Ringing at Afdis, 18 Mar 2012

The settling ponds at Afdis, whilst not being the most fragrant ringing location, are one of the best spots for catching waders around Harare. On January 28 this year we caught 15 Three-banded Plovers - six were ringed on the day and nine were recaptures from previous ringing trips at Afdis. Five of these recaptures were originally ringed in January 2011.

Today we only caught one Three-banded Plover, despite there being at least 10 present. Instead we caught a Blacksmith Lapwing, six Wood Sandpipers and recaptured a Common Sandpiper (ringed Jan 2012).
One other ringed Blacksmith Lapwing was in the area, but we did not manage to recapture it to get the ring number.

Wood Sandpiper

The Wood Sandpipers were particularly interesting. Five out of the six captured showed a strange primary molt, where the 6-7 inner primaries were old, contrasting with the newer 3-4 outer primaries.

We did some reading later and learned that many Wood Sandpipers start molting before southward migration, then suspend their molt during the trip and complete it when they arrive in the tropics. This is likely the explanation for our birds, as they were adults. The only other scenario for old-new contrasting primaries applies to first-year birds.

Wood Sandpiper interesting primary molt

We also caught a good selection of warblers (Little Rush-, Lesser Swamp-, African Reed-, Great Reed- and Sedge Warblers), plus a bunch of weavers and bishops.