Ringing at Afdis (again!)

Just a week after the last ringing effort at Afdis, two of us went for a morning ringing session. The weather was great for ringing.. The sun makes it easy for the birds to see the nets, so the overcast conditions for most of the morning were really helpful.

We caught 21 birds during the morning, with six nets between the ponds and one between two fig trees. The best was a Marsh Sandpiper, with other good stuff like Wire-tailed Swallow, Streaky-headed Seedeater, Yellow-fronted Canary, Three-banded Plover, Blacksmith Lapwing and four Wood Sandpipers.

Wood Sandpiper.

Marsh Sandpiper.

Marsh Sandpiper back.

Wire-tailed Swallow.

There were six Black-winged Stilts at the ponds, but they seem too smart to get caught in a net! A couple of Ruff and a Green Sandpiper were also around and there were at least 10 Wood Sandpipers, so there is still a lot of potential for wader ringing at the moment.

Cave Exploring

Not really bird related, but still a very interesting experience.

My dad and I went for a day trip to explore limestone caves in Umfurudzi Safari Area. We had been told where to find them by Iain Jarvis from Hippo Pools camp, who has also been inside the caves.
As it was just the two of us, we didn't go very far into the caves - this was more of a test to make sure we knew what we were doing before bringing more people!

The entrance is a hole in the ground, large enough to climb into quite comfortably. The hole was guarded by a rather unpleasant bunch of hornets.
Once through the entrance, a short tunnel took us into a cavern about 20 by 15 meters across, with a 'ceiling' sloping towards the ground at one end. It was in this part of the cave where we realised that gumboots would be an excellent addition to the next trip - the cave floor was carpeted with a thick layer of bat guano! A narrow, near-vertical tunnel lead to the next part of the cave, but we didn't venture down. I spent a while in the cavern trying to photograph bats (they were flying out of the narrow tunnel, but not landing near me) and other inhabitants of the cave.

There were many strange invertebrates down there amongst the guano. This one was particularly eye-catching.
It is a species of Tailless Whip Scorpion.

I managed to photograph a bat, eventually! This is a species of Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus sp.).

The drive through the park was uneventful, and rather hot. I saw a pair of Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills, which I haven't seen in the area before. A large proportion of the park burned this dry season.

On the road out of Umfurudzi.

Ringing at Ewanrigg and Afdis

We ringed at Ewanrigg Botanical Gardens on Saturday the 13th. There were not many plants flowering or fruiting (all the aloes were completely finished flowering), so ringing was slow. We caught Streaky-headed Seedeater, Crested Barbet, Speckled Mousebird, a bunch of weavers and waxbills, and a pair of Long-billed Crombecs. We also re-trapped a male Black-backed Puffback, ringed in December 2011.

As usual with Ewanrigg, there were quite a few birds around. Ovambo Sparrowhawk, African Green-pigeon, Common House-martin, Western Violet-backed Sunbird and Red-headed Weaver, to name a few.

This female African Paradise-flycatcher was very quietly sitting on a nest.

A few days later, on the 16th, we went to Afdis in the evening to catch waders. There were lots around when we got there - About 10 Wood Sandpiper, plus a Marsh and Green Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, six Black-winged Stilts and a handful of Three-banded Plover.
Unfortunately, most of these birds didn't roost here! The plovers stayed behind, but most of the other things left.

We caught six Three-banded Plovers, three of which were ringed already. One from three weeks ago, one from 5 weeks ago, and one from June 2011.
We also caught two immature Blacksmith Lapwings. one of which was ringed three weeks ago.
The last bird we caught was also the most exciting; a Green Sandpiper.

Green Sandpiper. Noticeably bigger than Wood and Common Sandpipers.

Underwing of Green Sandpiper. If seen in flight, the dark underwing can be used as identification aid - Common and Wood sandpipers (and many others) have white on the underwing.

We also caught a trio of Yellow House Bats (Scotophilus dinganii). A pain to get out the net, but lovely to see anyway.

Seldomseen

I went with the ringing group to the Bvumba mountains for a weekend, where we stayed at a well known birding destination called Seldomseen. It was hot when we arrived on Friday the 28th of September, and Saturday was also uncomfortably warm.

Montane evergreen forest grows in patches on the Bvumba Mountains (and many other places in Zimbabwe's eastern districts) and Seldomseen is inside one of these forests. Most birds that we saw and captured are not found in Harare. Some are not found in the forests of South Africa, but do occur on mountains north of Zim. Examples are Stripe-cheeked Greenbul, White-tailed Crested Flycatcher and Swynnerton's Robin.
A couple are only found in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe and adjacent Mozambique; Roberts' Warbler and Chirinda Apalis.

Ground-level in the montane evergreen forest around Seldomseen Lodges.

We went at the beginning of the breeding season. Some birds were seen nest building, whilst many birds that were caught had a brood patch (which shows that the bird is sitting on eggs/chicks).

The nest of a White-tailed Crested Flycatcher

Peter told me that this Eastern Saw-wing nest has been used for over 20 years!

The ringing was very successful. On Friday we arrived in the afternoon, then put up nets for a few hours. In these few hours we netted 32 birds, 17 of which were Olive Sunbirds. Other species caught were Stripe-cheeked Greenbul, Orange Ground-thrush, Olive Thrush and White-starred Robin.

Olive Sunbird

White-starred Robin - these birds were difficult to photograph due to the low light conditions.

White-starred Robin in the hand - a gorgeous bird.

On Saturday we had the nets up most of the day and caught about 40 birds - Olive Sunbirds were the main catch once again, with Stripe-cheeked and Yellow-streaked Greenbul, Olive Thrush, Orange Ground-thrush, White-starred Robin, Swynnerton's Robin, Cape Robin-chat, White-tailed Crested Flycatcher, Roberts' Warbler, Yellow-throated Woodland-warbler, Tambourine Dove and a few others. On at least four occasions there was a Lemon Dove in the net, and every time it would escape before we could get near!

Tambourine Doves. Female (left) and male (right).

Swynnerton's Robin!

Barratt's Warbler.

Sunday morning came and we were greeted by the traditional Bvumba mist. We waited until it warmed up a bit before putting three nets up in the protea plantation, with the hope of catching sunbirds. I don't know the exact numbers, but we caught about 15 sunbirds there. Malachite Sunbird was the main catch (and the most spectacular!), with a few Olive, Variable and Collared Sunbirds. We also caught one Gurney's Sugarbird in the proteas.
That afternoon was a bit more relaxed, with only three nets up, and not many birds. In spring traps we caught a White-starred Robin and an African Dusky Flycatcher, which brought our total to 98 birds ringed!

The mist is quite eerie in the Bvumba, where it can reduce visibility to 30 meters, or less!

Malachite Sunbird male.

Mist net in the protea plantation.

Gurney's Sugarbird.

Collared Sunbird, male.

We caught about 15 birds that were already ringed. Many were our own rings used in 2010 and 2011, and some were ringed recently by someone else. One Orange Ground Thrush with the ring BD68998 was originally ringed in December 2003, almost 9 years ago! This particular bird was also recaptured by us in 2010.

Orange Ground-thrush.

Monday morning was misty once again, but it slowly got thicker and colder - eventually it was drizzling very lightly, so we weren't able to catch any birds.

The birdwatching was excellent over the weekend. We saw (or heard) about 50 species including the previously mentioned birds, plus birds such as Augur Buzzard, Livingstone's Turaco, African Emerald Cuckoo, Silvery-cheeked Hornbill, White-eared Barbet, Square-tailed Drongo, Chirinda Apalis, Wailing Cisticola, Olive Bush-shrike, Dark-backed Weaver, African Firefinch, Yellow-bellied Waxbill and Cape Canary.

The protea plantation was an excellent place to watch sunbirds, especially when the sun was out.
Female Collared Sunbird.

Gurney's Sugarbird.

Malachite Sunbird, male.

My first Silvery-cheeked Hornbill!

African Dusky Flycatcher.

The Bvumba is a wonderful place for lovers of all kinds of nature - not just birds.
During our stay, I went searching for frogs, reptiles and mammals, with some success:

Perhaps the best find was this miniscule Marshall's Dwarf Chameleon. They can grow much bigger than that, so this was probably a youngster.

Mutable Sun Squirrel.

Shovel-footed Squeaker (I think).

I even found an exciting butterfly; the Emperor Swallowtail.

On the way back we stopped at a bridge near Headlands. This area is the only known breeding site of South African Cliff Swallow in Zimbabwe. The beginning of October is a bit early to visit, nevertheless we saw 4 Cliff Swallows, which didn't stick around, and one nest under the bridge.

South African Cliff Swallow nest, being lined with feathers.