The 23rd ADU Citizen Scientist Day was held at the BLSA Centre Wakkerstroom on 17 September 2016. On Friday afternoon, driving with Peter and Sandra Greaves, we surveyed the weaver nests along the R35 Bethal to Morgenzon, to Amersfoort and to Wakkerstroom. We found 7 colonies of 1 or 2 old nests on barbed wire fences and 4 colonies of 1-3 nests in trees. The fences provide new nesting sites for Southern Masked Weavers in grassland areas.
Nest on fence, PHOWN 24250
Habitat of same fence nest
On Saturday there was an early morning ringing demonstration for attendees. Rina Pretorius, Arjen van Zwieten, Sylva Francis (with Bradley Gibbons) and myself caught birds around the BLSA centre. The Cape Weaver males have much more orange on the head than those in Cape Town. One of the highlights was a Red-throated Wryneck.
Cape Weaver male
Red-throated Wryneck
There were about 50 people for the morning talks, and Brian Guerin, chair of the bird club, welcomed everyone. The speakers and talks were:
Peter Greaves - Go BIRPing
Peter Lawson - SABAP2: a personal adventure
Dieter Oschadleus - A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Peter Lawson - The Greater Kruger Park Challenge
Dieter Oschadleus - Virtual Museum
Malcolm Hepplewhite - Wild flowers of the Grassland region
Arjen ringing a Red-throated Wryneck
Brian Guerin's welcome
The Wakkerstroom Bird Club provided teas and a great lunch! After lunch Peter Greaves ran a workshop on how to contribute to the Virtual Museum, and it was very well attended. In the afternoon some of the ringers set up nets at the Amersfoort bridge in Wakkerstroom.
The next morning some of the ringers again set up nets at the Amersfoort bridge in Wakkerstroom. A large number of Southern Masked Weavers were caught. It was freezing cold - Brian's thrmometer showed 4C! Brian and Brenda brought hot coffee which saved us from the cold. In addition to many Southern Masked Weavers, there were a few Fan-tailed Widows but the males of the widow were not in breeding plumage yet.
Southern Masked Weaver male
Fan-tailed Widow male
Snow near Volksrust at Sunday lunch
Ringing totals by species for the weekend (includes recaptures):
Species
English
Totals
238
Three-banded Plover
1
431
Black-collared Barbet
1
453
Red-throated Wryneck
1
545
Dark Capped Bulbul
1
576
African Stonechat
2
581
Cape Robin Chat
1
604
Lesser Swamp Warbler
4
606
African Reed Warbler
1
646
Levaillant's Cisticola
3
686
Cape Wagtail
5
703
Cape Longclaw
1
707
Common Fiscal
4
722
Bokmakierie
1
746
Pied Starling
2
799
Cape Weaver
6
803
Southern Masked Weaver
70
805
Red-billed Quelea
6
808
Southern Red Bishop
12
816
Fan-tailed Widow
6
843
Common Waxbill
1
Totals
129
There were a few recaptures:
BH65106 was recaptured by Rina at the Bridge - I had ringed it here as an immature male Southern Masked Weaver on 20/03/2010, 6.5 years previously. There were also 3 Southern Masked Weaver retraps from 2012 and one from 2016 January.
BirdLife Northern Natal invited me to speak on Bird Migration in Newcastle on 19 Sept.
Thanks to the Wakkerstroom Bird Club for a really well organised Citizen Scientist day! Special thanks to the hopsitality of Brian and Brenda Guerin. Thanks to BLSA for the venue. Thanks to the speakers and participants from KwaZulu-Natal (Ladysmith, Dundee, Newcastle), Mpumalanga (Wakkerstroom, Standerton, Nelspruit) and Gauteng. Thanks to the ringers for persevering in the cold.