Counting African Oystercatchers on Robben Island : 17 May 2026
The African Oystercatchers on the coastline of Robben Island have been counted about 190 times since 2001. The earliest counts were of around 150 birds. The end...
Author: 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.
Bird ringing at Strandfontein Sewage Works : 16 May 2026
We grabbed the opportunity presented by a calm Saturday morning to do bird ringing at the Strandfontein Sewage Works (relevant permissions having been obtained)...
Bird ringing at Frogmore Estate/Zandvlei : 9 May 2026
Frogmore Estate is a suburb of Cape Town, a few kilometres north of Muizenberg, and bordering on Zandvlei. The Zandvlei Trust plays a key role in the conservati...
Bird ringing at Nuwejaars Wetlands SMA : 12 to 16 April 2026
This was our 12th bird ringing expedition to the Nuwejaars Wetlands Special Management Area. We arrived into a wet and windy few days at the end of what had bee...
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 di...
Open Day for bird ringing at Grotto Bay Private Nature Reserve : 29 November 2025
There is no record of the number of people who attended the Open Day for bird ringing at Grotto Bay, but it was probably roughly 40, both residents and visitors...
Bird ringing at Zandvlei, brunch at Marina da Gama : 20 December 2025
Ringers, plus family and friends, trainees and would-be trainees are invited to the end-of-year event on Saturday 20 December 2025. We will be bird ringing at Z...
Archive/Biodiversity/Bird ringing/Birds/Citizen Science/Data and statistics/Monitoring/News/Robben Island/Site report/Where
African Oystercatcher monitoring on Robben Island : 2025 to 2026
Introduction We have been monitoring the breeding of the African Oystercatchers Haematopos moquini on Robben Island since the summer of 2001/02. We have also mo...
Connecting to nature via bird ringing : Nuwejaars Wetlands : 2 to 7 November 2025
“How do we get people interested in the environment?” “How do people get connected to nature?” This gallery of photos, taken at the Nuwe...
Bird ringing at Ouberg : 14 to 17 February 2025
There is no pollution from city light. We are deep in the countryside. There is no moon. The night is dark. Above our heads, the Southern Cross and The Pointers...