Bird in the hand

On the way back from Robberg after fieldwork, I spotted a Forest Buzzard on a light pole. A quick dash home was made to collect mice and the raptor trap. We made the drop, and before I had even managed to turn the car around the bird was on the trap! As we were so close to home we went home to do the ringing so Jesse and Kate could also see the bird. It's not every day that you have a buzzard in your living room!

An interesting deformed talon.

Taking measurements while Selena gets more handling experience.

What a beauty!

Shirley releasing the buzzard at the capture site.

Girl power

Shirley and I, along with Selena a visiting potential MSc student, decided to spend a morning roaming the roads to do some raptor ringing. Unfortunately we only managed to catch the one Common Buzzard, but one in better than none!

Ringed!

Selena holding her first buzzard!

Amur Falcon.

European Roller.

Giant Kingfisher.

Awesome owlet

Mark received a concerned phonecall regarding an 'abandoned' owlet suspected to be sick, and so Mark, again with Shirley and I in tow, headed to a housing estate in Plett. Many people do not realise that owl chicks often roost on the ground during the day and are not accompanied by the parents. This little owlet, a Spotted Eagle-owl, was in fine fettle and big enough to ring. Luckily this bird did not need to be taken to a rehab centre and was released where it was caught, with reassurance to the residents that the parents would find it and continue to look after it.

Don't even think about it! A grumpy little owl.

Gotcha!

NVT to the rescue! 

Black Harriers and raptor ringing

Alan Lee, a ringer in Baviaanskloof, knew of a Black Harrier nest and invited Mark to come and ring the two chicks. Shirley and I were very quick to agree to accompany him and so we set out early one morning to get to the site where the nest was. Of course we made sure to leave a little earlier than necessary to do some raptor ringing along the way! We managed to snare both a Jackal Buzzard and Forest Buzzard in the first hour on the road, and we were chuffed!

Ringing the Jackal Buzzard, our first catch!

A very happy Shirley with the buzzard.

Forest Buzzard.

We continued our journey, and met up with Alan and a guide. After a bumpy 4x4 journey to the nest we were met with destruction. The nest holding the two Black Harrier chicks was predated, the little half eaten bodies still warm indicating an early morning attack.

One of the adult Black Harriers.

The predated nest.

We turned around and began the trip home, and of course did some raptor trapping. A first for me was to catch TWO Pale Chanting Goshawks at the same time, it was very cool!

Mark and Shirley with the two goshawks.

Me releasing one of the goshawks.

Raptor record

After spending the weekend away in Cape Town for the summit, Shane and I spent some time together and took a day to go raptor ringing, and bird watching. After an early morning drive over the pass, and picking up a colourful hitchhiker, we turned towards George and began the search. It turned out to be the most successful of raptor catching days! With a grand total of 5 birds caught and 2 new species turned the day into a record breaker! I got a lot handling experience, and we spend some good time bird watching at a variety of ponds along the way. Lunch was had at a quaint farm stall, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, a simple lunch of a toasted cheese sandwich and coffee but by then I was starving and man was it amazing! It was a long day out, we only arrived back home after 5pm that evening after a 7am start, but with 2 Jackal Buzzards, 2 Rock Kestrels and a Pale Chanting Goshawk, it was awesome!

The release of the first Jackal Buzzard caught. Photo by Shane McPherson. 

The second Jackal Buzzard being released.

What a beautiful bird, with long legs like a runway model.

A little Rock Kestrel, they have quite a bite! The Jack Russels of the bird world..

UGH! They touched me! Get if off! Photo by Shane McPherson.

Raptors and waffles

Sunday morning Shane and I decided that it would be a wonderful idea to go raptor catching, so we loaded up the ringing gear, and our hardy mice and began the stalk. The weather was not on our side, an on-off drizzle that was most frustrating! There were very few birds to be seen, and the few drops we did yielded no result. Forest Buzzards, it seems, are for the majority very cautious birds; they make a fly-by and that’s it, or land next to the trap and our mice scare them off. But then we got lucky! Another Forest Buzzard spotted and we dropped the bait.. We could see the trap but not her, as she was sitting in dense tree cover, but she then appeared, a beautifully neat little dive… only to land next to the mice! Grr! And so we waited while she did her cautious thing and observed the rodents in their unnatural habitat. Thankfully she was hungry, or the trap didn’t look too threatening as soon she was on it! Footing and grabbing at the safely enclosed mice. And we caught her, a noose solidly around her ankle! Shane did the ringing and I held her; I still need some experience handling the raptors, I am not as comfortable with them as I am with the passerines or even with the gulls. After that the weather deteriorated again and 2 more birds disdained our apparently crude trapping mechanism, or maybe it was the mice (the unnatural white stripe is one hypothesis). In any case, we made it back to Plett in time to stop and get a pair of amazing Belgium waffles! Happiness!

You just have to stand in awe!

My first Forest Buzzard.