Queenstown - just a few birds

It has been pretty quiet down here banding wise for the last couple of weeks. It is very hot and dry with most species keeping a low profile. The usual House Sparrows are around and there is a small flock of Redpolls feeding on Silver Birch seeds. There are 4 groups of S Birch trees on the property and the birds are usually feeding on trees where I haven't got nets up! As well they are usually feeding too high for my set-up.

Birds caught since the last post  are -
Blackbird - 0 (1)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 2 (1)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Redpoll - 8 (0) almost all juveniles

Four Juvenile Redpoll

Silvereye - 3 (2)

Queenstown - the last couple of weeks.

I have been doing some banding since the last post. The catch has been dominated by House Sparrows which are still producing large numbers of fledglings. They must be on at least their third brood. Other species appear to be low in numbers or keeping a low profile. I did set a couple of nets up at a neighbour's property, with limited success.  As the site looks to have a lot of potential I will try there again in a few weeks.

In this period I have caught 83 birds of 11 species with 62 new and 21 recaptures. (Recaps in brackets)
Silvereye - 5 (0)
Chaffinch - 5 (0)
Greenfinch - 3 (0)
Redpoll - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 37 (17)

A couple of the male Sparrows had partially chestnut bibs.

A few of the juvenile Sparrow, presumably from the first broods, have started to moult making it possible to sex them.

Blackbird - 3 (3)
Starling - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 5 (0) all juveniles
Yellowhammer - 1 (0)
Tui - 0 (1) have only banded 4 so rather a surprise to recapture one, the only male banded.
Bellbird - 1 (0)
Both the Tui and Bellbird were caught at the neighbours.

Queenstown - First birds of 2016

I have had 3 short sessions so far this year. It has been a bit slow with too much wind a lower number of birds about. Managed to catch 42 birds of 8 species with 26 new and 16 recaps.
The catch was made up of -
House Sparrow - 9 (10)
Chaffinch - 5 (2)
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Redpoll - 3 (1) The recap was only the second I have made.  Not an old bird but 60 days is much longer than 2!

A couple of the Redpolls were juveniles

The Redpoll recap

Blackbird - 2 (2)
Song Thrush - 2 (0)

One of the Song Thrush had started wing moult

Dunnock - 2 (1)
Kingfisher - 2 (0)

Both of the Kingfishers were juveniles

Some of the family amused by my plight

Wellington 2015 Roundup

The Group had a successful year's banding in 2015 at most sites around Wellington and most species numbers were near average. These numbers are for the calendar year 2015. The total number of birds banded for 2015-2016 banding year will be calculated as at 31 March 2016.

Wellington Zoo

At our main banding site at the Zoo we caught a total of 842 new birds and made 245 recaptures. Below are numbers of the birds caught in 2015 and over the last 5 years. This includes the 5 year and 16 year totals and averages. The numbers in blue are the yearly ranking of the various species. 

	2015	R/C
Silvereye	304	130
House Sparrow	154	36
Greenfinch	117	35
Goldfinch	87	12
Chaffinch	82	16
Blackbird	41	7
Dunnock	12	7
Tui	12	0
Fantail	11	1
Grey Warbler	7	1
Yellowhammer	7	0
Song Thrush	4	0
Starling	2	0
Kingfisher	1	0
E Rosella	1	0
Yr Total	842	245

	2011		2012		2013		2014		2015		5yr T	5y Av	16y Av	16y T
Silvereye	139	1	239	1	247	1	100	1	304	1	1029	206	208	3332
House Sparrow	80	3	94	3	77	3	88	3	154	2	493	99	113	1673
Greenfinch	128	2	99	2	80	2	97	2	117	3	521	104	119	1539
Goldfinch	2	11	37	5	42	5	63	4	87	4	231	46	87	262
Chaffinch	46	4	69	4	52	4	39	5	82	5	288	58	45	588
Blackbird	19	6	33	6	7	8	33	6	41	6	133	27	31	426
Tui	10	7	25	7	7	9	17	7	12	7	71	14	10	145
Dunnock	8	8	17	9	10	7	14	9	12	8	61	12	12	230
Fantail	20	5	18	8	12	6	14	8	11	9	75	15	16	172
Grey Warbler	2	12	3	12	5	10	6	10	7	10	23	5	3	44
Yellowhammer	3	10	0	13	3	12	0	14	7	11	13	3	7	408
Song Thrush	1	13	4	11	3	11	3	12	4	12	15	3	3	41
Starling	7	9	11	10	2	13	6	11	2	13	28	10	27	410
	465		649		547		481		842		2984	597	586	8871

Birds in order of rankings of new birds caught with recaps in (brackets).

No 1 Silvereye - 304 (130) well up on last year, above both the 5 & 16 year averages.

No 2 House Sparrow - 154 (36) up from 3 last year and above average.

No 3 Greenfinch - 117 (35) about average 

No 4 Goldfinch - 87 (12) 

No 5 Chaffinch - 82 (16)

No 6 Blackbird - 41 (7) above average but recap numbers down.

No 7 Tui - 12 (0) a little down on last few years and surprisingly no recaps although we had a number of recoveries.

No 8 Dunnock - 12 (7) exactly average for both 5 & 16 year.

No 9 Fantail - 11 (1) below average.

No 10 Grey Warbler - 7 (1) slightly above average.

No 11 Yellowhammer - 7 (0)

No 12 Song Thrush - 4 (0)

No 12 Starling - 2 (0) well below average as was the catch at all our other sites. Don't know why as there appeared to be plenty of Starlings around.

We also caught 1 Eastern Rosella.

Island Bay.

The catch rate at our Island Bay site in 2015 at 353 new and 62 recaps was much lower than previous years primarily due to far fewer sessions being held there. It is also very noticeable that it has become a far less diverse site than in previous years, with the almost complete collapse of Greenfinch and Silvereye numbers in particular. This is mostly due to a change of feeding by the owners of the property.

Island Bay	2011		2012		2013		2014		2015		5yr T	5y Av
House Sparrow	405		486		483		635		268		2277	455
Blackbird	45		76		43		42		31		237	47
Chaffinch	25		47		36		23		21		152	30
Dunnock	18		9		20		14		20		81	16
Starling	30		26		8		11		4		79	16
Tui	13		22		10		10		4		59	12
Silvereye	135		27		60		2		3		227	45
Fantail	5		2		2		1		1		11	2
Grey Warbler	1		1		2		1		1		6	1
Cal Quail							1		0		1	0
Greenfinch	48		20		16		0		0		84	17
Yr Total	2876		2160		1480		740		353		3214	643

Houghton Bay

At the Houghton Bay stream we caught 688 new birds and made 78 recaptures. Numbers were slightly below average for most species with Greenfinch the only one significantly above.

Houghton Bay	2011		2012		2013		2014		2015		5yr T	5y Av
Silvereye	893		419		295		367		406		2380	476
Greenfinch	27		13		52		55		80		227	45
House Sparrow	57		11		63		72		59		262	52
Chaffinch	92		28		45		41		49		255	51
Goldfinch	16		20		19		47		23		125	25
Grey Warbler	54		24		48		36		21		183	37
Blackbird	32		20		13		36		14		115	23
Fantail	27		15		26		12		14		94	19
Tui	8		13		13		31		13		78	16
Dunnock	12		9		5		6		8		40	8
Song Thrush	0		1		0		3		1		5	1
Starling	1		0		3		6		0		10	2
Kingfisher	0		0		2		0		0		2	0
Yr Total	1219		573		584		712		688		3776	755

Prince of Wales Park.

We had 5 sessions at the Prince of Wales Park banding 158 birds of 7 species with House Sparrows and Goldfinches being the most numerous.

Hornsey Rd.

Bird numbers at the various Hornsey Rd sites were down on most years with Silvereyes, which are the most numerous, being slightly up on last year but only came to feeding tables for a short time. All other species were well down especially Starlings.

There was also some banding done at the Karori Cemetery and at a couple of other sites.

Queenstown - 2015 totals

I haven't done much banding since the last post, just a couple of sessions. Caught mostly House Sparrows which seem to be breeding surprisingly well down here probably because hens are kept by neighbours on both sides of the property and their natural food is supplemented by highly nutritious laying mash. A Blackbird starting to moult was the most significant bird caught. The first in moult caught down here.

The first moulting bird.

Yesterday we all went to the  Glenorchy races which was a fun day with country racing at the extreme. A strong southerly blowing today so no banding so far this year.

The Ladies Gallop race

The total number of birds caught here since commencing banding in September is 520 new birds of 14 species and 186 recaptures. All the recaps are of course recently banded birds.
Silvereye - 128 (43) all the new birds were caught in first couple of weeks in September.
House Sparrow - 174 (29) a lot of juveniles caught in the last few weeks.
Blackbird - 40 (36)
Song Thrush - 22 (10)
Dunnock - 24 (26)
Chaffinch - 59 (29) a good number of birds from Sept have been recaptured.
Goldfinch - 10 (3)
Greenfinch - 5 (0)
Redpoll - 21 (1)
Yellowhammer - 16 (2)
Starling - 14 (6)
Tui - 4 (0)
Bellbird - 1 (0)
Kingfisher - 2 (0)

Queenstown - An update

It has been relatively quiet down here banding wise in the last week or so. I have put nets up on several days with very mixed results. One morning 3 nets managed to only catch 2 bird.  Fortunately other attempts were a bit more successful. The total for the week or so was 34 birds of 9 species with 23 new and 11 recaps.

Blackbird - 1 (2)
Song Thrush - 0 (1)
Chaffinch - 2 (1)
Greenfinch 1 (0)

The Greenfinch was more of a "Yellow" Finch than a Green one.

Goldfinch - 0 (1)
Dunnock - 3 (1)
House Sparrow 12 (4)
Tui - 1 (0)

The Tui was a male aged as a 2

Kingfisher - 1 (0)

The Kingfisher was duller than the other recent bird and was probably a female aged as a 2

I wish you all the best for the festive season and as I am unlikely to be doing much banding for the rest of the year it will most likely be 2016 before the next post from me.

Back in Queenstown - the first few days.

We have packed up and made the move to Queenstown where we will be living for the next 5 months or so. The move went well except I managed to stuff up my back and will be on light duties for the next 6 weeks or so. Over the last few days I have managed to fit in a bit of banding despite the back problem. Bird numbers appear to be down a bit since our November trip, especially Song Thrush, Redpoll and Silvereye.

Have managed to catch 65 birds of 11 species with 41 new and 24 recaps. Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 2 (2)
Song Thrush - 1 (0)
Starling - 2 (0)

One of the Starlings had an overgrown top bill

Dunnock - 1 (7)
House Sparrow - 26 (10) most were caught in a net set over the fence from the neighbour's hen run.
Chaffinch - 1 (3) the new bird was banded after it flew into a window and stunned itself, appeared to make a complete recovery.
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
Goldfinch - 5 (1) all 5 new birds were nestlings from a nest in an apple tree. The recap was one of these birds just after it had fledged.

Silvereye - A nestling Goldfinch with its new bling

Redpoll - 1 (0)

The Redpoll was another bird with an orange poll

Tui - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 0 (1)