Caspian Terns

After returning from Blue Hill Escape, Mark, Selena and I made a quick trip to Keurbooms Peninsula to hopefully ring an especially exciting bird. On a previous trip with Felix searching for entangled gulls, we came across the Caspian Terns fiercely defending.. something. I was hesitant to disturb them anymore than our presence already had but managed to take some photos from afar. Once home and the photos were downloaded and magnified, what appeared to be two fluffy bundles were the objects of the tern's protection. So, more than a week later found us on the peninsula to ring Caspian Tern chicks.

Mark went to the nest to assess the contents. There was no certainty about the status of the nest, if there were in fact chicks or whether the chicks (or chick) was of ringable age. Selena and I got the wave and we headed over eagerly! There were two chicks! Perfect size for ringing!

Mark and I each ringed a chick, and after a quick photo shoot we vacated the area. I feel so privileged to have been able to ring one of these amazing birds! Hopefully these two cuties will fledge and soon join the breeding population of this threatened species!

Kelp Gulls unhappy with the intrusion of a human!

What a cutie!

They do appear to blend in very well with the nest bowl.

Mark and I, very chuffed with the days ringing!

My, what a large mouth you have!

You're so cute when you're angry!

Blue Hill Escape

More recently I had the privilege of staying at Blue Hill Escape in order to assist Alan Lee with his Cape Rockjumper project. The aim of the weekend was to capture these spectacular fynbos-endemic birds to ring, take blood samples and potentially attach GPS transmitters. Our team arrived at Alan's Friday afternoon for a brief orientation slide show and run down on our weekend plans. After orientation we headed out on Friday afternoon to 'set the line' for Saturday morning's trapping attempt.

Catching Rockjumpers is not an easy feat. Using mistnets won't work, you can't use walk-in traps as with the gulls, instead you use springtraps. This is made more difficult by the territorial nature of Rockjumpers, which live in family groups. Thankfully, Alan has prior knowledge of the family groups at Blue Hill and knew where territories were, and where best to set the traps. Blue Hill is a collection of valleys and ridges; the wrinkles on a wise man's face. 'Setting the line' involves hiking up a ridge and setting up the springtraps along the ridge contour line, where each trap is on a collection of large rocks.

So Friday afternoon we set out, firstly for a bumpy 4x4 drive to the site and then a hike up to the ridge. Here we split into two teams, Kellyn and myself went left to a lookout spot on a higher ridge, while Daniël, Chrissie and Alan went to the opposite ridge to set the traps. Each trap needed to be visible from the lookout spot so a bird that was could could be easily seen and extracted, to assist in identification of trap locations a bright pink ribbon was tied to an available piece of fynbos a few meters away. The traps were merely placed, baiting them with super worms was Saturday mornings first order of business.

Saturday morning 3:30am came all too soon! We had a 4:00am meet time and breakfast needed to be had and lunch packed for a long hot day in the field. Unsurprisingly, everything looked different in the early morning so Kellyn and I had trouble finding our lookout spot, and finding the traps was even more challenging despite their identifying pink ribbons for Daniël and Chrissie. While we were busy with the trap line set up on Friday, Alan and Jessey set up another line of traps on a neighbouring ridge. We ended up with two teams, and each trap line needed to be actively checked every hour, and it took roughly an hour to walk the line and back to the lookout spot (depending who walked the line of course!). Chrissie and I took the first check of our line and were rewarded with two birds and an Armadillo Lizard, which we really struggled to get out of the netting with all its spikes! That, unfortunately, was our catch for the day! The guys fared slightly better with four birds and two lizards. By 1pm it was hot and quiet, and time to call it a day. We collected the traps and hiked to the bakkie for the bumpy trip back. After a refreshing shower, a nap was in order! As the site Alan wanted to trap at on Sunday was a full hour drive away we were going to set the line on Sunday morning and ended Saturday with a braai.

Sunday morning saw a bleary-eyed team meeting at 4am again for a bumpy ride to our trapping site. This time we broke into three teams, and Chrissie and I had the most successful morning catching four birds, while the others caught nothing.

Although we were unsuccessful in our attempt to trap Rockjumpers I ringed 5 lifers in two mornings, not bad! And the area is spectacular, truly. To sit up on a ridge overlooking fynbos covered valleys and peaks as far as the eye can see, feel a cool breeze upon sun warmed skin and breath crisp mountain air, life couldn't be better in that moment. Hiking up is another story, especially in my current horrendously unfit state, but once there, every drop of sweat and muscle complaint is totally worth it!

Familiar Chat.

Cape Clapper Lark.

Sentinel Rock Thrush.

Cape Bunting.

Long-billed Pipit.

Armadillo Lizard by-catch.

View from the lookout rock onto the ridge where the trap line was set. Spot any pink ribbons?!

Chutney the Meerkat, a furry friend to come home to.

Fynbos ringing

Ringing in the fynbos near Nature's Valley is progressing regularly, and this week was an interesting one. A new species for me was the Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher. A pleasurable catch was a pair of Cape Siskins.

Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher.

Babalwa is doing well in her training.

A pair of Cape Siskins, male on the left.

White-fronted Plovers

We were made aware of some White-fronted Plover chicks in Nature's Valley and so a trip was made to go and ring them, a new species for Mark to add to his ringing list! There were two pairs and we ringed a total of three chicks. They are very difficult to find, and a mission to catch, but with 4 of us we managed to get them, putting both metal and colour rings on.

What a cutie!

A lightweight.

Get it OFF!

The view.

Colour-ringed and ready for resightings.

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.