Winter Birding and Ringing

Another week of nest surveys to look forward to this week.  I wonder how many of the six active nests will have hatched, and which others will have now laid eggs and be incubating.

Just before I go – here is a quick update on birding and ringing.  On Saturday we had another Darvill session, and after ringing about twenty birds I’d picked up two new species ringed: Three-banded Plover, and Brimstone Canary.  This now takes the number of Natal species ringed to 46, with a total of 235 individuals.

Thick-billed Weaver  Amblyospiza albifrons

a family (male, female, juv) of Sombre Greenbul  Andropadus importunus

juvenile Olive Bush-shrike  Chlorophoneus olivaceus 

Black-collared Barbet  Lybius torquatus

juvenile Greater Joneyguide (very cool binomial) = Indicator indicator

Gurney's Sugarbird  Promerops gurneyi

a first ever ringed at Darvill.  Black-crowned Tchagra  Tchagra senegalus

Three-banded Plover  Charadrius tricollaris

Grey-headed Bushshrike  Malaconotus blanchoti

those bushshrikes pack a heafty hooked tip and strong bite!

I have been casually birding during my busy days in the field – not having time to go out and look for anything in particular.  Turns out that several of the eagle nests are in great reserves, and my study area encompasses a wide variety of habitats from the high country of the midlands, and through great city reserves such as Kloof Gorge, down along the coastal forests.  In particular Zimbali Country Estate is turning out to be a great place to pick up exciting species, first time was the special Spotted Ground Thrush, and more recently Wattle-eye.  Last week at Shongweni Dam I scared a Narina Trogon off its roadside perch.  The number of species seen during July was 147.  And Darvill on Saturday added Croacking and Lazy Cisticola, as well as Red-headed Quelea, to push my total South Africa list to 400 species.

Spotted Ground Thrush  Zoothera guttata