Amethyst Sunbirds back at FTL

Those who attended our first ever club outing which was a walk around town, back in July last year will remember that the very first bird we saw was the female Amethyst Sunbird obligingly darting back into her nest high up in the tree in our ground.  She was in and instantly sitting on her egg with her head and long bill clearly visable.

When the chick has fledged, the adults destroy the nest and the tree remains nestless for most of the year.  I have been on the look out for nest building activity this year and check out the tree every couple of days.  During the past week there was nothing and suddenly, yesterday, the 26th of June, a fully built nest was hanging on the exact same branch as last years.  We had noticed the female stripping long bits of bark off the poles that surround our boma, exactly what they did last year, so that prompted us to have another look at the tree and voila!  there is the nest, scraggily built with moss and spider webs to hold it together.  We will keep a good eye on it and if anyone would like to have a look at this lovely little bird, please feel free to pop by anytime.

The Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe

A short entry - AP Photographer Charlie Riedel just filed the following images of seabirds caught in the oil slick on a beach on Louisiana's East Grand Terre Island. As BP engineers continue their efforts to cap the underwater flow of oil, landfall is becoming more frequent, and the effects more evident.

Caught in the oil - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Robyn says:

I have no words to express how angry I get to read this and see these pictures.... The bigwigs of BP really need to be taken to task for not doing something about this catastrophe right now!

Do you know that 60 000 barrels of oil a day are spewing into the ocean?  Do you know that there is still 50 million barrels left in the reservoir that will fill the ocean if they do not get the broken pipe capped?

Remember the Exxon Valdez spill some years ago that was regarded as the worst environmental disaster to date.  What we are dealing with now is the equivalent of having an Exxon Valdez spill every 4 days!

This is totally unacceptable yet the world seems helpless to do anything about it.  What is the solution?  No one knows.  BP are trying haphazardly to cap the well but time and time again they fail.  The rig exploded and sank 2 months ago and still, oil is gushing at a rate of knots out of the pipe.

Go to www.ifitwasmyhome.com to see how big the oil slick is and how it would look if it fitted over your province.

I know it won't make any difference but I just don't want to support our local BP anymore...I'm going to find out from Agri Mark where they get their petrol and if it isn't BP, I'll be getting my petrol from them from now on.

And who is going to help these birds? Does anyone know of any groups helping them?  They desperately need it.

Ringing at Franschhoek Wild Flower Garden - 12.06.10

I was joined today by Tracy and Dave Buchan and their daughter Heather for a day of ringing at our local Wild Flower Garden.  It turned out to be a beautiful day with clear blue skies and not a breath of wind for most of the day.   We started out at the reasonable hour of 8.00am and put up only 4 nets. 

Within minutes Cape White-eyes were flying into the nets thick and fast. 

At the end of the day we ringed +- 60 birds and I added Brimstone Canary to my list of new species.  Most of the birds were White-eyes and we also recaught 5 birds that we ringed at our last session on the 29th of May.

Other than White-eyes, we caught Swee Waxbill, Cape Canary, Olive Thrush, Malachite Sunbird, Cape Robin-Chat and the Brimstone Canary.

We were visited by a little 4 striped mouse while we were busy, there seem to be quite a few of them in the garden.

Lesser Flamingo Painting up for grabs

For those of you who have not yet bought a ticket, I still have a few left... The BirdLife Eastern Cape bird club that kindly hosted me for the bird ringing course asked me to sell a few tickets for their fund-raising efforts.  This lovely original water colour by Graham Arnott is being raffled for a mere R30.00 a ticket.  Please let me know if you would like to be in the draw.

First Ringing Session in Franschhoek

On Saturday (29th May), Mike Ford from Hermanus joined us for the first ringing session at the Franschhoek Memorial Wild Flower Garden.

We were there at 6.00am and starting putting up nets towards the back of the garden.  Five nets were put up in the back paths and 3 under the large tree.  In no time at all, birds were finding their way into the nets and ringing could begin.  The sun takes a long time to get up and it was quite cold in the shadow of the mountain.  My hands were freezing until about 10.00am when  it eventually found us at our ringing station. 

Most of the birds caught were Olive Thurshes and Cape White-eyes but we were lucky enough to get two Malachite Sunbirds and two Southern Double-collared Sunbirds.

The huge flock of Red-wing Starlings that makes its way around the village every day were there for about an hour and we tried hard to get them in the nets, with one lonely one eventually making itself available to us to ring.  It was a female, as you can see from its grey head and is quite a handsome bird.

We also caught a Cape Batis, a  Cape Canary, a pair of lovely Swee Waxbills.

One of the best things about bird-ringing is that you get to study the birds up close and see things that you don't see when watching them from a distance, like this yellow petoral patch on the Malachite Sunbird.

In total we ringed 38 birds and I was able to add 6 new species to my list.  For me to get my own ringers licence, I have to ring 50 different species and a total of 500 individual birds.  I have now ringed 118 birds in total so still have some way to go.

We will be rinigng around the village every couple of weeks and if you are interested in joining us, please feel free.  I will let you know when we go out again and where we will be.  Also, if you happen to know of a good place for us to put our nets up, a place away from the public, with preferably quite a lot of bird activity, let us know.

The Fish Eagles are back at their nest in front of the Berg River Dam so if you have the opportunity, please go and see if you can see them.  We are not allowed to access the land at all but the nest is very visible from the road and if you take your bins with, you should see them easily.

Our next meeting is on the 9th of June and we will have two international speakers joining us so please come along.  Don't forget to bring your bird list for May along with you.

Happy birding....!  Robyn