Houghton Bay Friday 15 March - A Grey Day

A grey day, not because of the cloud cover as it was actually quite sunny, but for the number of Grey Warblers about. This species seems to do very well in the Houghton Bay/Valley area, perhaps because of the lack of Shinning Cuckoos.  In 5 years of banding there I have not seen or heard a S Cuckoo even though they are in the adjacent valleys.

This morning I caught 26 birds of 7 species which although a reasonable catch it is not as many as there would have been a couple of years ago. I suspect that some have become wary of mist nets but this morning I saw another possible cause with a Stoat spotted near one of the nets.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 3 (0)
House Sparrow - 1 (0)
Starling - 1 (0) another young bird moulting into adult winter plumage

Moulting juvenile Starling

Silvereye - 8 (0) a small tally for this site and almost all caught in 1 net on the same net round.
Fantail - 2 (3) all the recaps were banded in the last few months and have moulted into adult plumage.
Grey Warbler - 6 (1) one of the highest catches of this little bird.

The juvenile Grey Warblers had a variety of red in their eyes. Gradually changing into the adult bright red.