Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Birds in your garden. It’s breeding time! And although you may not realise it, there are likely some species making nests and breeding in dense bushes in your garden.  First the story of James Russell: he’s the scientists that works of predator control and subsequent translocations of birds to pest-free islands and restored native bush. During lockdown he decided to do some bird banding in his garden. He was keen to catch his resident fantail that would visit every late afternoon, and he did! Every late-afternoon he caught another fantail – until he realised there were 36 “resident fantails” I in his garden. Moral of story: There are far more birds in your patch than you realise! Bird-banding often reveals a lot about bird populations.  I have noticed, so far: 2 blackbird nests, 1 song thrush, 2 dunnocks (hedge sparrows), at least 1 gold finches, a green finch and a few chaffinches in the dense macrocarpa hedge. I also suspect a sneaky bellbird, and am hoping that the Californian quail like my dense wind-brea