Halswell Quarry Fri 18 May - some Blackbirds

We had a session at the Quarry this morning, setting nets up at an arbutus tree that has ripening fruit. The aim was to catch some of the feeding Blackbirds in order to give some of the trainees experience with larger birds. We were reasonably successful catching 13 birds with 7 being Blackbirds. As well we caught 4 Chaffinch and a House Sparrow with a bonus of a Bellbird, only the second we have caught at the Quarry. All birds were new. Had hoped to get a recap or two as one of our regular net sites is only about 200m away.

One of the advantages of this site was the use of a picnic table as a banding station, (and coffee table.)

Phil banding one of the Blackbirds - a complaining male.

Eleanor extracting her first Bellbird and got a bloody finger for her trouble. (Badge of Honour)

Halswell Quarry Thu 10 May - a successful session.

We had a very successful session at the Halswell Quarry this morning catching a total of 33 birds. This is the highest number caught in one session at this site and consisted of 31 new and 2 recaps although, with only 5 species, there was not a lot of variety.
Birds caught were -
House Sparrow - 4 (1) all except 1 were male
Greenfinch - 8 (0) again all except 1 were male

Phil taking the wing measurement of a Greenfinch

Silvereye - 17 (1) the highest catch and with numbers appearing to be building up in the area I expect higher numbers in the next few months.

Eleanor extracting a Silvereye from a mist net.

Blackbird & Dunnock 1 of each.

Latest NZ Banding Office Newsletter

The NZ Banding Office has just produced its latest newsletter, it is well worth a read. Hopefully if you follow the link below you will get to it.

http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/our-work/bird-banding/banding-newsletter-apr-2018.pdf

If that doesn't work go to the Birds NZ site BirdsNZ.

Queenstown - A quick visit

Arrived back in Christchurch last night after a quick visit to our son's property near Queenstown. The trip down was delayed due to weather concerns, so instead of a week or so only had about 4 days. Also found when we arrived that the pump supplying water had packed a sad, so we were without water until a plumber could replace the pump. Even then the replacement didn't work properly.

The result of all this and the usual chores like lawn mowing etc. I didn't have as much time for banding as I would have liked. Never the less I managed to squeeze a bit in.

Hen House

Caught a few birds in the neighbours Hen House, the usual suspects.

House Sparrow - 5 (3)

Chaffinch - 1 (2) one of the recaps was banded Nov 15 and is now the oldest recap for the species.

Dunnock - 1 (1)

Thurlby Domain

Went down to the Domain on Wednesday afternoon and set a couple of nets up at old fruit trees. Although I caught 21 birds was a bit disappointed and gave myself a "could do better" mark. Went back on Thursday morning and did a lot worse with very few birds about and those that were around were feeding high. All birds caught were new.

Silvereye - 17, Chaffinch - 2, Dunnock - 3 and Bellbird - 2. As I said a month ago this site has huge potential just a matter of working out how to exploit it.

One of the old apple trees

A few wind fall pears.

Friday Morning.

Set up a couple of nets between apple and pear trees near the house where I had been doing a little feeding for a couple of days and had a reasonable catch.

House Sparrow - 2 (2)

Dunnock - 1 (0)

Silvereye - 17 (2) the two recaps had been banded together a year ago and were again caught together.

Tui - 0 (2) one was a female one of the first caught here and is now the oldest recap of the species. The other was a male and is now the oldest male Tui recaptured.

Bellbird - 2 (0)

One of the new Bellbird

Halswell Quarry - Thu 26 April

We had a good session on Thursday morning at the Halswell Quarry. Caught 26 birds of 7 species, all new except 1. There was a steady flow of birds for most of the morning which was ideal to give the trainees time with each bird. As well as the regular participants we had the company of Andrew's young son who was a keen and enthusiastic assistant.

Birds caught were -
Blackbird - 1

Xavier about to release the Blackbird

And its OFF

Chaffinch - 1 with 1 recap, a bird banded at the last session.
Greenfinch - 3
House Sparrow - 7
Silvereye - 11 we also a couple of recaps but one had just been banded and the other was reluctant to go into a bag and made a premature escape.
Grey Warbler - 1
Fantail - 1

The Fantail had a bad infestation of mite. Possibly due to having been in a 2nd or 3rd brood fledging from the same nest with a subsequent build up of the little beasties. 

Halswell Quarry Thu 12 April - A good morning

A group of trainees and a scribe joined me in a session at the Halswell Quarry on Thursday morning. We had a reasonably successful session catching 24 birds of 6 species with 21 new and 3 recaps.

Most of the team. Sandra our scribe, Eleanor, Ron and Kenny. Andrew was late due to (so he claimed) by work commitments.

House Sparrow - 12, Greenfinch, Dunnock, Grey Warbler & Song Thrush 1 each and Silvereye 5 with 3 recaptures. One of the recaps was banded on our first day at this site so is now our oldest but still just under 200 days.

Eleanor with her first Song Thrush, also received a nice deposit.

Christchurch Halswell Quarry - Thursday

On Thursday morning we had a session at the Halswell Quarry with moderate success. We caught 17 birds of 6 species, all were new and most species were represented by only 1 bird.
Greenfinch 10, (the most caught there in a session) Chaffinch 3 and 1 each of Blackbird, Dunnock, House Sparrow and Silvereye.

Eleanor banding the Silvereye under the watchful eye of our scribe.

We were also joined for a period by a group of school pupils who were given a talk on bird banding and on Ranger work by Andrew and Kenny.

Andrew talking to the school group