Outing report- 18th February 2012 Bird ringing at Andrew Pickles home, Umzumbe

Attendees: Liz Blomeyer, Andy Ruffle. (Andrew & Ivan Pickles)

Not a good weather forecast for this morning, but as we were up we decided to carry on.
However, the rain soon put the dampers on things with the nets being taken down at about 0730.
All was not lost though. The bird pictured below was an interesting catch and would certainly cause some confusion in the field, no doubt. It is a juvenile Red-capped Robin-Chat.

juvenile Red-capped Robin-Chat
(Photo Andy Ruffle)

Four juvenile Olive Thrush in the nets at the same time also proved fascinating. Their position in the nets and stage of development, indicated that they were flying together and therefore presumably come from the same brood. This is where it becomes interesting. According to Roberts Online, the clutch size is normally 2-3 eggs. This prompted Andrew to double check each bird just to confirm they were infact juveniles, which they were.
For a picture of a juvenile Olive Thrush see Andrew's post here. Note the buff edges to some of the wing feathers...a diagnostic feature of a juvenile.
This is another example of how important bird ringing is when it comes to data collection and learning more about our avian friends.
There were four re-captures during today's session- 2 Green-backed Camaroptera ringed during 2011; 1 Terrestrial Brownbul and 1 Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird both ringed on 2nd Nov 2008 strangely.
The next ringing session will be on 11th March, so don't miss it, this could be your last chance for warblers this season.
On the Barn Swallow front, Andrew has ringed 997 birds so far this season, with just a few weeks to go before they start making their way back to the breeding grounds. Mike Fagan has kindly donated 200 surplus rings to Andrew's project.

References: Roberts Online