Is it Ringing or Banding?

For some reason, what we call Ringing here in South Africa (and also in the UK), is called Banding in most other places in the world.   The ringers on our SAFring Facebook forum recently had a mini debate about this and it would seem that we are quite split on the issue.  Personally, I prefer Ringing but I guess it's just because that is what I have known from the start and I am not one to change things just to fit in with popular convention.  I love being unique and if we South Africans can remain unique by calling it something different to the rest of the world, then I'm all for it.

Why am I banging on about this issue?  Because I had a visit from a new friend, Jennie Stock, who is an ex-South African, now living in Australia and she is a "bander" who was looking for someone to "band" with while visiting her family in South Africa recently. She was in Montagu for her parents 50th wedding anniversary. It was my first direct experience with someone who is a "bander" but luckily, we "bonded" well over the ringing equipment so all went off very well. :)

Jennie "banding" a Cape White

I set up the nets in the Franschhoek Wild Flower Garden, my favourite place to ring in Franschhoek, early in the morning and Jennie and her husband arrived not long after.  The birds were hitting the net very quickly and I soon had a whole stick full waiting to be processed.  Jennie got stuck in right away and quickly picked up the little difference between our "ringing" and her "banding" processes.  She was eager to ring some of our endemic specials like the Cape Sugarbirds and our various Sunbirds.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any sunbirds but the extremely long-clawed Sugarbirds were more obliging.

Cape Sugarbird sporting a brand new ring/band

Little did I know that Jennie is also a fantastic photographer.  She came armed with her lovely camera and took some amazing photos of the birds she ringed.  Here are some of them.

Cape Canary

Cape White-eye

Beautiful Swee Waxbill (male)

Swee Waxbill (female)

Fiscal Flycatcher

In total we ringed 26 birds between 08:30 and 11:30.  The species are as follows:

Cape Sugarbird - 3

Cape White-eye - 14 (3)

Cape Canary - 2

Swee Waxbill - 3

Fiscal Flycatcher - 1

It was a fun morning and nice to ring with someone from the other end of the world for a change.  Hopefully I will get to Oz one day and do a bit of banding with Jennie.  She bands a lot of Rock Parrots there and they look so amazing, can't wait to get to hold one.  Cheers Jennie, thanks for the quick visit.

Rock Parrot by Jennie Stock