Weaver ringing trip to Nelspruit, 14-20 March 2011

Following the ringing and atlasing workshop at Barberspan I spent 4 days in Nelspruit to ring weavers with Rev Don Williams, prior to attending the BLSA annual meeting. My target was to handle more tropical weavers. Over 250 weavers (including bishops and widows) were ringed at two sites - Hall's Gateway (15 and 17 March) and Nelspruit Nature Reserve (16, 18 and 20 March). A total of 9 Ploceidae species were caught, showing that Nelspruit is a good place for weaver (and bird) diversity. PHOWN Virtual Museum records from this trip may be viewed here).

A large proportion of juvenile weavers was caught. Three species had good numbers of adults and more juveniles than adults: Spectacled Weaver (84% juveniles), Golden Weaver (67%), and Thick-billed Weaver (51%), indicating a very good breeding season for these species. Juvenile weavers all have brown eyes and may be difficult to identify, but there are subtle clues to look for, e.g. Golden Weaver has a long tail, and Village Weaver has a greyish back. Many Southern Red Bishops were caught at Hall's Gateway and these were found to be smaller than those in many other parts of South Africa.


Adult male Golden Weaver
Juvenile Spectacled Weaver, with orangy bill

The two sites that were ringed at, also produced some other interesting species, particularly a juvenile Cuckoo Finch. The hosts were probably Red-faced Cisticolas, several of which were caught in the same net.


Don with a weaver
Scarlet-chested Sunbird - Hall's Gateway

Juvenile Cuckoo Finch - Nelspruit NR
Adult Red-faced Cisticola - Nelspruit NR

The BirdLife South Africa annaul meeting was held from 18-20 March at Bundu Lodge outside Nelspruit. On Saturday there was a ringing demonstration at a small dam on the estate - few birds were present. On Sunday morning a ringing demonstration was held at the Nelspruit Nature Reserve near the Impala Road entrance.


Gail releasing a ringed Tambourine Dove,
Bundu estate
Ringing in the Nelspruit NR - Gail Schaum and
Julia Butchart

Species totals ringed in Nelspruit

Species English Hall's Gateway Nelspruit NR Bundu Lodge Sum
317 Laughing Dove 1 1
319 Tambourine Dove 3 1 4
390 Speckled Mousebird 2 2
431 Blackcollared Barbet 1 1
450 Cardinal Woodpecker 1 1
533 Arrowmarked Babbler 2 2
545 Blackeyed Bulbul 2 2
546 Terrestrial Bulbul 1 1
580 Heuglin's Robin 1 2 3
588 Whitebrowed Robin 2 2
599 Willow Warbler 1 1 2
603 Great Reed Warbler 2 2
606 African Marsh Warbler 1 1
644 Redfaced Cisticola 2 4 6
646 Levaillant's Cisticola 1 1
648 Lazy Cisticola 1 1
649 Tawnyflanked Prinia 1 1
763 Whitebellied Sunbird 1 1 2
774 Scarletchested Sunbird 2 2
791 Spectacled Weaver 3 17 20
792 Lesser Masked Weaver 7 7
797 Spottedbacked Weaver 48 13 61
799 Cape Weaver 1 1
801 Golden Weaver 2 42 44
804 Thickbilled Weaver 16 22 38
808 Southern Red Bishop 78 78
813 Redcollared Widow 1 2 3
816 Redshouldered Widow 6 6
823 Bronze Mannikin 1 1
833 Bluebilled Firefinch 3 3
838 Orangebreasted Waxbill 1 1
843 Common Waxbill 2 2
846 Pintailed Whydah 2 2
851 Steelblue Widowfinch 1 1
854 Cuckoo Finch 1 1
859 Yelloweyed Canary 2 2
860 Blackthroated Canary 1 1
863 Bully Canary 1 1
1172 Cape White-eye (split) 1 1
  Totals 190 117 4 311

Acknowledgements

Don Williams and Peter Lawson spent time before my arrival searching for suitable ringing sites.
Thanks to Don and Brenda Williams for their hospitality! Don provided ringing equipment, helped with the ringing and had organised permission to ring.
Thanks to Hugh Mooney for permission to ring on the Hall property. Thanks to TRAC Nelspruit for an 'afdak' and toilet facilities while ringing!