Paarl Bird Ringing

I have been so busy ringing at Intaka the past couple of months that I haven't been to the Paarl Bird Sanctuary this whole year yet.  Luckily I wasn't booked to do anything else yesterday so could join my ringing partner, Felicity there for a change.  It was a lovely sunny winters day so although it was chilly, it was very pleasant to sit there and ring our feathered friends.  We put up four nets and the birds came in steadily during the morning.  We had two helpers, Delene van Wyk and Pierre van Zyl and Delene took all the following pics for us.

 As usual, we had quite a few Southern Masked Weavers in the nets. They are real biters!  The males were just starting to show some signs of going into breeding plumage with their eye colours changing from brown to orange.  They will eventually be red.  The bills were starting to go black and some had the beginning of a black wash on their faces.

Felicity ringed this lovely male Malachite Sunbird in full breeding plumage.  That green is so striking.  When they are not breeding they have a mottled plumage of green and yellow which is referred to as being "in eclipse plumage".

 The next bird in the net was the female Malachite Sunbird which was already ringed.  Looking at my past data, it was a bird I ringed here back in 2011.  A nice recapture record.  Being a female, she does not have the lovely green colouration but has the same long bill as the male.

While checking her moult score (the age and condition of her primary wing feathers), I noticed some feather mites which I was pointing out to Delene.

One net caught two Levaillant's Cisticolas at the same time.  Both of them where already ringed.  They had been ringed by me back in 2013, also together. Would seem to suggest that these birds pair for life. Here Pierre and I remove one of them.

 The other little Cisticola being extricated by Felicity. They are tiny birds.

 I ringed one of my favourite local common garden birds, this Cape Robin-chat... the "me" bird. I come from the Cape, my name is Robyn and I like to chat.... fits perfectly.

 Only one little Karoo Prinia was ringed yesterday.

 I later caught another Levaillant's Cisticola which had not been ringed yet.

Our work station where Felicity's tail gate serves as her table.  Pierre standing by to look for birds in the nets.

My totals for the day:

Southern Masked Weaver = 7 (1 retrap - no data on the system)

Southern Red Bishop = 3

Lesser Swamp Warbler = 2

Cape Robin-chat = 2

Malachite Sunbird = 1 (1 retrap - ringed 24/09/11)

Levaillants Cisticola = 2 (1 retrap - ringed 25/5/13) - 2nd recaptured bird got away and was recaught an hour later and processed by Felicity.