Wednesday 23 October 2013

Houghton Bay 23 Oct. _ A couple of old birds

I spent a bit of time at the Houghton Bay stream this afternoon but I didn't expect to catch much as I had a look a few days ago and there appeared to be very few birds about. However I was wrong and I had a steady stream of birds into the nets. Caught 48 of 8 species with 38 new and 10 recaptures.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 1 (0)
Dunnock - 1 (0)
Chaffinch - 2 (2) the oldest recap was banded Jan 2011 as an unsexed juvenile, now a handsome male.
Greenfinch - 1 (0)
House Sparrow - 14 (0) a high number for this site.
Silvereye - 18 (7) 1 of the recaps was banded on 21 Jan 2008. Our first banding session at this site was 19 Jan 2008 and this bird is now at 2102 days our oldest Silvereye recapture there, (2 days short of the maximum). It was also the oldest bird of any species there for about 30 minutes, and then along came a Starling.
Starling - 0 (1) This bird was banded on 20 Jan 2008, the day before the Silvereye so at 2103 days not only our oldest Starling at this site but the oldest bird of any species recaptured there.
Grey Warbler - 1 (0)



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