Archive/Bird ringing/Birding/Birds/Citizen Science

Open Day for bird ringing : Grotto Bay [originally planned for 15 November 2025, but postponed to] 29 November 2025

Posted on by Les Underhill

The BDI is holding an Open Day for bird ringing at Grotto Bay on Saturday, 29 November 2025 15 November 2025. We will be hosted by the local community at Grotto Bay Private Nature Reserve. The reserve has an area of 385 ha, and the vegetation consists of Strandveld and Sandveld. It is about 60 km north of Cape Town, turning off the R27. We meet at the Conservation Centre within the reserve.

Two of our previous bird ringing visits to Grotto Bay have blogs describing the events: they were on 27 May 2023 and 31 August 2024. The privilege of being a ringer is the opportunity to see birds like this Long-billed Crombec up close, and to see the detailed structure of the feathers. There is a description of the value of bird ringing here.

Long-billed Crombec. Open Day for bird ringing : Grotto Bay 15 November 2025
Long-billed Crombec, ringed at the Open Day for bird ringing at Grotto Bay Private Nature Reserve on 31 August 2024. The Long-billed Crombec has a remarkably short tail. It is only when you see this bird in the hand that you can actually see the size of the tail feathers. Photo : Suzette Vorster

There is lots of space, so ringers are welcome to bring their own nets and ringing equipment. Afterwards we will make a total list of all birds ringed, and produce a blog for the event.

The reserve is not open to the public, so you will not just be able to arrive on the morning of the event! You will gently be turned away with 100% certainty! If you plan to attend, please send an email to me at les@thebdi.org before Tuesday 25 November 11 November. In the email, please include the registration of the vehicle you will travel in, plus ID number and cell phone number. That information is used to pre-arrange entrance at the gate. Information and a code of conduct for visitors to the Grotto Bay Private Nature Reserve is here.

Sunrise on 29 November 15 November is at 05h28 05h35. So the best time to arrive if you are planning to put up mist nets is around 05h00. Otherwise come anytime early in the morning; 07h30 to 08h00 is probably about optimal! We will probably have left by 12h00.

Cape Robin. Open Day for bird ringing : Grotto Bay 15 November 2025
One of the most important components of being trainied as a bird ringer is to learn the skill of being able to extract birds from mistnets safely. This Cape Robin-chat was ringed on 31 August 2024. We might well retrap this bird on 15 December 2025. Photo : Suzette Vorster

There is a list of all the upcoming BDI events here. After Grotto Bay, the next Open Day for bird ringing will be on 20 December 2025, at Zandvlei. This will be ringing followed by brunch.

Links to reports of previous events are here, and there is a blog about the value of bird ringing to research and conservation here.

Les Underhill
Les Underhill
Prof Les Underhill was Director of the Animal Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town from its start in 1991 until he retired. Although citizen science in biology is Les’s passion, his academic background is in mathematical statistics. He was awarded his PhD in abstract multivariate analyses in 1973 at UCT and what he likes to say about his PhD is that he solved a problem that no one has ever had. He soon grasped that this was not the field to which he wanted to devote his life, so he retrained himself as an applied statistician, solving real-world problems.