26 June 2008

See ... and be seen!

I have won the wonderful support of the many farm owners in our district for SABAP2 and after asking their permission they allow me to roam their farms freely. The only problem is the ever present possibility of a criminal element. Most of the farmers in our area are stockfarmers and stock theft is a great problem. Some of the farmers asked me to find a way to make myself more visible to themselves, their workers and the SAPS patrolling the farm roads as any vehicle moving slowly along in the farming areas is treated with suspicion. The outcome was to have these door magnets made by a local signage firm. When I am out atlasing in the district I always have them on my car doors. The effect is that some of the farm workers now know the reason for my visit and they point out interesting observations they have made since my last visit to me. It helps me to get them involved in SABAP2 by reporting sightings to me and I have a way to engage with them about conservation in general and birds in particular. Even in town people stop and ask me about the magnets and I have a nice point of contact to get them interested. Now I can go out to see the birds ... and I am seen for who I am.

22 June 2008

Swainson's Spurfowl trekking south

The first year of SABAP2 is nearly finished and I have observed the following range expansion of the Swainson's Spurfowl (Pternistis swainsonii) in my surveys. After Deon du Plessis commented (see post of 25.05.2008) on his observations of this species through the 1990's, I started to look out particulartly for them. On 16.06.2008 I observed 5 birds in a small family covey along the Melkspruit at S30.76249 E26.65912 (in pentad 3045_2635 and QDGC 3026DC). The birds were foraging near the edge of a fallow land – nearer to the taller growth where there were enough protection should the need to hide arise.

This is the most southerly of my own observations thus far – 16,5km more southwest than the spots Deon had mentioned in his comment. It corresponds with Deon's suggestion that the birds expand their range along the rivers and streams – especially with the abundance of food in cultivated lands and where other agricultural activity suiting them occur. Interestingly enough my observations of these birds here on the southwestern border of their range were always in the vicinity of generous water supply – larger farm dams that would have water through the dry season and perennial streams. According to the literature, they normally drink very regularly - in the morning and evening.
For the most up to date distribution map of the species, follow this link: http://sabap2.adu.org.za/species_maps.php?Spp=185

15 June 2008

To the NORTH and the SOUTH...

Yesterday was a very nice day out in the field – the weather was fine and sunny and the light good to have clear sightings. I atlased two pentads – the one just to the north of my home pentad, and later in the morning the one just to the south of my home pentad. The surveys were return visits to both the pentads and each has been covered for a third time.
3035_2640 is the pentad just to the north of the town of Aliwal North. Despite the fact that it is winter at the moment, I've added 10 new species to the tally of species already observed in the pentad in the previous surveys. The Hamerkop nest (reports in earlier posts) is one of the features of this pentad – and yesterday I observed the pair of birds on a boulder just above the new nest. Interestingly two Hadeda Ibises were sharing the same boulder with the Hamerkops– the birds sunning themselves in the early morning. Among the new additions was a Malachite Kingfisher (Alcedo cristata). We could watch it for quite a long time where it was actively hunting for water insects from it’s perch at a farm dam. The first hour of the survey added 36 species, in the second another 9 was added and the third only added 4 new species to the survey list. A single Greater Kestrel and three Black-shouldered Kites hunting together over a stretch of grassveld were the only raptors seen.

The second pentad for the day was 3045_2640 – just to the south of town. The first tick was a pair of Anteating Chats on the fence – they are quite abundant in our area. The second sighting of the survey was a Lanner Falcon (Falco biarmicus) which is quite rare in our region. Unfortunately it only gave me a few seconds to take a picture before it flew off. It nevertheless was a great sighting. The tally for the pentad grew from 63 to 75 unique species – again despite the fact that is winter and activity amongst birds are generally lower in winter. I counted 45 species in total in the 2 hours of surveying the pentad. Except for the Lanner Falcon, I saw a Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk on two separate occasions and a single Black-headed Heron (the only one for the day).

13 June 2008

The drought has been broken!

Today, while atlasing pentad 3045_2650, towards the south east of Aliwal North, I had been very lucky to spot a new species for my year list - taking the total to 281. The last new addition to the year list had been a little more than a month ago on 08.05.2008. This new addition is somewhat of a rarity in our part of the country and unfortunately it had been too far off to take a photo.
A Black-chested Snake Eagle was the reason for my heart to skip a beat or two. It was sitting in a large willow tree near the edge of a farm dam near the farmstead of Braamspruit. It was strange to observe this raptor here near a dam - but Roberts VII states that they sometimes take water monitors as prey. The sun was baking on the little rocky outcrop bordering the eastern side of the dam - and it may well have been that the eagle was looking around for a titbit seeking the warmth of the winter sun and letting down its guard for a second too long.
Two other "specials" for the afternoon were a pair of Grey Crowned Cranes and a Yellow-bellied Eremomela. The cranes were wading in the shallow, marshy end of a farm dam (with a lot of growth in the water) on the farm Lucerne. I spotted the eremomela flitting from low bush to low bush while I had been looking at a pair of Yellow Canaries through my binoculars. The eremomela showed so well and it was easy to positively identify it.
The total count for the afternoon was 44 species. Strangely enough - the eagle was the only raptor of the day. The area is normally frequented by Black-shouldered Kite, Greater and Rock Kestrel and Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk. I have observed an African Harrier-Hawk as well on previous surveys of the pentad. Some of the regulars were: Common Fiscal, Pied and Cape Glossy Starling, Cape and Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Southern Masked and Cape Weaver, Helmeted Guineafowl and the Egyptian Geese that are nearly always present in the largest part of the district. A flock of Red-billed Quealea (about 60-80 birds) were seen as well.
My total score of species for this specific pentad is 107. Today's count is till to be added. I'll update the score as soon as I get back the results of today's survey from the ADU by early tomorrow. (After the update on 14.06.2008, the score is 111 species with one unvetted record.)

08 June 2008

Thin blue lines

(Click to enlarge)


The thin blue lines on the image are the different tracks that I have driven to survey the area for the 2nd Southern African Bird Atlas Project in the larger Aliwal North area. The squares are the pentads (see earlier post for description) in which the surveys are done according to the research protocol. The tracks are recorded with a Garmin GPSmap76 CS receiver with an external aerial. These are only the tracks that I have driven - the GPSr is mounted in the car and is just too much trouble to remove and refit it every time I get out to walk to a ridge, a dam or an outcrop to scan the area for bird activity. On average the distance traveled within a pentad is between 35 and 40km - excluding the distances walked away from the stationary vehicle.



I prepare the outlines of the pentads beforehand and then upload it from computer to the GPSr before I go out on the field surveys. This way I know the borders of the different pentads clearly - ask permission from land-owners - and go out in the field and enjoy myself while atlasing. I like to use the available technology to help me enjoy the atlasing project and birding in general. When scarcer species and larger raptors are observed, I record a GPS waypoint and these are fed into my database of sightings and nesting spots.

05 June 2008

Hamerkop has a new apartment

A few days ago a friend who had read the previous post (see archive) about the nest of the Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta), alerted me about another nest in the same vicinity. I went out today to have a look at the site and here is what I found.

Previously I have observed that the old nest was damaged and that a large part of the material had been lost down the cliff - either blown off the cliff by wind or some other form of "disaster" like the dassies sharing the cliffs bumping it off.
Great was my surprise today to see that the nesting material had not been lost, but was used to lay the foundations of a new apartment merely 40m from the original site.
New material was brought in as well and a brand new nest built. Some of the material carried in for the new apartment on the cliff is still green and apart from grass and sticks I could recognise the dry flowering parts of aloes.
I cannot confirm for sure that it is the same pair of birds that built the new nest - but I suspect that they have chosen this spot to stay. The cliffs guarantee safety and with the large dams in the area food is in good supply.
The birds normally breed from July to January - so they are most probably preparing for the new season ahead.

Winter is here ... finally!

Winter has finally arrived in our part of the country. Except for a very cold spell over one week-end in April, we had a very mild winter and birding went quite well. Since last Friday (30 May) we had 42 mm of rain - and the rainy weather lasted till Tuesday. It was cloudy and overcast and the rain was falling softly and intermittently like in the Western Cape - quite exceptional for our part of the country where we are used to thunderstorms in summer.


With the onset of the cold I've made a few interesting observations. Suddenly the birdfeeder in the garden is visited by more species and with greater urgency - the Cape Weaver just try and to occupy the feeder for itself. Species seen around the feeder are: Cape Weaver, Cape Sparrow, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, House Sparrow and only once this week a Cape Canary. Other regular visitors to the birdbath where they drink, are: African Red-Eyed Bulbul, Cape Glossy Starling, Common Starling, Laughing Dove and Cape Turtle Dove. Two others that are quite at home are the Common Fiscal (raised quite a few chicks from their nest in the lemon tree in the past few seasons) and the little flock of Red-Faced Mousebirds doing their rounds in the neighbourhood.


The Karoo Thrush, which is a regular visitor to the garden, suddenly "disappeared" with the colder conditions. I assume they move to the well wooded kloofs around town - especially those fronting eastward. These kloofs are a lot warmer than in the open in town. The other regular to the garden - the Cape Robin-Chat - is a lot quiter as well and is not heard calling that regularly in the morning anymore.
Another regular that is conspiciously absent the last few days is the Bokmakierie. A pair of these birds called their duet early every morning from the bare branches of the trees in the garden - but it seems as if winter has eventually got them as well. It is quite strange not to hear them from their perch.


At least the sun is shining again and I look forward to a weekend of birding and atlasing in the district. There are a few pentads just waiting to be done!
(Photo: Johan vd Westhuizen)

01 June 2008

Emerging trends #1

A first interesting trend is emerging from the data that I have collected for SABAP2 - the second bird atlasing project in Southern Africa.


(Click on graph to enlarge)
The accompanying graph shows the averages of species observed in different months after the first 11 months of the project.

A difference of 16.8 species is seen between the highest (summer) and lowest (winter) averages. The migratory birds had left and the change in weather conditions as well as seasonal migration can all be possible explanations for the development of this trend.

The data of 103 field sheets is included in the calculation of the averages - no surveys had been done at the very beginning (July 2007) and June 2008 will be the last month of the first year.

The surveys were done in 57 different pentads - from the Western Cape (including the West Coast, Swartland and Karoo), Eastern Cape (from the sea towards Aliwal North on the Orange River), North West Province and different parts of the Free State.

The project is still in the very early stages and this trend is by no means a picture of the whole project. What is reflected here, are my own observations from data in my personal database.

Please return to the blog to witness the moves and trends developing over time or visit http://sabap2.adu.org.za/index.php for up to date information on SABAP2.