Back in Queenstown

We arrived back in Queenstown a couple of days ago. Just a quick trip to check up on a couple of things. I put up a couple of nets yesterday but didn't catch many birds. While waiting for non existing birds I sorted through stored apples and threw the retects out onto the lawn. This proved to be a good move as Silvereyes soon found them so with nets up nearby this morning I had a better catch.

The combined totals for both days was 32 birds of 6 species with 21 new and 11 recaps.
Totals were - (recaps in brackets)
Silvereyes - 14 (5) the oldest recap was banded 18 Sept 2015 just a few days after I started banding at this site and it is now the oldest bird recaptured here.
Dunnock - 0 (1)
Blackbird - 3 (2) one of the new females had a partly developed brood patch. Looks like Spring is on the way.

This is the bird with the brood patch. I had tried to get a photo of the BP but didnt have enough hands to manage it

Another female Blackbird, there is a surprising amount of variation amongst females of this species.

House Sparrow - 3 (1)
Bellbird - 0 (1)
Tui - 0 (1)

While I was in Auckland I recieved a call from the Queenstown DOC office to say that a banded Tui had been found. It had been found stunned on the road at Arthurs Point presumibly after being hit by a car. It had then been taken to the Kiwi Birdlife Park for some TLC. This proved to be sucessful as it was released 3 days later having pu on a considerable amount of weight.

A bird seen but unfortunatly not captured was a Black Morph Fantail. The first I have seen down here.