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| (Photo Andy Ruffle) |
Attendees: Liz Blomeyer, Mike Fagan, Yegas Naidoo, Andy Ruffle, Ron Whitham, Don Williams (from Nelspruit).
It was an absolutely perfect morning for today's ringing session.Once again we had a thorougly educational day with a few surprises and some new birds for the floodplain (and Umzumbe Conservancy).
No less than 3 Cape Robin-chats totally scuppered my theory that they prefer slight altitude, with the floodplain being at sea level.
Our next surprise was a Brimstone Canary, a new bird for the list. The difference in size between this and the Yellow-fronted Canary is very apparent at close range, as is the very robust beak.
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| Brimstone Canary |
Not totally unexpected, but nice to bag even so, was a male Red-headed Quelea (one of two birds) which was already coming into breeding plumage. Bearing in mind we are only in the middle of June, this is very early for birds to start attaining breeding plumage and noted with many of the Weavers also.
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| male Red-headed Quelea starting to attain breeding plumage |
The final surpirse of the day was a female Red-billed Firefinch and a juvenile male, again new birds for the list.
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| juvenile male Red-billed Firefinch |
The next ringing session will be on 8th July 2012 and will probably be at the home of Andrew & Ivan.
Birds ringed: Cape Robin-chat x 3, Spectacled Weaver x 2, Yellow Weaver x 11, Village Weaver x 1, Fan-tailed Widowbird x 5, Tambourine Dove x 1, Lesser Swamp-Warbler x 2, Little Rush-Warbler x 3, African Reed-Warbler x 2, Rufous-winged Cisticola x 3, Red-headed Quelea x 2, Yellow-fronted Canary x 1, Brimstone Canary x 1, Bronze Mannikin x 1, Red-backed Mannikin x 2, Red-billed Firefinch x 2, Common Waxbill x 2. (17 species, 44 birds ringed)
Birds re-captured: Yellow Weaver x 3, Red-capped Robin-Chat x 1, Spectacled Weaver x 1, Rufous-winged Cisticola x 3, Cape White-eye x 1, Lesser Swamp-Warbler x 1 (10 recaptures)
Total of 54 birds processed.
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