Banding at THE GRAND Feb 29 February 2016

Licenced Banders: Stephen Macdonald and  Rainer Ebel

Location: The Grand Golf Course, 346 Gilson Road, Gilston QLD 4211: 28°0’54” S 153°18’2”E,  “Dumpsite Road”  Temperature: 27-32°C by 09:00; Cloud Cover: 45-95%  Net Operation: 07:00 to 12:00= 5.0 hrs Number of nets: 9 Number of net-hrs: 45.0 net-hrs. Birds/net-hrs (Effort): 0.7 Number of birds: 16 birds representing 5 species.

SPECIES: White-browed Scrubwren 1(return)  Red-browed Finch 9 (3 returns)  Silvereye 2, (1 return) Golden Whistler 2,  Eastern Yellow Robin 2, 

It was a hot, hot day and we dragged our asses around the net lanes in a dry, windy, sun drenched morning. It wasn't like earlier in the day but the steady drying winds brought on the lazy uninspiring feeling. An ice cold beer would have been nice but fatal.  Each gust of wind during each net round brought to mind the fate of a lady birder whose husband watch a huge falling branch destroy his life at Binna Burra. 

I guess no one ever thinks of tree branches falling on oneself in Canada or North America Trekking through forests or birding the clearings in bush country one checks over one's shoulder more often for bears then the sky for flying branches. At least I have never heard of such incidences in all my years living and working in the bush. Then again, such events where not instantly messaged or videoed to the world in my time which gets done even before the event happens.  Drinking water and working at a snail's pace I managed to get home two and half hours later which under any other circumstance would taken an hour or less.

16 birds today was much better than previous banding days earlier this year. Perhaps things are changing and some of the birds are finally on the move for whatever reasons they may habour. 

The Red-browed Finch return is 01A 65212 (banded on: 2015 May 15), 01A 65220 ( on 2015 May 27) , and 01A 38718 ( on 2014 April 4). The Silvereye 01A 65270 banded on ??? Maybe an import. 

The White-browed Scrubwren 026 97620  was initially banded on April 4, 2014, which makes this bird older than 22 months and 27 days.. It was banded as a 2+ then and theoretically it would be 3+ today. However there are neither plumage indicators such feather colour or different generations of wing feathers or any other biometric means to categorical state it's age other than 2+.

White-browed Scrubwren. a rather unkempt bird undergoing tail and body moult. The wing feathers tips were all worn indicating these feathers are old and have not been replaced as yet. 

Tail feathers suggest an adult and used to separate hatch year birds from adults. There are other means to separate young from adults such as gape colour: adult black, young grey; eye colour  cream for adults young dull grey; loses the area behind the eye and in front of the bill is black in males and grey to brown in females.

There are ten recognized subspecies of and very little variation exists in the measurements between these species.

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