Zoo Stream Friday 16 Oct - a few more birds

George, Otis, Victor and I had a reasonable session at the little stream over the fence from the Zoo this morning. We caught a total of 32 birds of 8 species with 25 new and 7 recaps. All the recaps had been banded over the last couple of years.

George, Victor and Otis with a trio of birds.

Birds caught were -
Blackbird - 7 (2) interesting that 9 BB's were caught as against a 0 total at an afternoon session last weekend. I think this is typical of this species, coming to water in the AM.
Chaffinch - 4 (0)
Goldfinch - 1 (0)
Greenfinch - 6 (2)

Otis and Victor checking on the sex of 2 Greenfinch

Male on left - female on right.

House Sparrow - 1 (0)
Silvereye - 3 (3)
Grey Warbler - 2 (0)
Tui - 3 (0)
We are planning a session at the Houghton Bay stream tomorrow morning and it will be interesting to compare the catches.

It is very unlikely that there will be a regular session in the Zoo grounds for several months. They are making changes to their Health & Safety policy that will have an impact on us and we will need to work through how to induct people etc. As there will probably be a new leader for the group in the near future it is preferable to wait for that decision before implementing the new Health & Safety policy.