Bird ringing at Zandvlei, brunch at Marina da Gama : 20 December 2025

Saturday. 20 December. was the Open Day for bird ringing. We had two locations arranged for the ringing, so that there was space for everyone. At sunrise, we discovered that we had chosen a day with the same weather conditions as for the analogous event last year: a stiff southeaster.

Bird ringing at Zandvlei brunch at Marine da Gama

So we were not hopeful of hugely successful event from the ringing perspective. And so it proved; nevertheless, we did better than last year, from a numbers perspective, by five birds!

Species	Frogmore Estate	Promenade Road	Total for 2025	Total from 2024
Pied Kingfisher				1
Malachite Kingfisher	1	1	2
Cape Bulbul	2	1	3
Lesser Swamp Warbler	4	2	6	4
African Reed Warbler	2		2	2
Little Rush Warbler	1		1	2
Cape Sparrow	2		2	3
Cape Weaver	5	2	7	7
Southern Masked Weaver		1	1	2
Yellow Bishop				1
Karoo Prinia	2	1	3
Totals	19 birds, 8 species	8 birds, 6 species	27 birds, 9 species	22 birds, 8 species

The species composition was similar between the two years. One of the Cape Weavers was a retrap from 2021.

Promenade Road. Bird ringing at Zandvlei brunch at Marine da Gama

Ringing table at Promenade Road …

Frogmore Estate. Bird ringing at Zandvlei brunch at Marine da Gama

… and at the end of Lake Road, Frogmore Estate. The two sites are almost exactly 1 km apart, and both have broadly similar reedbed habitats:

Nets. Bird ringing at Zandvlei brunch at Marine da Gama

… the reedbed at the end of Lake Road, Frogmore Estate.

So it is not surprising that we mistnetted a Malachite Kingfisher at both sites!

African Reed Warbler. Bird ringing at Zandvlei brunch at Marine da Gama

African Reed Warbler at Frogmore Estate.

Helmeted Guineafowl ruffled by the wind: Bird ringing at Zandvlei brunch at Marine da Gama

Neither the ringers nor the guineafowl appreciated the wind.

The Red-eyed Doves kept watchful left eyes on ringing proceedings below from the safety of an electrified fortress in Lake Road.

The Frogmore Estate ringers were gathered on the corner of a vacant plot. Under normal circumstances, a Spotted Thick-knee which was simply roosting would have moved off. So it was clearly on guard duty, also keeping an eye on us …

Spotted Thick-knee on guard duty. Bird ringing at Zandvlei brunch at Marine da Gama

… the mate was incubating two eggs, and screened from view by a combination of a small depression for the nest, and a row of low plants on the road side of the nest:.

The ringing was followed by brunch in Marina da Gama. We got too engrossed in conversations to take photos, so there is no record of the event!

We are all grateful to Richard and Sue Gie for hosting us. Greatly appreciated by everyone present.

Hopefully Saturday, 19 December 2026, the scheduled date of the Third Annual Bird Ringers Open Day, will not be so windy. Go to the last line of the 2026 programme of events!