A group of BDI people went bird ringing at Botuin, Vanrhynsdorp, from Sunday 2 June to Wednesday 5 June. The aim was to keep a consistent pattern of ringing going at this site, so we firstly build up the proportion of birds which are ringed, so that retraps become more frequent. With lots of retraps, we can start making estimates of annual survival rates for a few of the commonly ringed species. We do not know the survival rates for almost all the species we handle regularly here. Estimates of survival, and how they are changing through time, are one of the foundational pieces of knowledge needed to implement conservation recommendations.
We had some rain and lots of cold weather, with parts of South Africa experiencing floods and stormy weather. Nevertheless, we caught some great birds including African Hoopoe, Sickle-winged Chat, Yellow-bellied Eremomela (a first for me!), Rufous-eared Warbler, Namaqua Warbler, Fairy Flycatcher and Bokmakierie.
The most caught species was the Laughing Dove (11), followed by Red-faced Mousebird (4) and Cape Weaver (4). For the rest of the species, between one and three individuals were caught. At Botuin, 40% of birds caught were recaptures. This is fantastic in terms of our goal of estimating survival. The oldest birds were the resident pair of Fiscal Flycatchers, first ringed in January 2020. See list of previous ringing events (at Botuin and elsewhere) here. To join a ringing event, see calendar here.
Birds had completed primary moult, except for some doves and mousebirds.
Namaqua Dove with outermost primary completing moult (feather sheath is visible)
Among the doves we caught while bird ringing at Botuin was this red-eyed dove (in lower case!):
… it’s actually a Laughing Dove … look at this!
Table. Birds caught at Botuin & Gifberg, 2 to 5 June 2024
| Sp no | English | Botuin | Gifberg | Total | Retraps | |
| 317 | Laughing Dove | 11 | 11 | 2 | ||
| 318 | Namaqua Dove | 2 | 2 | |||
| 392 | Red-faced Mousebird | 4 | 4 | 1 | ||
| 418 | African Hoopoe | 1 | 1 | |||
| 463 | Large-billed Lark | 1 | 1 | |||
| 568 | Capped Wheatear | 1 | 1 | |||
| 570 | Familiar Chat | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 572 | Sickle-winged Chat | 1 | 1 | |||
| 581 | Cape Robin-chat | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 600 | Yellow-bellied Eremomela | 1 | 1 | |||
| 619 | Rufous-eared Warbler | 1 | 1 | |||
| 653 | Namaqua Warbler | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 658 | Chestnut-vented Warbler | 3 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 665 | Fiscal Flycatcher | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 678 | Fairy Flycatcher | 1 | 1 | |||
| 686 | Cape Wagtail | 1 | 1 | |||
| 707 | Southern Fiscal | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 722 | Bokmakierie | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 760 | Southern Double-collared Sunbird | 1 | 1 | |||
| 786 | Cape Sparrow | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 799 | Cape Weaver | 4 | 4 | |||
| 803 | Southern Masked Weaver | 2 | 2 | |||
| 866 | Yellow Canary | 1 | 1 | |||
| 873 | Cape Bunting | 1 | 1 | |||
| 1172 | Cape White-eye | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
| TOTALS | 40 | 9 | 49 | 16 |
Thanks to Salome and Lydiana for hosting us so well!
