Nyanga Ringing June 2012

Maybe winter is not the best time of year to visit one of Zim's coldest places... There were not all that many birds around!

We (the usual group of four ringers, plus a couple of others) stayed in a lovely cottage just around the corner from Troutbeck Hotel in Nyanga. We arrived on Saturday afternoon (16th June) and had nets up for half a day on both Saturday and Monday, plus the whole of Sunday. On the property was a fair bit of forest and two rivers which flowed into a small dam at the bottom of the garden.

The view from the cottage

We left up the poles during the nights, only packing up the nets, in order to hasten the setting up of nets the next morning. Well, I am certainly glad I took gloves with me, as early in the morning the lawn, trees and poles were covered in a thin layer of ice! Perhaps that was why there were so few birds around - they were all frozen...

We did, however, catch some lovely birds. A Mountain Wagtail was caught, and a different one was seen with a ring (Julia had ringed some birds at this spot earlier in the year).  A Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler was also caught, as well as two stunning White-starred Robins. Olive Sunbird, Cape Robin-chat and Cape Batis were among the other species caught.

The White-starred Robins were particularly interesting because according to Irwin's Birds of Zimbabwe these birds vacate the highlands during winter and move to lower elevations - perhaps to escape the cold. Why are these two still in Nyanga in the middle of winter? There must be more still in the area; if not for having caught them we wouldn't have even known they were around.

African Olive-pigeons and White-necked Ravens flew past every day, plus an African Goshawk on one morning. Quite a few eastern highlands 'specials' were seen in the garden including Cape Canary, Stripe-cheeked Greenbul, a few groups of Roberts' Warbler, White-tailed Crested Flycatcher and Livingstone's Turaco. A pair of African Black Duck, which live on a dam further downstream, flew past often.

Male Olive Sunbird. Note the bright yellow pectoral tufts, which the females don't have.

Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler. The smallest bird caught on the trip at 8.5 grams!

Definitely the prettiest bird caught; White-starred Robin

During the moments when we were waiting for an unsuspecting bird to get itself caught, I decided to do something useful; I went looking for other creatures to photograph. I found a few Swynnerton's Reed Frogs, a few lizards and a couple of dead shrews, which may have been victims of the cold conditions.

These lizards were all over the rockery in front of the cottage. Not yet sure what species they are.

A beautiful adult Swynnerton's Reed Frog.

Another frog, which I suspect is the same species as above, but a juvenile, explaining the lack of stripes.

A short walk from the cottage was a waterfall, upon which I decided to practice some long exposure photography. Stupidly, I forgot to take my tripod with, but I managed to make a plan. I sacrificed my gloves to use as a beanbag, of sorts, for the camera! With a shutter speed of 10 seconds, here is the result...