Cape Parrot Day

Last weekend was the 15^th Cape Parrot Big Birding Day; an annual event to attempt a census and to highlight the plight of the Cape Parrot.  This species is the only endemic parrot of South Africa and with a total population estimate of 1300.  Restricted to the temprerate afro-montane mist forests, it is mostly dependant on old growth yellowwood trees.  The birds roost and breed in natural cavities formed from rotten snags of the oldest Yellowwoods, a scarcity now after many years of selective logging for railway construction and other demands on hardwood.  And Yellowwoods, showing a trait that Im familiar with from the Podocarps of New Zealand, have an irregular fruit masting cycle, one that the parrots require for a productive breeding year.  This year there was a particular focus on identifying the incidence of Psitticine Beack and Feather Disease, a (?Neotropical) virus that is spreading in the population – again something I am familiar with as the Mauritius Parakeet population has been severely impacted by PBFD.

Professor Colleen Downs (one of my research supervisors), heads the Cape Parrot Working Groups and coordinates the annual survey.  Naturally I leapt at the chance to help with the surveys.  A squadron of around 30 undergrad students were rallied together, and along with a half dozen post-grad assistants, we headed out in convoy to Ingeli Forest, Eastern Cape on the Saturday morning.  The most active part of the parrots’ day is gathering to roost at night, and setting out again in the morning.  Our surveys were to be conducted at dusk on Saturday, and dawn on Sunday, in small teams stationed along forest edge ridges with grand views overlooking the canopy.

But the weather had different plans for us this year.  Getting out to our evening posts in good time, I got to see a little of this beautiful forest, before minute by minute it was obscured as the cloud base descended, until it was steadily drizzling and visibility was down to 50 meters.  A consolation prize was finding a molted Crowned Eagle primary feather on the trail.  And then we packed up and headed back to camp.

Arriving at 'Forest View', Ingeli on the Saturday afternoon.

The morning fared worse.  While it wasn’t raining, its never pleasant to start the day with dry socks squelching into cold wet shoes.  The teams got together and as we drove up the hill, the beams of the headlights were swallowed up by the moisture in the air as we drove up and into the cloud, still looming on the hilltops.  For two hours our dedicated teams sat as the grey light of dawn, if you can call it that, emerged from behind the inky blackness.  Not a single break in the foggy gloom, and for me and many others, not a single parrot to be heard.  I am at this early stage able to identify just a few bird calls, so while I could be happy that there were plenty of Sombre Bulbuls, and some Southern Boubous in the forest, I was also very frustrated with many calls emanating from the forest that eluded a name.  The highlight of the trip would have to be sitting in a dense fog of dawn and hearing the throaty muffled thumping of a family of Ground Hornbills calling in synchrony.

Morning watching the shadows of the forest edge and listening for absentee parrots.

It comes as no consolation that, if we’d just stayed at the camp site, we would’ve seen three birds that descended from the mountain clouds to do their morning stretches in the Bluegum in the middle of our campsite.

Until next year you cheeky little parrots…

© Cyril Laubscher - harvested from CPWG website