Island Bay Monday 29 Sept - a good morning

Annette, Ros and I had a good banding morning at our Island Bay site today. We had nearly ideal conditions with almost complete cloud cover and a light southerly wind, but it was cold and we appreciated the mugs of hot, hand warming coffee with tasty treats provided by our hosts.

We caught a total of 53 birds of 6 species with 38 new birds and 15 recaptures. As is usual at this site the catch was dominated by House Sparrows but there were a few other interesting birds as well.

Species caught were - (recaps in brackets)
Blackbird - 3 (1) the recap was banded in Sept 2011 and all the new birds were aged 1 and Males
Chaffinch - 3 (1)
Dunnock - 0 (2)
Starling - 1 (0) this bird was missing the lower right leg and foot but seemed to be managing OK and was about an average weight.

Stumpy the Starling

House Sparrow - 31 (9) One of the Sparrows had a length of cotton thread wrapped around a leg, this was very grown in. Presumably this happened from nesting material before it fledged. We removed the thread as best we could and hopefully there is enough blood flow to keep the foot alive.

The removal of the thread was a bit of a bloody job.

One of the Sparrows had both a long bottom bill and long hind claw on one foot.

A female trying to remove a piece of Annette's finger.

Ros displaying a very handsome "Dude"

Tui - 1 (2) one bird was banded as a newly fledged youngster in Jan 2011 and the other as a older juvenile in March 2010, So great to recapture 2 known aged birds.

The other highlight of the day, although not a banding one was seeing a Kereru (NZ Pigeon) feeding on Poplar tree shoots.