Banded Hybrid Oystercatcher - Ashworth Spit

[Lacertae]

Jan Walker managed to clarify the metal band visible on this Hybrid Pied x Variable Oystercatcher (K-8647) which I pictured down the Spit last Wednesday. I haven't got a date yet but Andrew Crossland is behind this banding programme apparently ?
If you read this Andrew what was the idea of it, follow Hybrids around or you just happened to capture a Hybrid as part of something else ? And where was this one banded, and how many birds are IDed ?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabirdnz/8265672307/

[philbattley]

Fabulous photo. You should add it to the NZ Birds Online project, but under whicn species...?

Phil

[Lacertae]

Oops little misunderstanding, Andrew only banded one bird and Sheila Petch was behind this banding programme. She'll send me more details soon.

[andrewcrossland]

I only banded 2 hybrid oystercatcher chicks, can't remember the exact date but it was around 1992 or 1993. I'd been watching a SIPO and VOC apparent pair for 2-3 seasons and finally found a nest, proving they were in fact hybridising. The chicks I banded were the first 2 hybrids proven , only 1 of them fledged and was seen occasionally subsequently for a number of years. I did my big OE in 1994 and other local members (lead by Sheila Petch and Tony Crocker) commenced a more detailed study of the rapid spread of a hybrid and mixed pair population.

[Lacertae]

Thanks Andrew for the details.
I contacted the banding office, see if K-8641 or K-8614 were an option for this bird but the former is a White-Chinned Petrel from Antipodes Island and the latter doesn't exist. So whichever last 2 digits I remember reading on a now-deleted picture were not 1 and 4 ...
I can't help thinking it's likely to be one of you guys' bird, location and species are little to coincidencial.