Ringing weekend - 04.07.10

Phoebe Barnard and her husband Rob Simmons joined me in Franschhoek this weekend for some ringing.  Saturday morning was spent in the Museum Wild Flower Garden and we managed to net and ring 51 birds.  New members, John and Pat joined us for most of the morning and Pat had the opportunity to scribe for me while I was ringing... thanks Pat!

It was a beautiful day in Franschhoek and we caught a steady stream of birds including this lovely little Karoo Prinia.

On Sunday, we made our way up to Mont Rochelle and set up nets deep in the fynbos hoping to catch some Sugarbirds and Orange Breasted Sunbirds.  It was extremely misty at first and we marvelled at how the mist stormed past us and made the atmosphere quite eerie but very enjoyable.

We managed to catch 2 male Orange Breasted Sunbirds and 1 female.  They now have rings as well colour rings so if you see any OBS with either a white, blue or orange ring on their left leg, please let me know.

We also caught one Cape Robin-Chat and one Karoo Prinia.  Not many birds but it was wonderful to have the OBS in the hand.  We did see our logo bird, the Cape Rock Thrush (male and female) and a pair of Ground Woodpeckers.  There were a number of Sugar Birds but they seemed able to evade the nets every time so they are still on my "to-do" list.

It is our 1st anniversary meeting coming up on the 14th of this month so don't miss this special event... lots of nice goodies to give away, light supper served and interesting talk on gardening for birds.  See you there.

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.