A Lekker Field Base

Earlier in the year, during my surveying rounds of urban nests, I introduced myself to the Bestwick family. During a visit to their house in Westville, with a grand view to an eagles nest, I was invited to do some December house-sitting.

My temporary abode for the latter half of December is a stunning house, on the edge of a gully leading down to the Palmiet reserve, made all the more special with the Crowned Eagles nest just 50 meters from the back patio. The living room is complete with a digiscope setup and connected to the tv, and Kevin has been taking regular footage and photos of the chicks development.  There are fantastic records on the blog *crowned eagle diary*, including our ringing day on the 13th December.

Fortunately this two weeks of house sitting coincided with the most intensive time of the year, and I could be based in the center of Durban with ready access to many of the eThekwini nests that we were working on.

Despite having the traps out at dawn many of our mornings there, we were unable to trap either of the adults for GPS telemetry study, despite several close calls.

In the first real heat wave of the approaching summer, I also made a point of maximizing the use of the pool and was plunging several times every day.  It was a tough time I tell you!

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