Halswell but not at the Quarry - Thu 27 June

We had a session this morning in Jan's Garden on Kennedys Bush Rd. Although not actually in the Halswell Quarry which is our usual site it borders on the upper rim of the Quarry. We had a very busy morning catching 77 birds which is a record number for a  morning in Christchurch.

All were new and with only 4 species there wasn't much variety. The bulk of the catch was made up with 61 Silvereyes, which is also a record catch. The others were 12 House Sparrows, 3 Blackbirds and a Dunnock. There was actually a good range of other species but with Silvereyes being constantly extracted they stayed away from the nets. I had also hoped to get some recaps from the Quarry as Jan has seen a number of banded birds at her feeders but it wasn't to be.

Today's team, Eleanor, Andrew ( in the assistant Directors chair) Jan in the directors chair, Kenny and our scribe Sandra.

Halswell Quarry 20 June - a better catch.

We had a session at the Halswell Quarry this morning our first banding for a while with last weeks planned session cancelled for a variety of reasons. We had a much better catch than recent sessions with a total of 38 birds of 7 species caught. There were 36 new and a couple of recaps. I had hoped for a few more recaps, especially as the first bird caught was one, but it wasn't to be.

We were joined today by Colin who is a L3 bander and Steve one of his trainees. Colin is starting to do some banding and training at his place a few Ks away and hopefully we will get to swap birds.

The team for the day. Phil, Steve, Colin, Kenny, Andrew and seated Jan who admirably performed the duties of scribe in the absence of Sandra our usual one.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1
Dunnock - 3

One of the Dunnocks had what appeared to be an old break in its right leg that had healed leaving a large swelling.

House Sparrow - 16 (1)
Greenfinch - 9 (1)
Silvereye - 4
Bellbird - 2

Andrew with the first Bellbird

Steve extracted and banded the second Bellbird, which was also the last bird of the day.

Christchurch - a couple of sessions.

On Thursday we had a session at the Halswell Quarry. We used the same site as last week which proved to be a mistake as we had a very poor catch. A total of 6 birds for the morning, 2 new House Sparrows, 1 new Dunnock, 2 Blackbird recaps (both from last week) and a recap Greenfinch. The Greenfinch was at least a bit interesting being the oldest recap for the species and the 2nd oldest of  any species.

On Friday Phil had a session at his place in Motukarara. He at least was reasonably successful, catching 21 birds of 9 species with 18 new and 3 recaptures.
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 2 (1)
House Sparrow - 6 (1)
Yellowhammer - 3 (0)
Goldfinch - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 1 (1)
Fantail - 1 (0)
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)

Halswell Quarry May 16 - Blackbirds and others.

We had a session at the Quarry this morning. We set up 3 nets around a fruiting Strawberry/Arbutus tree. This was with the hope of catching some Blackbirds that were feeding there. One of the reasons for this was to give some of the Trainees experience with larger birds. We were joined by two banders from Newcastle in Australia who were in town and wanted to experience handling NZ birds. With almost all the birds caught being introduced species their NZ bird experience was limited but what they banded were new species to them.

We caught 23 birds of 5 species. All were new and most were in their1st year. With 9 Blackbirds our main object was achieved, this being our highest daily total at the Quarry. Other birds banded were 10 House Sparrow, 2 Silvereye and 1 each of Chaffinch and Grey Warbler. The Grey Warbler was the first for the year.

Eleanor with Greg & Judith.

Judith with one of the first House Sparrows she has banded.

Me takin a photo of Greg taking a photo of Judith with "her" Sparrow. Kenny in the background doing nothing!

The latest NZ Bird Banding Office Newsletter

Just received the link to the latest NZ Bird Banding Newsletter, It's well worth a look, hopefully you can get to it via the link below.

From the Banding Office:

·         Vacancies in DOC Terrestrial Science Unit

·         Reminder to order bands and equipment (and submit outstanding band returns!) before June

·         Life cycle of a bird band

·         African Ringing Expeditions

For these and other banding banter, download the 9^th edition of BirDBanD.

Previous newsletters can be downloaded from the bird banding webpages of Department of Conservation and BirdsNZ.

Kind regards,

Michelle and Sandy

Queenstown - very, very quiet

We came back last night after a quick trip to our son's property near Queenstown. I tried to get a bit of banding in but was not very successful. On Monday Haley come over from Dunedin and in a couple of hours we caught 1 lone Blackbird. After she had left on her journey home I left the nets up and caught a further 3 birds.

Haley with her first and only Blackbird

On Tuesday I had nets up for most of the day while I did chores around the property and caught another 3 birds. In all 4 new birds were caught and 3 recaptured but with 5 species at least there was a little bit of variety. The total included 2 new Blackbirds, 1 new and 1 recap Bellbird,  1 recap House Sparrow, a recap Chaffinch and a new Fantail, the first banded in over a year. The recap Bellbird was a female and the oldest female I have recaptured. The Chaffinch was originally banded on the first day of banding at this site, 12 Sept 2015 and is now the oldest bird recaptured of any species.

The Fantail was a first year bird.

Halswell Quarry Sunday 14 April

After having to call off Thursday's planned session due to rain we had a go this morning with rather better conditions. It was a quiet morning with just 11 birds of 4 species caught, all except 2 House sparrows were new. There were 4 Silvereyes, 2 Blackbirds, 1 Greenfinch and 2 House Sparrows plus the recaps. The 2 recaps were both originally caught at the same net site nearly a year ago.

I didn't take any photos today but here is one I have received from Rachel who trains with me down near Queenstown. It is of a Rock Wren with a band like object around its leg. Apparently it is sloughed skin but I think it looks like a toilet roll put on the bird's leg by one of the little Elves who inhabit the rocky outcrops and who use the birds as transport!!

Female Rock Wren - Photo by Rachel Hufton.