Island Bay Wed 1 May - Sparrows & Chaffinch

Kate, Mary, Otis and I had a successful banding session at Island Bay this morning. We caught a total of 78 birds of 6 species with 74 new but only 4 recaptures. This compares with a total of 61 birds in a session this time last year.

Species caught were -
Blackbird - 6 (1) the majority of the birds were 1st year males.

One of the 1st year male Blackbirds appeared to have moulted  P5 which is a bit unusual.

Dunnock - 4 (0)
Chaffinch - 15 (0) this is the most Chaffinch we have ever caught at this site in 1 day.

The wings of 2 different aged male Chaffinch

Greenfinch - 5 (0)
Fantail - 1 (0)

Mary, our chief scribe about to release the Fantail under the watchful eye of Ken,our host.

House Sparrow - 43 (3) The oldest recap was banded Feb 2011

One of the Sparrows had a streaked belly similar to a juvenile Greenfinch

As usual we had great hospitality with a superb morning feast as shown below.