Word of the week = Euplectes

SAFRING training has been moving along at pace this month. 

An intimidating audience?

For a primary school educational day, Mark, Lindy and I set up an afternoon ringing station near Greendale Park in Howick.  It was very quiet at the nest, just a handful of birds caught, and soon enough the school bus turned up.  Mark made it a very exciting and engaging experience for them and the kids were putty in his hands… I even heard one girl of about twelve years say “when I grow up I want to be an or-neth-ollie-gist” - so cool!  A couple of boys were particularly interested in how hard the bite of each bird was.  I guess it was unfortunate that we didn’t catch a fiscal that day?  With a few birds left, I was suddenly delegated to the hot seat.  The pressure of a dozen children’s expectations was too much – and after ringing a couple of Euplectes, I pulled a wee Cisticola out of a bag.  Within seconds it had wriggled free of my clumsy sausage-fingers, and flittered past their noses.  They were all too happy to follow Marks direction, and give me an open-handed slap behind the ears.  

Rough!

A few days later we were all up at 4:30 for another ringing session.  The old ringing site at Cedara Agricultural College had been active many years ago.  It had been neglected for a while, but more recently Karen Nelson has wanted to reinvigorate the action there.  Only problem is it is a sweet spot for Euplectes; flocks of bishops and quelea can fly through the reeds and in an instant there could be over a hundred birds in the net.  Many hands are needed.  Well it wasn’t quite that intense last Thursday morning, but we sure had a glut, and with the fogged morning threatening drizzle it was touch and go there for a while.

In any case, the day cleared up and many dozens of birds were ringed.  The ‘special’ of the day was Orange-bellied Waxbill.  I was stoked to have over an hour of good practice and get through thirty birds, mostly Red Bishops and Fan-tailed Widows.  With time came learning a technique with the pipsqueaks – ringing five Cisticolas and a Drakensberg Prinia without an escape. 

Lindy with a lot of work ahead.

This little dikkie ain't getting away this time.  Cisticola tinniens

Male Fan-tailed Widow.  Euplectes axillaris

Male Red-collared Widow. Euplectes ardens

Drakensberg Prinia. Prinia hypoxantha

It’s an on-going event… Up and coming this weekend is Darvill ringing again and potentially Sunday morning down the south coast.  On the south coast there are some great species around this Crowned Eagle site where I have been trying in vain to catch and ring a dastardly juvenile.  Recently we’ve seen on various trips; a pair of Little Sparrowhawks, Knysna and Purple-crested Turaco (they love taunting the eagle), White-eared Barbet, Crowned and Trumpeter Hornbills, Green Woodhoopoe …and many more besides.