Halswell Quarry Thursday 19 March - A mostly Black morning

We had a session at the Quarry this morning at a new site amongst a group of old pear trees. The trees are probably the remnants of the original orchard and had a large amount of fruit both high in the trees and on the ground. Most of the accessible fruit had been taken by foragers leaving damaged fruit on the ground and those that were high up.
We caught 18 birds of 4 species.  All were new with 1 each of House Sparrow & Goldfinch, 2 Silvereye and 14 Blackbirds. This is the highest number of Blackbirds we have caught in a session, the previous highest was 9.

Ruud and our scribe Sandra "busy" at the table while a Blackbird has its weight checked.

Today's team, Ruud, Jan, Sandra, Kenny, Ron and Andrew.

A bit of Non Banding Trivia.

Nets stored in shopping bags

I have for the last 30 odd years kept my nets in plastic shopping bags but with the anti plastic movement (of which I am one) these have come hard to come by. Now they have been banned in case one might go down the plug hole and make its way to the sea. As this photo shows this is not the situation in some other countries.

Plastic in a canal waiting for the rains to wash it out to sea.

Queenstown, Tue 18 Feb - almost the last session.

We are down in Queenstown at the moment, this will be our last trip here. Our son who owns the property has decided to sell and with the amount he has been offered I can't blame him.

In between packing up gear etc I managed to get a net up this morning with reasonable results. Processed 13 birds of 8 species with 9 new and 4 recaptures.
Species caught were - (Recaps in brackets)
House Sparrow - 0 (1) I also caught about 30 others, mostly unbanded juveniles but did not process them.

I did make another Sparrow recap but while trying to photograph its red bib it escaped and I relaised I had not recorded its number.

Starling -1 (0)

The Starling made an interesting sight having partly completed its moult.

Silvereye 1 (2)
Dunnock - 2 (0) Both were juveniles and had what appears to be Pox lesions. One a small one on its ankle and the other a large one near an eye.

A poxxy Dunnock

Chaffinch - 1 (0)
Goldfinch - 3 (0)
Redpoll - 1 (0)

A Very Old Recovery

I recieved an e-mail from Sandra in the Banding Office this afternoon about a Starling recovery in Wellington. The bird had been found dead in Hornsey Rd only a few 100m's from where I lived and where in had been banded on 9 Sept 2006. Although I haven't got all my data with me it appears that at 4903 days from banding it is by far the oldest recovery we have ever had of any species. I think we have only had one other bird (a Blackbird) over 4000 days and, from memory, it was only just over.

Halswell Quarry 13 Feb - a very quiet morning with one exception.

We had a session at the Quarry this morning and had a very meagre catch. We caught only 8 birds of 4 species with 7 new and 1 recapture, House Sparrow - 3 new and a recap, Greenfinch 2, Chaffinch 1, and the big surprise of a Cirl Bunting. This is possibly the first banded in Canterbury and definitely the first for the Quarry. Cirl Buntings are probably the rarest introduced species in New Zealand. They were introduced about 150 years ago but have never been very common. There are regular sightings in the Quarry area where there seems to be a small but persistent population.

Kate banding our first Cirl Bunting

And having its wing measurement taken.

Halswell Quarry 30 Jan - Finally fitted in a session.

After a lengthy quiet period, mostly due to my absence on other missions, we had a session at the Quarry on Thursday. Although not a big catch, 19 birds was a reasonable number for this time of year.

House Sparrows dominated the total with 9 new and a couple of recaps, both banded in Oct 2018. Other species caught were 3 Chaffinch, 2 Greenfinch, 2 Dunnock and a Blackbird recapture.
We also had a look at a Welcome Swallow nest at a neighboring property which the previous evening had several large chicks in. Unfortunately by the time we got there they had fledged.

The Welcome Swallow nest the previous evening, probably several days too old to be successfully banded.

Photo by Rudd Kleinpastie.

When I got home after the session I had a phone call from Jacki who runs a bird rehab center from her home. She had a juvenile Pied Stilt that was due to be released and she would like it banded before release. After a trip across town the deed was done.

Jacki with the now banded Pied Stilt

Crucible Lake - Rock Wren

Just received some Photos from Rachel Hufton who trained with me down at Queenstown. As well as banding near the head of Lake Wanaka at Makarora where she catches a variety of birds including Brown Creeper, she has started a colour banding project of Rock Wren in the Crucible Lake area. This is to asses their breeding success and the effectiveness of predator control being carried out in the area.

Rock Wren are New Zealand's only truly alpine species of bird, the other contender the Kea, spends a lot of time at lower altitudes, even down to sea level. Where Rock Wren spend the winter is still not fully understood, possibly in partial hibernation or surviving in rocks under the snow.

This is not a banded Rock Wren but one with a anklet of skin.

This is a colour banded one.

This bird has some damage to its top mandible. The lower one is continuing to grow, possibly due to the lack of wear from constant friction from the missing top bit.

When Rachel was there recently the usually pristine white ice on the Lake was coloured by ash from the Australian bush fires.

The normally pristine Crucible Lake discoloured by Australian ash.

All photos Rachel Hufton

Halswell Quarry - the last few birds for 2019

We haven't had any regular sessions for a while due absences and other activity. But there have been a few birds banded of interested. We banded 5 Kingfisher pulli, they were from a nest in a bank where Jan thought kingfisher had nested last year. After checking the area a number of times activity was noted with fresh whitewash below a hole and a raucous racket coming from inside. A few of us met on Sunday morning to see if we could get the chicks out. My hands were far to big but fortunately Jan has far smaller and delicate ones and was able to extract them. I was very surprised to find that there were 5, expecting 2 possibly 3. There was a surprising difference in the size of the chicks but as this is the first ones we have banded I didn't really know what to expect.

Eleanor banding the smallest of the chicks.

In order to get them back they needed a little poke in the backside to get them to shuffle back to the nest chamber.

 We have also recently banded a brood of 4 Goldfinch, the nest was at Ruud's place which is next to Jan's on the rim of the Quarry. Ruud is known throughout New Zealand as "Ruud the Bug Man" we are hoping to turn him into "Ruud the Bird Man"

On Sunday we also put a 4m net up across the entrance to a toilet block where Welcome Swallow nest each year. Managed to recapture the female which was originally banded in Nov 2017 at the same site.  It was also caught in 2018 so great to know that it is site faithful and is still surviving. It is also now our oldest recap of any species at the Quarry being banded only a week or so after we started banding there.

The latest NZ Banding Office Newsletter.No 11

Below is a link to the latest (11th) New Zealand Banding Office Newsletter. Well worth a read especially with news on the latest Data entry system. Click on download and then on the link. Hope it works.



From the Banding Office:

·         Bird Banding Database: “FALCON” has hatched!

·         Bander’s Data BOX version 10 available for download

·         Did you know – bird banding can solve problems!

·         What is the difference between certification and permission?

For these and other banding banter, download the 11^th edition of BirDBanD.

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



Wishing everyone a wonderful festive season and looking forward to an awesome 2020!

Michelle, Sandy and Imogen