Industrial biodiversity 3 : an hour spent replacing tyres in Maitland
Birds succeed in making a living in pretty hard circumstances. This includes the jungles of tar, concrete, wires with assorted purposes strung between poles, wi...
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.
Flowers and feathers: Vanrhynsdorp : 4 to 7 August 2024
We visited Botuin Cottages between 4 and 7 August to enjoy the spring flowers and do some birding and ringing. Flowers and feathers. It was also a test run to e...
Suburban wetlands 1 : Liesbeek River, Observatory
Having started out in life on the eastern buttress of Table Mountain, the Liesbeek River loses its freedom and is condemned to run most of its course imprisoned...
Archive/Biodiversity/Birding/BirdPix/Birds/Citizen Science/Industrial biodiversity/Site report/Virtual Museum
Industrial biodiversity 2 continued : Black River in Paarden Island : stormwater drain
In October 2019, the piece of the Black River between the N1 and Section Street in the City of Cape Town looked like this: It was described in a 2019 blog as a ...
Commercial biodiversity 1 : birds at Northgate Business Park
We tend to be dismissive of the idea that “development” can be any good for “biodiversity”. Northgate Business Park was clearly designed...
How many pairs of breeding White Storks are there in South Africa in 2024?
The mountains in the background to this pair of breeding White Storks look like they could easily be in Europe. But these are the mountains behind Paarl in the ...
Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
Cover image: Ruddy Turnstone by John and Anne Todd, 9 April, at St Helena Bay in the Western Cape, South Africa. Most of the turnstones in this photograph are a...
RAVE : Days 12 and 13 (8 and 9 December 2023)
The first week of the RAVE (RAVE = Ringing, Atlasing, Virtual-museuming Expedition) was spent at Botuin, Vanrhynsdorp, and the report on the first four days, is...
Archive/Biodiversity/Bird ringing/Birding/BirdPix/Citizen Science/LacewingMAP/LepiMAP/OdonataMAp/Paardeberg/ReptileMAP/Trip report/Virtual Museum
RAVE : Days 8 to 11 (4 to 7 December 2023)
On 4 December, the RAVE scene moved to Vondeling Wine Farm, and the eastern edge of the Paardeberg. (RAVE = Ringing, Atlasing, Virtual-museuming Expedition.) Th...
RAVE (Ringing, Atlasing, Virtual-museuming Expedition) : Days 1 to 4 (27 to 30 November 2023)
The first data collection spot on the RAVE was the low level bridge across the Olifants River, a kilometer from the turnoff to Algeria on the N7 from Cape Town ...