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| Most of today's Crew. Back - Ruud, Archie, Chris, Front Jan, Ririka and Kenny. |
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| Babs (Barbara) who has handled the rare Black Robin with her first Blackbird |
We had our first session at the Quarry for the year on Thursday morning. With 20 birds caught it was very similar to the equivalent summer sessions over the last couple of years when we caught 19. There was a smaller number of banders this year but still sufficient to handle the bird numbers.
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| Most of the Team, L to R Jan our main helper-outer. Sandra our Scribe, and banders Eleanor and Andrew. |
There were 6 species caught with 16 new and 4 recaps. As is usual at this time of year House Sparrows dominated and Silvereyes were absent in contrast to the Winter months. There appears to be a big drop in Chaffinch numbers, from being well represented a couple of years ago to being absent or near absent.
Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 0 (1)
Yellowhammer - 1 (0) The last bird caught as we were taking nets down.
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| Ririka, our Japanese student photographing the Yellowhammer |
House Sparrow - 13 (2) about half were newly fledged juveniles.
Song Thrush - 0 (1) We have only banded 20 S Thrushes at the Quarry and this was only our 2nd recapture and is our oldest.
Fantail - 1 (0) A newly fledged bird enticed into a net by our Fantail whisperer, Andrew but he failed with its sibling.
Banded another brood of nestling Welcome Swallows at the Halswell Quarry. There were three in this brood and this is the third lot they have reared this Spring/Summer.
Ruud was visiting a friend who operates a plant nursery near Prebbleton and while talking to his mate found out there was a Swallow nest in one of the sheds. When he asked if we could band them he was given the OK. Next morning we met up and with the aid of a rather long ladder were able to do the deed. Another 4 birds successfully given some bling. Our makeshift banding table was unfortunately empty.
I have also made an attempt to do some banding at the Quaifers Rd Wetland. This is mainly to try to work out how to do this and where to set nets in order to catch something. I think I have worked out what to do but now the majority of the birds, mostly Goldfinches & Redpolls have moved to the paddock next door which is completely covered with seeding thistles. Only managed to catch 5 birds, 2 Song Thrush, and 1 each of Blackbird, Silvereye and Dunnock. The Dunnock was a newly fledged bird with a lump on it's leg.
We have had a couple of attempts at doing some banding in the last few days but banded very few birds. We had a couple of Kingfisher nests under observation but unfortunately due to other commitments we were unable to get any of the chicks banded. One nest was in a willow tree and the hole entrance was too small to gain access. The other was in a bank, the chicks were there the day before we attempted to band them but they were gone when we went to band them.
This morning (Wednesday) we set nets up at a new site at the Quaifes Rd Wetland where there were a number of small finches feeding. Although conditions were ideal when we arrived by the time we had nets up the sun had come out for the first time in a week and the nets were very visible. We ended up catching only 3 birds - one each of Goldfinch, Silvereye and Blackbird. The Blackbird was in the process of moulting its primary feathers.
On Monday I spent the morning putting up nest boxes in the Halswell Quarry area with the hope of attracting Little Owls. Time will tell if we are successful.
We haven't had any sessions recently, giving things a bit of a break while birds are breeding. But I have taken the chance to band a few nestlings. First brood was 4 Welcome Swallows, they were in the usual nest in the Men's Toilet in the Findlay Picnic area at the Quarry the same site we have banded most of our Swallows over the last few years.
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| One of The Welcome Swallows with its new bling. |
Most of the others were in nests around the Village where I live. Two Starlings in a nest box at one of our neighbours. The others were 6 Blackbirds in a couple of nests. It's been a bit surprising and disappointing at the number of nests that have failed. I suspect a gang of Magpies, up to 14 of them that have been hassling birds around the village.
The last 2 nestlings banded were 2 Little Owls that Ruud had located at a friends place near the Quarry. Reports were that they were still very small but I decided to check to get an idea when they might be big enough. When I opened the box there were 2 at what I thought was an ideal size for banding so they were banded. These were the first Little Owls that I have ever banded so it was a bit of a red letter day.
We had a pretty quiet session at the Quarry this morning although there were some interesting birds amongst the catch. Conditions were very much on the cold side with a dying southerly wind. There were 12 birds of 4 species processed with 8 new and 4 recaps.
Species were (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (1) the recap was banded almost exactly a year ago on 18 Oct 19
House Sparrow - 5 (1) the recap was banded at Jan's place about 2km away back in July.
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 0 (2) these birds, 1 F, 1 M were banded in Dec 2017 at exactly the same net site as caught today. Neither have been caught in between, the female was the 2nd Chaffinch banded at the Quarry and they are at 1043 days the oldest of any species we have recaptured there. The first bird of the day was the male Chaffinch recap.
We also had a recovery in the form of a Blackbird found earlier by Jan's husband, John while walking their dog. Found about 200m from where it was banded.
