Breaking Records in February

Apologies for the lack of recent posts. Here are the last three weeks of banding at Herdsman!

20 Feb 2016
This weekend was rather slow and we only processed four species during the Saturday morning. Surprise numbers of Striated Pardalotes made up for the low numbers of Silvereyes.

Species - New (retrap)
Pacific Black Duck - 1 (1)
Silvereye - 6
Striated Pardalote - 12
Willie Wagtail - 2 (1)
Total - 21 (2) = 23



27 Feb 2016
This Saturday made for an exciting February banding session. We caught good numbers of Silvereyes including 10 recaptures. Many of the Silvereyes first caught in December/January in juvenile plumage are now moulting or have finished moulting into adult dress and are difficult to distinguish from older birds.
A smattering of Australian Reed-warblers was a welcome addition, as was an Inland Thornbill, only the third ever for the Herdsman project.

On another note, for the first time ever the catch exceeded 1000 birds before March (our 'banding year' starts in July and runs until the end of the following June). The total came to 1028 birds on our last banding session for February.

Species - New (retrap)
Australian Reed-warbler - 6
Brown Honeyeater - 1
Inland Thornbill - 1
Pacific Black Duck - 1
Rufous Whistler - 3
Silvereye - 18 (10)
Singing Honeyeater - (1)
Striated Pardalote - 9
Western Gerygone - (1)
Total - 39 (12) =51



5 Mar 2016
Birds were not particularly numerous this weekend (not unusual for the time of year) however we did have a particularly diverse catch this time. 19 birds of an amazing 12 species were processed, highlights being an Australian Magpie, Australian Raven and Magpie-lark which all came from the same net.
Silvereyes were few and far between but we caught a variety of honeyeaters, which have been notable in their absence recently.

Adult Australian Raven

Adult female Australian Magpie

Species - New (retrap)
Australian Magpie - 1
Australian Raven - 1
Brown Honeyeater - 2
Laughing Dove - 1
Magpie-lark - 1
Red Wattlebird - (1)
Silvereye - (2)
Singing Honeyeater - 1
Striated Pardalote - 1
Western Gerygone - 2
Willie Wagtail - 2 (1)
Yellow-rumped Thornbill - (3)
Total - 12 (7) = 19

Magpie-lark makes a rare appearance

October continues to delight! The weather was wonderful this weekend; overcast with mild temperatures and barely any wind. The good conditions were reflected in the 48 birds of 15 different species that were caught during the morning.

Red Wattlebirds were once again plentiful, along with Brown and New Holland Honeyeaters around the bottlebrush trees. Sadly the bottlebrushes look like they will finish flowering very soon. Two of the day's highlights were caught here; a Galah and a Magpie-lark! Magpie-lark hasn't been caught at Herdsman in the last three years.

An exciting recapture came in the form of an adult Red Wattlebird, originally banded in April 2009 - an elapsed time of six years and six months.

We caught four Rainbow Bee-eaters, which are starting to build their nest burrows in sandy patches around the area. The one female that we caught had only the beginning of a brood patch, hinting that the nest building was quite recent.

The Grove nets were set up as it was finally dry in there after months of being a knee-deep swamp. Two of the Bee-eaters were caught there, as well as Shining Bronze-cuckoo and a brilliant Splendid Fairy-wren. The wren is another species we rarely catch at Herdsman, the last time being over three years ago.

Singing Honeyeater juvenile

Red Wattlebird

Willie Wagtail juvenile

The star of the day - adult male Magpie-lark

Species - new (retrap)
Brown Honeyeater - 4
Galah - 1
Laughing Dove - 1
Magpie-lark - 1
New Holland Honeyeater - 3 (2)
Rainbow Bee-eater - 4
Red Wattlebird - 5 (1)
Rufous Whistler - (1)
Shining Bronze-cuckoo - 1
Silvereye - 3 (9)
Singing Honeyeater - 1
Splendid Fairy-wren - 1
Striated Pardalote - 6 (1)
Willie Wagtail - 2
Yellow-rumped Thornbill - 1
Total - 34 (14) = 48