Houghton Bay Stream 9 December

I went down to the Houghton Bay stream this morning. It was relatively quiet,especially early, but I did end up catching 27 birds of 7 species with 23 new and 4 recaps.
Blackbird - 2 (0)
Chaffinch - 6 (1)

The recap Chaffinch, banded as a drab juvenile a year ago is now a handsome dude.

House Sparrow - 4 (0)
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 6 (3) the recap oldest banded Dec 2011
Tui - 1 (0)
Grey Warbler - 3 (0) all were Juveniles

This little fellow probably not long fledged.

A bit of Banding Here and There

I have been doing some banding at varies sites with varying success over the last week or so.

Bridie's

I have operated the trap at Bridie's several times with some success the combined total of birds caught was 55 with 24 new and 31 recaps.
Blackbird - 6 (5) the oldest recap was banded in Oct 2009.
Greenfinch - 1 (2) one of the recaps was banded at the Zoo in May 2011
House Sparrow - 12 (2)
Silvereye - 2 (11)
Starling - 3 (11) a big percentage of recaps with a number of birds several years after banding. The oldest banded in Sept 2009.

Zoo Stream Thursday 4 Dec

Put up some nets for a while at the stream over the fence from the Zoo yesterday afternoon with limited success. Caught only 9 birds before rain stopped proceedings. 4 Greenfinch, 2 Goldfinch + a recap which was originally banded at Houghton Bay, and 3 Chaffinch.

One of the Chaffinch appears to have dislocated/broken a knee at some time and it has set at an unusual angle.

Houghton Bay Wednesday 3 Dec

Spent a couple of hours on Wednesday afternoon at the Houghton Bay stream catching 31 birds of 8 species. 1 Dunnock, 1 Starling, 6 House Sparrows, 5 Greenfinch, 4 Goldfinch, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Tui (the first young bird this year). Also 9 Silvereye with 2 recaps, 1 was banded in March 2011 and the other at the Houghton Valley School back in July.

The first young Tui we have banded this year.

Island Bay Monday 1 Dec - over a Ton of Sparrows

Annette, Ros and I had an extremely busy time at our Island Bay site this morning. Due to heavy early rain the session was initially cancelled then the rain eased and we decided to give it a go. Although the start was over an hour later than we had hoped, and we lost netting time as showers went through, we still managed to catch 140 birds with 123 new and 17 recaps. The catch, as usual at this site, was dominated by House Sparrows and with only 4 species there wasn't much variety. The lack of variety was probably due to the fact that with putting the net up and down and spending considerable time at the net extracting birds the more cautious species stayed away.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 3 (1)
Starling - 4 (1)
House Sparrow - 111 (13) the oldest was banded Jan 2011 and a considerable number were newly fledged Young. This is the highest total catch of Sparrows at any site we have made in one day.

Although most of the Juv. Sparrows could not be sexed this one was already showing  some male colouring.
Photo by Ros (I forgot my camera)

Tui - 5 (2) one of the recaps was banded at this site in Nov 2011 and the other was the highlight of the morning. It was banded by Ralph at Roseneath on 25 July 2009. This is the first time it has been recaptured and despite it being colour banded the last sighting was 3 Nov 2009. There were a large number of Tui about and at one stage there were at least 15 visible with another 2 in bags waiting to be processed.

Some of the Tui coming down to and at the sugar water bowls. They tend to dominate the table but are very  hard to get into the net. Photo by Ros

Prince of Wales Park, Sunday 30 November

Anneke, Matu and I had a busy afternoon at the Prince of Wales Park stream catching 51 birds of 10 species. All of the birds were new which was a bit disappointing, I had hoped to get a few recaps.

Matu with one of the Tui

Birds caught were 4 Starling, 11 Greenfinch, 15 Goldfinch, 1 Dunnock, 1 Yellowhammer, 2 Chaffinch, 5 House Sparrow, 8 Silvereye, 1 Fantail and 3 Tui. One of the Greenfinch had unusual plumage with yellow and cream feathers especially on its head and back, it almost looked like it a bit of Canary.

The Greenfinch with odd plumage.

The banding station is on the side of a public park and a feature of the day was the number of interested people that took time to look at what we were up to. Included was a father and son who were neighbors of ours who had moved yesterday to a house next to the park and were out exploring the area.

My ex neighbor Leonardo about to release the Greenfinch

Zoo Stream Thursday 27 Nov - a dead foot

Henk and I spent a couple of hours this morning at the little stream (at the moment just a few puddles) over the fence from the Zoo. We didn't catch a lot, only 12 birds. All were new, 3 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Silvereye, 4 Chaffinch and 3 Greenfinch.

One of the Greenfinch was interesting as it had a dead foot. It looked that it had broken its leg just above the foot with the foot only hanging on by a length of skin and with no blood supply and dying. Otherwise the bird appeared to be in good condition with a wing length of 88 mm and a weight of 27.7 g. We removed the foot as it must have been a hindrance.

Compare the dead foot with the pink one in the background.

The dead foot still attached

After removal

Zoo Stream Wed 19 Nov - Yet another old bird

I put up a couple of nets this afternoon at the little stream over the fence from the Zoo. I didn't stay very long as the catch rate was slow and then with sun coming onto the nets it got slower. Managed to catch 16 birds of 6 species with 12 new and 4 recaps.
Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Goldfinch - 3 (1) included was the first juvenile Finch for the year

The Juvenile Goldfinch with a bird possibly its father.

One bird had retained 3 juvenile outer primaries, something I don't see very often.

Greenfinch - 5 (2) both the recaps had been banded here at Hornsey Rd, 1 in 2013 and 1 in 2012.
House Sparrow - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 2 (0)
Yellowhammer - 0 (1) A bird banded at Newtown Park over the fence on the other side of the Zoo on 19 July 2009. At 1949 days it is now the oldest Yellowhammer recaptured at any site by the Group, beating the old record of 1114 days by a considerable margin. It is the first Yellowhammer we have caught in the Zoo area this year and the first one ever at this time of the year, normally they are winter visitors but perhaps there is a small breeding population in the area.

The "Old" Bird

 This makes three species that we have recorded our oldest recaptures during the last couple of weeks.

Houghton Bay, Sunday 16 Nov - Another old bird

We had a very successful session at the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon, catching 76 birds of 9 species with 68 new and 8 recaps. There was a good attendance of banders with Kate, Mary, Ross, Yvan and Sarah, Kyle and little Finn. We also had a number of people who are doing a course on bird recognition.

Kate showing some of the course participants the finer points of a Silvereye

Three course participants about to release a Chaffinch

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (0)
Song Thrush - 2 (0) In 6 years of banding at this site we have only previously caught 4 so 2 in a day is exceptional.
Starling - 3 (0)
Chaffinch - 3 (1) the recap had been banded at the Zoo on 29 December 2005 and is at 3244 by far the oldest Chaffinch we have ever recaptured at any site. The old record was 2574 days held by another Zoo banded bird.

The 'Old' Chaffinch

Goldfinch - 4 (0)
House Sparrow - 6 (0)
Silvereye - 46 (6) 2 of the recaps were banded here at Hornsey Rd and another at the Houghton Valley School and all were banded this year.

Sarah and Finn admiring one of Kyle's Silvereyes

Grey Warbler - 1 (1) the recap was banded in Dec 2010 and at 1442 days is the oldest recap at this site and the 2nd oldest at any,

The'Old' Grey Warbler

Tui - 1 (0)

Kate with a yellow headed Tui which has obviously been feeding on NZ Flax