The BDI hosted the eighth bird ringing course from 1 to 7 May, this time at Ouberg Private Nature Reserve in the Klein Karoo, north of Montagu. This was the first visit here since the RAVE in December 2023 (see list of previous ringing events here).
A highlight of this trip was the opening of the new De Kuile campsite. The camp consists of four permanent tents on wooden platforms, an ablution block and a large dining hall. Although some nights were cold, having beds with warm duvets kept the campers warm!
The focus was on ringing at different sites where the drainage lines crossed gravel roads. Ringing totals were low, as reflected in the low number of sparrows and weavers caught – there were simply few of these birds present. The top species was Cape Bulbul (n=14), and 28 species were caught. Some species are always special in the hand, including two Fairy Flycatchers, a Cape Batis and three Bokmakieries.
17 individual birds were caught in spring traps, involving 11 species: Karoo Chat, Familiar Chat, Cape Robin-chat, Karoo Scrub Robin, Grey-backed Cisticola, Fiscal Flycatcher, Cape Wagtail, Common Fiscal, Bokmakierie, Cape Sparrow, and Cape Bunting.
There were 16 recaptures from earlier bird ringing at Ouberg. 13 of these were recaptured at the same micro-site as where they were ringed. Three birds had been ringed at the farm house on previous visits in 2023 and were retrapped at a different site this week – Olive Thrush 403945 to Dip 1, Southern Masked Weaver BE72618 to Dip 2, and Southern Fiscal CC21123 to Dip 1 and Dip 2.
The last afternoon and morning produced some interesting birds for the farm. A Southern Tchagra was noticed and we tried calling it into the nets but it kept flying in the tree tops. There was also a small flock of Cape Penduline Tit, and they flittered around the nets without touching the nets. The very last bird caught in the nets was a Namaqua Warbler, a bird we thought we heard the previous day so the ringing catch was confirmation – the first record of this species on the farm!
The overall total for the week was 101 birds of 28 species, detailed in the table below.
Totals for bird ringing at Ouberg, 1 to 7 May 2024, by micro-site
| Sp no | English | House | Dip 1 | Dip 2 | Dip Main | Total |
| 391 | White-backed Mousebird | 1 | 1 | |||
| 392 | Red-faced Mousebird | 1 | 1 | |||
| 543 | Cape Bulbul | 14 | 14 | |||
| 566 | Karoo Chat | 1 | 1 | |||
| 570 | Familiar Chat | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 581 | Cape Robin-chat | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| 583 | Karoo Scrub Robin | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |
| 609 | Little Rush Warbler | 1 | 1 | |||
| 621 | Long-billed Crombec | 2 | 2 | |||
| 622 | Bar-throated Apalis | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||
| 638 | Grey-backed Cisticola | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 653 | Namaqua Warbler | 1 | 1 | |||
| 658 | Chestnut-vented Warbler | 2 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 665 | Fiscal Flycatcher | 4 | 4 | |||
| 672 | Cape Batis | 1 | 1 | |||
| 678 | Fairy Flycatcher | 2 | 2 | |||
| 686 | Cape Wagtail | 1 | 1 | |||
| 707 | Southern Fiscal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| 722 | Bokmakierie | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| 760 | Southern Double-collared Sunbird | 3 | 3 | |||
| 786 | Cape Sparrow | 7 | 2 | 9 | ||
| 799 | Cape Weaver | 1 | 1 | |||
| 803 | Southern Masked Weaver | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 843 | Common Waxbill | 4 | 4 | |||
| 873 | Cape Bunting | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1105 | Olive Thrush | 2 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 1172 | Cape White-eye | 6 | 2 | 1 | 9 | |
| 4139 | Karoo Prinia | 4 | 2 | 6 | ||
| TOTALS | 46 | 13 | 16 | 26 | 101 |
We also did some bird atlasing for SABAP2. We made full protocol checklists for eight pentads: 3335_2025 (30 species), 3335_2020 (39 species), 3330_2010 (20 species), 3330_2015 (27 species), 3340_2015 (40 species), 3325_2015 (43 species), 3330_2035 (55 species) and also 3330_2040 (55 species).
We also made a substantial contribution to the Virtual Museum. May is a bit late for the dragonflies still to be flying. So here are four of the contributions made to OdonataMAP:
Thanks to Richard, Sue, Dan and team for building an amazing camp, and to Sue for hosting us so well!
