the 7 Level 1s had good session and even the 3 trainers could get hands on occasionally.

Species caught were (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird 1
Chaffinch  3 (1)
Dunnock  2
Greenfinch  18 (7)
House Sparrow  19 (6)
Silvereye  (1)

 For the first time in a while the fat we put out pre-feeding is being taken.

Kate and George comparing Greenfinch wings and nail art

Happy banders