Tuesday 21 May 2013

Hornsey Rd - An old bird is back

Over the last couple of days I have done some banding both at my place and down the road at Bridie's. Didn't catch a lot of birds but at Bridie's did catch old White Eye again after an absence of several months. The bird was named by Bridie due to it having several white feathers on the side of its head and she keeps an eye out for it. She reported he had returned about a week ago and he will probably stay around now for the winter. He was banded on 8 Aug 04 and at 3207 days is the oldest Blackbird we have recaptured. There has been an older recovery of a dead bird and White Eye will have to go another year to match that age. This was the 20th time he has been caught and he appears to be in good condition with a weight of 96g which is near the top of his weight range.

Birds caught at both sites were -
Blackbird 0 (3)
Dunnock 2 (0)
Greenfinch 1 (0)
House Sparrow 5 (5) the oldest recap was banded Nov 11.

The next Zoo banding session will be this Saturday 25 May and at this stage the forecast looks good so hope it stays that way.

No comments:

Post a Comment