Mist-netting with beginners - December 16th

Although as research assistants, Melanie thinks we’re great (she has to agree as I’m cooking supper tonight and have threatened not to feed her should she disagree), none of us has ever had anything to do with birds before. We’re learning heaps, but mist-netting with a bunch of beginners must be stressful for even the calmest of people.

A mist-net is maybe 3 metres high and various lengths (ours are 6 or 9 meters) and made of such thin black nylon thread that the birds hopefully can’t see them. We string them along a straight-ish length of track and leave them alone to go and set up our station. The station is a model of efficiency, with boxes and bottles and a place for everything. Everyone knows the procedure.

Once the station is set up, we check the nets for birds. Here is where the “we’re just a bunch of beginners” becomes a problem. When the birds get caught in the nets, they really get caught. One silvereye even got caught by its tongue. That can’t be comfortable!

Freeing kakariki

It takes a lot of experience to get the birds gently and safely out of the nets and neither Annika, Brigitta nor I can do it yet. When we see a bird in the net, we yell for Melanie and the poor thing has to run up and down, freeing the birds and popping them into clean bird bags (some of which are pink gingham!) and hanging them up in the trees around the station until we are ready to process them.

First we get some samples, which can include preen wax, feathers, parasites and blood samples. Then, if they haven’t been banded before, we band them. This morning, Melanie let me band my first ever bird! I was of course very cool about it (Hah! My hands were shaking like leaves) but somewhere on Rangatira this afternoon is a little dunnock with some brand new bands on its match-stick thin legs. May it be the first of many!