A team of ringers visited Vyevlei dairy farm to ring Red-billed Quelea and other birds, as a follow up visit from Jan 2014. The team included John Fincham, Barry and Sue Schultz, and Jade, Jarryd and Bill Dunn.
Friday afternoon and Saturday were very windy but we still had a constant catch of birds. Sunday morning was calm. We caught more quelea on the first visit, and had one recapture (ring A74114).
Average moult score for 58 adult quelea in Jan (2014) was 17.7 and for 40 adult quelea in Feb (2015) it was 26.1.
The Red-billed Quelea shows wide variation in bill and mask colour, as shown below.
Thanks to Mr Jurie de Kock for allowing us to camp and ring on the farm!
Ringing totals (total caught = 317 birds):
Red-billed Queleas at Vyevlei in January 2015 by John Fincham
Black-winged Pratincole, found by John Fincham, at a dam near the ringing site. A bird way out of its normal range!
