A Jackal Buzzard

It was a pleasure to spend a Saturday out helping Dr. Jordaan with her research on the Jackal Buzzards of the higher altitude areas of southern KZN.  The primary goal was to try and retrieve a dysfunctional satellite transmitter from the back of one of the research birds.  We’d also move along the route hoping to ring and collect data from as many more buzzards as we could. Rin is gathering data on the dispersion, movements, genetics, biometrics, and colour morphology of this population.  

Stating at dawn at Fort Nottingham, we arrived on site at the last known hangout of ‘Solo’.  Solo had regularly been spending most of her time along a short section of road, and had become wise to the team, vehicle, and tactics.  Even so, despite spending most of the prime trapping hours –the first two hours of morning -  travelling back and fourth on a short section of road looking for her unfortunately she was to evade our searches. 

Early in the morning, also in her ‘territory’ we spotted another buzzard on a telephone pole and soon the day was off to a start.  This buzzard had a surprising amount of white on its mantle, and during the course of the day I paid more and more attention to the variability of the buzzards. These birds have a striking variation in the combination of the three colours that mix upon the breast; white, rufous and a dark chocolate brown.

Jackal Buzzards are endemic to southern Africa, with a very similar looking buzzard, the Augur, in Zimbabwe and north.  The apparently peculiar name is given because their call is eerily similar to the howl of the black-backed jackal.

While they seem to be lazy loafers, and in our area on of the more commonly sighted birds of roadside and agricultural areas, the Jackal Buzzard should not be under-appreciated.  They love rodents, and probably serve a huge service to agricultural crops by homing in on areas of high rodent numbers.  Its often commented that they have a surprising strength in their feet… I would know... yes, I've bled more than once because of this. Thankfully though I have not had the same experience that a friend of mine had, a talon right thru the thumb muscle, from the outside in, the point of the talon pushing at the skin like a miniature Alien wanting to erupt from his palm.

Maybe it’s the availability of telephone poles along the roads, or whether it’s the width of exposure that a rodent faces should it decide to cross a road, the jackal buzzards are very often seen perched up scanning the road verges for prey.  They seem pretty accustomed to traffic just as long as you don’t do anything out of the ordinary – like slow down or point a camera!  Long-creasted eagles, black-shouldered kites, and in summer steppe buzzards, are also frequent ‘roadside raptors’ to target.

My task was to be the designated driver for the day… and not an easy task at that.  While it can be the best place to spot birds on the road ahead, and to be in the prime view to the potential trapee’s actions - it demands all-round awareness, particularly to monitor the traffic and position the trap drops as best as possible without flushing a roadside bird.

The rest of the day was spent travelling the roads set against the foothills of the world heritage region of the Drakensberg mountains – and with the hawk-eyed Ben Hoffman in the shotgun seat, we were virtually guaranteed to spot plenty of birds today!

Travelling from Fort Nottingham across to Underberg and returning to Pietermaritzburg on dusk, we’d travelled over 300km.  Shortly after releasing the first buzzard of the day, Ben identified a female red-chested sparrowhawk displaying over a small copse of pines.  Not long after that the sight of several huge silhouettes had us skid to a stop.  Nothing is more unmistakable than the silhouette of a Bearded Vulture, or three, and with them a few Cape Griffons thermalling over some unseen farmland carcass a few hundred meters away.

The clouds burned off and the glare of the alpine sun warmed us as midday approached. There seemed a never ending occurrence of ‘jaybees’ as we racked up the miles.  Plenty of excitement and action as birds showed interest in the traps, and also plenty of disappointments as thru various means; lack of interests, and more frustratingly, traffic, caused us to abandon many a bird.  By the end of the day my concentration was sapped, and my eyes were raw with the effects of the glare, dust, and unblinking binocular use. 

But what a day! After 300km and 9 hours on the road, I have approximate counts of

32 Jackal Buzzard (4 ringed and released)

7 Cape Vulture

3 Bearded Vulture

3 Long-crested Eagle

3 Secreatry Bird

1 Red-chested Sparrowhawk
1 Verreaux Eagle

…and the day ended on a high with

1 Martial Eagle