Bird ringing at Ouberg: 14 to 17 February 2023

A “BDI – Birds4Africa” ringing visit was held from 14 to 17 February 2023 at the Ouberg Private Nature Reserve in the Little Karoo near Montagu. This was a relaxed few days of bird ringing at Ouberg with several attendees spending time working, birding and ringing as each person wanted to.

The first afternoon was hot, but thereafter we had mostly overcast weather, and the forecast heavy rain came just after everyone had left.

133 birds were caught of 24 species, with top species being Southern Masked Weaver (29), Cape White-eye (16), Cape Bulbul (14) and Cape Weaver (14). Special species were a female Cardinal Woodpecker, a Pearl-breasted Swallow, 4 Sombre Greenbuls and 2 Fairy Flycatchers. Quite a few other Karoo species included: Karoo Scrub Robin, Rufous-eared Warbler, Long-billed Crombec, Bar-throated Apalis, and Chestnut-vented Tit-babbler.

Most birds were moulting primaries, although some had not started yet and others had completed moult.

There were 13 recaptures, some from earlier days of this trip, and others from previous visits to the farm – there were four retraps that were were ringed in Oct 2020 and five from Oct 2022. The 2020 trip was on 21-25 October 2020 when 164 birds were ringed of 35 species (more nets were used on this trip). The ringer for the 2022 trip was Felicity Ellmore.

Thanks to Richard and Sue Gie for hosting us! Here is Sue doing a talk about the Ouberg Private Nature Reserve.

Table – Result of bird ring at Ouberg. Numbers of birds caught, 14-17 February 2023