Island Bay Saturday 8 Dec - some old birds.

Annette, Ros, David and I had a very successful session this morning. We had very good conditions with the forecast showers not eventuating and the southerly wind dying away. In all we caught 117 birds of 8 species with 106 new and 11 recaptures. 1 of the recaps is in the wait and see basket with a number that does not seem to be one of ours. The number of recaps was lower than I had hoped for but does include a few good ones.

Species caught were (recaps in brackets)

Blackbird – 18 (0) all but 2 were juveniles with the other 2 being 1 year old. One of the young birds had a nasty wound on the back of its head. It was starting to heal and looked to have occurred several days ago. 

The wound on the back of a juvenile Blackbird's head

Chaffinch – 3 (0)

Greenfinch – 2 (0)

Dunnock 3 (0) all juvs.

House Sparrow – 73 (8) one of the recaps was banded 24 Feb 2007 on our first banding day at this site and was the first Sparrow banded; not sure if it was the first bird but it is highly likely. It is now at 2114 days the oldest bird of any species banded and recaptured there. There was one Sparrow caught with a number recorded that is not in our data base so I will have to investigate it's origins. Interestingly 28 of the birds were judged to be juveniles with (including recaps) 28 adult female and 26 adult male.

Two of the male Sparrows had chestnut coloured bibs instead of the usual black, which is I understand caused by a recessive gene.

Male House Sparrow with chestnut bib instead of the usual black.

Starling – 6 (0)

Silvereye – 0 (1) it was banded 14 July 07 and is at 1974 days our oldest Silvereye recap at this site.

Tui – 1 (2) one of the recaps  was  banded Jan 2011 as a newly fledged juvenile so good to catch it as an adult. The other was a colour banded bird which was banded 4 Nov 2007, and is now at 1861 days the oldest Tui at this site. In the 5 years since it was banded the only sighting was in Zealandia July 2011.

The older Tui still sporting the full set of colour bands

We once again enjoyed great hospitality including a scrummy morning tea (except for David who left early)