Autumn Movements

We have had poor weather conditions for the last couple of weekends, including being completely rained off last week.

But on April 2nd we had excellent banding conditions and the birds did not disappoint. The large movements of Silvereyes typical of this time of year have started, and these made up the majority of our catch (100 birds, 74 of which were Silvereyes). We controlled one Silvereye from nearby Bold Park, the same bird we controlled in January.
This session also marked a significant milestone where we surpassed a total of 7000 Silvereyes banded over the course of the Herdsman Lake Project.

An unusually bright-yellow Silvereye (right) compared to a 'normal' coloured Silvereye (left)

No waterbirds this week, however we still banded a couple of larger birds in the form of an Australian Raven and an Australian Hobby.

Australian Raven. Note the brown eye in this young bird. Adults have a white iris.

Australian Hobby

The highlight of the day was a most unexpected Western Spinebill, only the sixth ever banded at Herdsman Lake. It was a young bird and probably just passing through, as we tend to see in species like White-cheeked Honeyeater at Herdsman.

First-year Western Spinebill

Species - new (retrap) [control]
Australian Hobby - 1
Australian Raven - 1
Australian Reed-warbler - (2)
Brown Honeyeater - 6 (2)
New Holland Honeyeater - 1
Red Wattlebird - 2
Rufous Whistler - 1
Silvereye - 68 (5) [1]
Singing Honeyeater - 1 (1)
Striated Pardalote - 1 (1)
Western Gerygone - 3
Western Spinebill - 1
Willie Wagtail - 1 (1)
Total - 87 (12) [1] = 100

More Than Just a Hobby

16th of January: Another hot day with an early finish, however this didn't seem to deter the birds. Tree Martins were flying low in large flocks and we managed to get 20 of these gorgeous birds in the mound nets, as well as an Australian Hobby later in the morning! Other than the martins, numbers were fairly low compared to recent weeks however it all averaged out to a good catch of 48 as we had a staggering 16 species.
Other highlights were Shining Bronze-cuckoo, Rainbow Bee-eater juveniles, Grey Teal and Laughing Kookaburra. Surprisingly we only caught 4 Silvereyes.

Australian Hobby

Species - New (retrap)
Australian Hobby - 1
Brown Honeyeater - 1
Grey Teal - 2
Laughing Kookaburra - 1
Pacific Black Duck - 1
Rainbow Bee-eater - 3
Red Wattlebird - 1
Rufous Whistler - 3
Sacred Kingfisher - 2
Shining Bronze-cuckoo - 1
Silvereye - 2 (2)
Striated Pardalote - 2 (1)
Tree Martin - 20
Western Gerygone - (1)
Willie Wagtail - 3
Yellow-rumped Thornbill - (1)
 Total - 43 (5) = 48