A Chance to Ring

At last, after a very long dry spell which included having major surgery on my abdomen, I have eventually been able to get out and do some real ringing.  

Yesterday I put up nets in a friends garden and only caught 2 Southern Masked-weavers, one Cape Weaver and a Southern Boubou that had been calling all day from the bush next to me. It was a glorious sunny day after the cold front that brought us 4 days of non-stop downpour.  I sat in the back garden, studying and soaking up the sun while watching the nets.

Southern Boubou - with very nice hook for biting!

This morning, Adel and I went to set up nets in the Franschhoek Wild Flower Garden behind the Huguenot Museum.  I have ringed here many times before but this is the first time this year that I have been there.  It was great to be back.  The sky was clear but it was still very cold in the shadow of the mountain at 8.00am.  As often happens, the first bird flew in the net while we were still busy putting it up.  I like to think this is a good sign for lots of birds during the morning.  It was the first of the very abundant Cape White-eyes.

Cape White-eye

The next one who came in for a ring was a "me" bird - a Cape Robin-chat.

Cape Robin-chat

Lots of birds were flying all around me and a large flock of Red-faced Mousebirds went past and I managed to get 3 in the net while another 3 flew in but didn't get caught.  They are quite large birds and tend to not get caught in the net meant for little passerines.

Red-faced Mousebird with tail of 122mm long

Look at this beautiful face.  Looks almost pre-historic.

Quite a few other birds flew into the net including a Brimstone Canary, Cape Bulbul, Olive Thrush, Southern Masked-weaver and a Cape Sugarbird.  The Sugarbird has such long claws, they literally dig into your skin and are quite painful.  This is because they need to hold on tightly to the protea heads when the wind is blowing a gale.  But they are so pretty, it is worth the pain to ring them.

Brimstone Canary - check that thick bill

Cape Sugarbird - this was a female so didn't have an exceptionally long tail

Cape Bulbul with nice big white eye wattle

Olive Thrush - a sub-adult

The garden was buzzing with a huge flock of Red-winged Starlings who were all chattering so loudly, it sounded like a steam-train going past.  They were feeding on many berry carrying plants in the garden.  I also saw a couple of Malachite Sunbirds, Fiscal Flycatchers, Swee Waxbills and I'm quite sure I spotted Cape Siskin but it flew off before I could get a good look at it.  They are not very common and I last saw one about 2 years ago.

Not surprisingly, I didn't get any re-caps.  Although I have been ringing in this garden since 2010, I haven't been here for such a long time.  Still, I have re-trapped birds almost every time I have been there, some that were ringed one or two years before.

Total for the two days:

Cape Weaver - 1

Southern Masked-weaver - 4

Cape Robin-chat - 1

Cape Bulbul - 4

Cape Sugarbird - 1

Brimstone Canary - 1

Cape White-eye - 5

Red-faced Mousebird - 3

Olive Thrush - 1