South Coast Trogons Bird Club: Lorraine Estates

Showing posts with label Lorraine Estates. Show all posts

Monday, 17 December 2012

Outing report- 17th December 2012 Bird ringing

Photos & text Andy Ruffle

Umzumbe River floodplain December 2012
(Photo Andrew Pickles)

Attendees: Liz Blomeyer, Eric Kok, Herbie & Jeanette Osborne, Andy Ruffle, Stephan Schoeman, Ron Whitham. (7 attendees).

It was originally planned to visit the Umzumbe Floodplain for today's ringing session, but as can be seen from Andrew's photo above, the floodplain is certainly living up to it's name at the moment.
Luckily, Andrew's home patch is always good as a backup, so he opted for there. Deferred from Sunday due to strong winds, Monday morning gave us ideal conditions.

Outing report- 8th April 2012 Bird ringing Andrew Pickle's home, Umzumbe

Text & photos by Andy Ruffle

Attendees: Liz Blomeyer, Stan & Val Culley, Mike Fagan, Rusty & Sue Lupton, Kate Reese, Andy Ruffle, Ron Whitham. (9 attendees).

It was a glorious morning for ringing at Andrew & Ivan Pickles home. After welcoming Sue & Rusty Lupton from Zululand and Kate Reese from Gauteng, we eagerly awaited the first bird out of the bag.
They say the early bird catches the worm, well we surely came up trumps with this one...a stunning and very unexpected Spotted Ground-Thrush - a sign that the winter migrants are arriving.

Spotted Ground-Thrush

Coming a very close second, in the wow factor league, was a female Cape Batis.

Cape Batis female

Certainly a candidate for the mystery bird competition was this juvenile Cape Robin-Chat.

juvenile Cape Robin-Chat

These ringing sessions provide you with the opportunity to appreciate aspects of birds not readily seen in the field.
A good example of this being the Grey Sunbird. Just look at those iridescent feathers!!

Grey Sunbird

For more photos of this session and some stunning photos of Crowned Eagles frolicking see Andrew's blog here.

The next ringing session will be 20th May. Snooze or lose.

Birds ringed: Spotted Ground-Thrush, Cape Batis, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Green-backed Camaroptera, Olive Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Cape Robin-chat, Grey Sunbird, Yellow-fronted Canary, African Firefinch.

Monday, 20 February 2012

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

Monday, 14 November 2011

Outing report- Bird Ringing 13th November 2011 Andrew & Ivan Pickles, Umzumbe

Text & photos: Andy Ruffle

Attendees: Liz Blomeyer, Davina Campbell, Mike Fagan, Eric, Christine & Bradley Kok, Andy Ruffle.

It was another perfect morning for ringing on Sunday and a total contrast from the previous day's wind and rain.

First out of the nets was a Terrestrial Brownbul, but was unfortunately missed by the attendees. The early bird catches the worm guys.

Once again, the ringing session afforded us wonderful opportunities to observe some difficult to see species 'up close and personal'.

Check out the Olive Sunbird photo below. It was noted that some birds have an orange base to the bill. The bird is not a juvenile, therefore the coloration is not a gape. This appears on some birds, but not all, rather like the yellow wing patch of the male Black Cuckooshrike.

Of the 20 odd birds netted, we had five re-captures. Two Cape White-eyes which were ringed on 06/10/07 and 28/09/08 by Andrew & Ivan; plus a Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Terrestrial Brownbul and Collared Sunbird, for which we await further details from SAFRING.

One of the highlights of the morning was netting not one, but two juvenile Gorgeous Bush-shrikes in quick succession. We surmise that they were probably from the same brood. To top this, Liz and I had lovely views of a male bird whilst we braaing in Andrew & Ivan's garden.

Another highlight for the morning was being able to visit a nesting African Finfoot at one of our regular Trogon's venues. Very little is known about it's breeding, so this site may throw up some interesting information.

The next ringing session will be on Sunday 11th December at Umzumbe floodplain. We thoroughly recommend you come along and attend these very educational mornings.