Raptors of Kruger

It was just three days, but feels like there is so much to say about Kruger. As the ZSSA symposium was at Kruger’s doorstep, 11 of the UKZN contingent arranged to take three days after the conference to do a top-to-bottom roadtrip through the Kruger National Park. That plan changed slightly when on the first night of the conference I met Rowan van Eeden.  On the second day, Rowan presented about the causes for widespread declines in the Martial Eagle populations - now uplisted to Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

This has compelled Martial Eagle Conservation research to identify the causes of decline of the Martial in even such a vast natural area as Kruger.  I was ecstatic when Rowan suggested I might provide assistance with his project.  To capture and fit transmitters to the Martial Eagle … so called for its rapaciousness. The largest eagle in Africa and a very active and agile predator – that appears to prefer game birds, particularly guineafowl and francolins, as well as small buck and large monitors.

So with my humble apologies skipping out on our UKZN convoy, at 3am Rowan and I dashed straight to the south end of the park.  As we drove south the unseasonal gloom of a very wet raining front loomed.  Several hours of light rain drenched the southern park, and shortly after entering Orpen gate we stopped to check an active nest. Sighting were good when the rain cleared, as many raptors were perch-bound, and the little critters were seen drying out on the road verges.

Arriving mid-morning we set up at our digs in the N'Waswitshaka Research Camp adjacent to Skukuza, and set out again for the afternoon.  Aiming to drive around and between all the known Martial territories looking for a bird in a trappable position, all the while we would conduct game counts, tallying all potential Martial prey (Helmeted Guineafowl, Swainsons, Crested and Natal Francolin), and record the locations of all other raptors as well. Sparse, active, and covering enormous savannah home ranges, the martial sightings were few and far between, with all five birds seen on the wing. There were exactly Zero trapping opportunities.  However, travelling 550km over three days, collecting some great game count data and counting 111 raptors of 16 species was some consolation.

drenched immature bateleur

damp black sparrowhawk

sunny lizard buzzard

the typical sighting of a martial, a.e.v with full crop

Guineafowl

Returning each night to the research camp, we'd braai and chat with other researchers and volunteers, occasionally glancing into the darkness over the meager fence, with lions, hyena, and hippo just outside the compound. In contrast, the public facilities and campsite areas at Skukuza must be the largest and most vulgar of the National Park ‘camps’. At dawn each morning queues of vehicles would line up for the 6am gate opening.  On the public roads traffic was obscene, and yet Rowan remarked that it was 80% better than during the busy school holiday season.  I’d never imagine how this research could be done on the public access roads.  Fortunately we didn’t have to, with permits and section clearance to travel the firebreak roads and utility service roads we got out and away from the mobile hoards – definitely the best time of the three days was travelling the remote and powerline between Lower Sabie and Crocodile Bride, not a car single car was seen for hours.

It is quite a familiar perspective - to be focused on the sky and tree tops for raptors while on safari, and I am sure we drove past many terrestrial mammals without a glimpse. All the while I was eavesdropping on the group messages of the UKZN convoy.  Five leopards had been sighted in three days… a major void that I have longed for so long to see.  On the last day, saying farewell to Rowan and regrouping with the UKZN crew, we set off for a last morning game drive.  With leopard in my hopes, I could search for other wildlife (“see that tower over there, …yes that’s a nice parade”). Then, taking a side road to a waterfall … low and behold, an incredibly confiding kitty.  We may have been about the third vehicle on the scene.  Before long though, totally blocked in by the masses of vehicles piling in to get their view and photos.

within a short while a complete traffic jam, that is just what was behind us, similar jam infront!

smiles homeward bound after a brilliant few days

some hours later

...and more hours later

The long drive back to Pietermaritzburg was challenging after such an eventful week, especially while my passengers filled the car with the aura of sleep.

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

Mkambati Revolutions

Recently back from a fourth trip to Mkambati.  This was set to be a very important one for Morgans [link] research on the Cape Vulture breeding colony at Mkambati Nature Reserve.  It was a fantastic achievement of coordination and collaboration as Morgan brought together twelve people to take part in this operation.  A thorough range of experts and assistants came together, including the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Vulture Working Group, EWT’s Wildlife & Energy Program, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Bearded Vulture Research, The African Bird of Prey Sanctuary, Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency, and KZN bird ringers and University of KwaZulu-Natal researchers.

The goal was to achieve a successful ‘mass capture’ of vultures in a walk in trap.  With four satellite GPS trackers, and forty wing tags to attach, we were aiming to capture as many as the two teams could safely process without undue stress to the vultures. A hide is placed near the trap to observe and close the trap when a number of birds are inside.  There was just enough room for three people, who would set up before dawn and sit until the vultures were caught.  The remaining team was to sit a few minutes drive away, at a viewpoint over the ‘superbowl’ lookout, and wait patiently by for the call of all hands on deck.

Our previous capture back in November went surprisingly quickly.  With ten birds caught within the first half hour, and all done and dusted by 11am that day. So expectations were high…  “no we wont need to pack lunch” was one memorable quote uttered on the night of our briefing.  On the first morning while we all waited at the wonderful panoramic scene at the superbowl, Juan Morgan and Ben sat for almost ten hours in the hide without the least hint of enthusiasm from the vultures.  It was a long and frustrating day. By 4pm the vultures are less keen to feed as they are to get home to the roosting cliffs, and our stomachs lead us back to the lodge for supper.

Things got even more frustrating on the second day when, although vultures were feeding on parts of the carcass nearby, they were obviously very skittish, and never settled for long enough to be caught.  Long days at the superbowl were passed in various ways:  I was reading… a lot, Meyrick had a near run-in with a magnificent specimen of a Black Mamba while out walking, Kerin found a stunning diversity of wildflowers to identify, and Eva went off hunting for the Mamba that Meyrick was all too happy to never see again – only to return from a foray down the cliff with a picture of a porcupine, and a rather smelly skull of a red hartebeest.

 Another nine hour day on the third day and despondency was setting in, particularly because for most of the day several vultures sat perched on top of the trap!  The wind has been gusting for several days.  Some clear signs of cabin fever were becoming apparent and we had accumulated something to the order of 33 person days of effort and still not one vulture to show for it.  Something had to change.

That evening another carcass was procured, and the vulture restaurant was baited with fresher more enticing food.  Day four was my chance to be one of the three in the hide, and that night I packed books and entertainment to keep me occupied for a bum-numbing ten hour watch.  Arriving at the hide at dawn, the weather had changed, and the wind was barely whispering. I was hopeful, but nonetheless settled into the camp chair as best I could.

The dawn lifted, the wind had died to a whisper, white-naped ravens started amassing, and then a fish-eagle arrived.  Within 20 minutes the first vultures landed by the carcass and started feeding in and mobbing in their raucous manner.  The fish-eagle was first to be pushed off as dozens and dozens of vultures frenzied.  The first-eagle was the first to notice the other carcass and move off towards the trap, followed by the late coming vultures who couldn’t find a place at the table.

Twenty-five vultures and a fish-eagle were caught within the first 40 minutes of the forth day.  By 11am all the vultures were processed.  There are now an additional four GPS tagged birds, and 25 wing tagged birds.  These tagged birds will be invaluable additions to research on foraging behaviour, and nesting colony behaviour respectively.

arriving at Mkimbati Gate on the evening of the 13th

pre-dawn and ready to head out from riverside lodge

beautiful ocean sunrises each morning as we set out to the capture site

high spirits at the superbowl

our perspective of the trap from the superbowl lookout

the highlight of the day... LUNCHTIME!!!

frustration watching several hundred vultures pass by

on the dawn of the forth morning the fish-eagle takes the lead

25 vultures penned

the vulture team

ready to work.  Photo by Kerin Bowker

removing a vulture from the pen. Photo by Kerin Bowker

many hands make light work. Photo by Kerin Bowker

heading home on the 18th, we spotted this pre-migratory congregation of Amur Falcons

SAFRING training marches on

In the last week I managed to squeeze a bit of spare time in to get out ringing again.  Darvill proved a fruitful morning, and a few days later up in Howick in a local birdlife members garden.  It is a lovely garden with plenty of space to put up mistnets.  The nectar feeders attract a number of sunbirds, but unfortunately the Gurneys Sugarbirds were not present that morning for my big month list.

So the numbers climb, 65 species and about 450 individuals have passed through these clumsy fingers.  there is still a fair way to go for the general ringing license.  But a recent permitting condition for the eagle research was to be SAFRING registered, and so I now have a registration number and authority card outlining permissions to use various raptor trapping methods to ring raptors, alongside this Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife issued a permit for the province of Natal, and I celebrated this with a quick drive up to Cato ridge, where we caught and ringed one Jackal Buzzard and had a missed opportunity at a Long-crested Eagle.

Yellow-throated Longclaw   Macronyx croceus

African Pygmy Kingfisher   Ispidina picta

male Dideric Cuckoo   Chrysococcyx caprius

Spectacled Weaver   Ploceus ocularis

Amethyst Sunbird   Chalcomitra amethystina

Malachite Sunbird   Nectarinia famosa

Dusky Indigobird   Vidua funerea

African Paradise Flycatcher   Terpsiphone viridis

Burchells Coucal   Centropus burchelli