Island Bay 24 Nov - Mostly Sparrows

Roisin, Ros and I had a successful session at Island Bay this morning catching a total of 80 birds with 63 new and 17 recaptures. But with only 4 species there wasn't much variety andHouse Sparrows dominated the catch.  For the first time this spring/summer there were a significant number of juveniles.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 10 (4) the oldest recap was banded in June 2010

Roisin banding her first Blackbird, one of several Juv's banded.

Song Thrush - 1 (0) only our second S Thrush at this site, the other was back in 2007 a short time after we started banding there.

The Song Thrush, a recently fledged Juv.

The "thorn" pattern on the coverts which indicate a 1st year bird

Starling - 2 (0)

The 2 Starlings, adult male on left with dark eye and juvenile female on right with pale ring around eye.

House Sparrow - 52 (13) the oldest also banded in June 2010, another was banded in Blythe St, Berhampore.

Several of the Sparrows were newly fledged.

As usual we were treated to great hospitality by Marion and Ken including a great morning tea.

Kereru

We missed one of the highlights of the day as after we had packed up and left Ken watched a Kereru (NZ Pigeon) drink from the sugar water bowl on the bird table. This is the first time he has seen this happen and the first time I have heard of it happening.  We will wait and see if it becomes a regular visitor or if it was a one off.