Queenstown - 2017 banding year

I have crunched the numbers for the 2017 calender year down here at our Queenstown site. A total of 1058 birds of 15 species were banded and 537 recaptures of 12 species was made. This is slightly down on the 2016 numbers when 1290 birds were banded and 465 recaptures made.

Species ranked from highest were - (recaps in brackets)

1. Silvereye -288 (215) up from 3 last year. Numbers boosted by good catches in neighbours orchard.
2. House Sparrow - 236 (113) down from top spot last year.
3. Redpoll - 214 (0) down from 2 last year when 17 recaptures were also made.
4. Chaffinch - 96 (100) up from 5. Numbers especially of recaps boosted by birds caught in neighbours hen house.
5. Dunnock - 40 (27) up from 6
6. Blackbird - 38 (30) up from 7
7. Greenfinch - 36 (2) up from 9.
8. Bellbird - 22 (19) same position.
9. Goldfinch - 20 (1) up from 12
10. Yellowhammer - 18 (5) same place.
11. Tui - 17 (17) same place.
12. Song Thrush - 16 (3) down from 11.
13. Starling - 13 (5) same place.
14. Fantail - 3 (0) up from 17
15. Grey Warbler - 1 (0) down from 14

No Kingfisher or Californian Quail were caught.

So far 2018 has got of to a slow start with people staying and sheep getting over to the neighbours and having to be brought back, but if there is reasonable weather over the next few days I hope to rectify this. On the other hand a good rain would be extremly welcome as things are tinder dry.

Queenstown - the last banding for the year

I have had a couple of sessions down here since the last post. An afternoon session at the stream and a morning session near the house.

Stream 29 Dec

Caught a similar number of birds as the previous session a bit different species list. A total of 26 birds of 6 species all except 2 new.
Redpoll 12, but still no recaps.
Greenfinch 7, the larges number caught here in a session.
Dunnock 3 and 1 recap.
Yellowhammer and Goldfinch 1 each and 1 House Sparrow recap.

House 31 Dec

Banded or recaptured 29 birds of 5 species with 19 new and 9 recaps.
Blackbird 1 new and a recap
Song Thrush 1 new juv.
Silvereye 1 new.

I got a surprise to find the Silvereye already starting to moult

House Sparrow 10 new and 9 recaps. Also caught and released unbanded about 20 - trying to ration my bands.
Tui 3 new, 2 old males and 1 younger female.

One of the big males

Bellbird 2 newly fledged juveniles. At the time of banding I was not sure of the sex but looking at the photos it looks clear.

Juvenile male Bellbird?

Juvenile female Bellbird?

I wish you all the best for 2018 and we will see what and who we can catch up with.

Queenstown Wed 27 Dec - Chaffinch & Redpoll

I had two totally different banding sessions yesterday. In the morning I caught Chaffinch in the neighbour's hen house and in the afternoon I set a couple of nets up at the stream at the bottom of the property.

AM - Hen House

Caught 17 Chaffinch, 4 new and 13 recaps. There were also about 40, mostly juvenile House Sparrows but I avoided catching them as I will probably run out of BP bands if I was to band them all. Of the recaps 3, AP 18306, 08, 09 were originally banded on the first day of banding here so at 837 days from banding they are the oldest birds of any species caught here. They beat the Blackbird caught on Tuesday by a day.

PM - Stream

The afternoon catch was a total contrast, 52 birds of 11 species with 47 new and just 4 recaptures. The 11 species in one session is I think the highest number caught down here although several species were only represented by 1 or 2 individuals.
Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Song Thrush - 1 (0) a newly fledged juv.
Redpoll 16 (0) surprised not to recapture any of the 400 or so birds banded at this site over the last few years.

Several of the male Redpols are very well coloured while others have only a reddish wash.

One of the Redpolls was actually an Orange Poll

Goldfinch - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Yellowhammer - 2 (0)

Both Yellowhammers were females

Dunnock - 1 (1)
House Sparrow - 0 (2)
Silvereye - 2 (0) One of the birds appeared to have had a broken tarsus that had healed well but slightly out of alignment.

The broken leg now healed

Tui 0 (1) the same bird as recaptured on Tuesday about 500m away.

Queenstow - Heaps of Sparrows

We arrived back down to Littles Road a few days ago and plan to stay a few weeks. Now that I have got some of the chores done and Christmas celebrated I was able to get a couple of nets up this morning. Caught 52 birds of 6 species with 47 new and 5 recaps. Most of the birds were House Sparrows with 44 new and 1 recap, most of them were recently fledged juveniles with just 6 or so being older birds.
Other birds caught were 1 Dunnock, 1 new and 1 recap Bellbird, 1 new and 1 recap Tui, and 1 recap each of Starling and Blackbird. The Blackbird was banded on the first day of banding here, so is now the oldest bird of any species recaptured here.

The Starling is starting to fade out of its breeding plumage.

The new Tui was a male in its second year (aged as a 2)

The Bellbird recap was a female originaly banded as a 2 (in second year) and has well  worn primaries. 

Christchurch, Halswell Quarry - 14 Dec.

We had another session at the Halswell Quarry this morning. After a very slow start, only 1 H Sparrow in the first hour or so, then it picked up a bit. We finished up catching 21 birds of 6 species with 19 new and 2 recaps.

The Three Amigos busy at a net. Eleanor, Kenny & Phil.

Blackbird 1, Goldfinch 3, Chaffinch 1, Starling 1, House Sparrow 13 and 1 recap and we recaptured the same Welcome Swallow, we keep trying to catch its mate but we always catch the one that's banded. Perhaps one bird takes the day shift on the nest and the other the nights?

Two of the Goldfinch, probably a pair

Phil and Friend, actually Ron's mate Tess an ex wildlife dog.

NZ Banding Office Newsletter

Below is a link to the  latest NZ Banding Office Newsletter, well worth a read.

Cheers

Peter

The fifth quarterly Banding Newsletter, BirDBanD, is available for download, featuring young banders and old snippets, news and updates of bird banding around New Zealand. Please feel free to circulate this widely… This is also an open invitation to submit your own banding banter for inclusion in the next newsletter. Previous newsletters can be downloaded from the bird banding webpages of Department of Conservation and BirdsNZ.

Kind regards,

Michelle and Sandy

Christchurch, Halswell Quarry - 7 Dec

A group of us, a scribe, 3 trainees and a trainer had a session at the Halswell Quarry this morning. We had a good flow of birds which kept us busy but still with time for some in depth training. A total of 24 birds of 7 species were caught with 22 new and a couple of recaps.

Caught were - 1 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush, 2 Silvereye, 12 House Sparrow, 2 Greenfinch, 6 Chaffinch with 1 recap and a Welcome Swallow recap.

One of the Greenfinch getting its bling.

We also had a Primary School arrive to have their sports day. Many of the children showed a great interest in our activities but the flow of birds dried up possibly due to their activities.

Eleanor with an attentive audience

A Chaffinch about to be released.

And its gone!