Banding tomtit chicks - November 20th

Up on the west coast of Rangatira, Mel has found a new tomtit nest with three large chicks. They are too big already to be weighed as part of the growth data we are collecting, but before they are quite ready to lave the nest, Mel bands them.

Mel holding tomtit chick

Tomtit numbers are falling on Rangatira. If we band all the tomtits that we find this summer, then next summer DOC will be able to count them. This will tell DOC scientists how that species is doing, and help keep tabs on which birds have survived the winter and where they have moved to on the island.

Banding a tomtit chick

The chicks Olearia, Hebe and Senecio already have fully formed legs. Although their parents still feed them after they leave the nest, they will spend a lot of time hopping around, trying out their wings and learning to fly.

Penguin chick

They aren't the only big chicks Mel found either - check out these guys. Big, fat, fluffy blue penguins from a burrow in Ike's bush. Recently though, the local skuas have been coming into the forest and killing prion chicks - they would certainly not turn down a penguin. We build an entire Egyptian pyramid over this penguin nest. No skuas are going to get these ones.