Our planned week at New Holme turned into 10 days, giving us extra days for ringing! Early mornings were cold, even freezing on Wednesday, but generally warmed up during the day.
For once, weavers were not at the top of the list. Instead Grey-backed Sparrow-lark made up the bulk of the trip’s catch. They were caught in 3 sessions at a water puddle. The number of biometrics exceeded the data in Roberts 7, so we published our values in Biodiversity Observations.
I had four ringing lifers on this trip: Pale Chanting Goshawk, Ruff, Burchell’s Courser, Stark’s Lark and Eastern Clapper Lark.
Two blogs on the BDI site for the trip are blog1, blog2. Thanks to PC Ferreira and the staff of New Holme Lodge for their amazing hospitality!
Ringing totals at New Holme, 1-10 Sep 2023
| Sp no | English | Count |
| 165 | Pale Chanting Goshawk | 1 |
| 237 | Kittlitz’s Plover | 3 |
| 238 | Three-banded Plover | 1 |
| 245 | Blacksmith Lapwing | 2 |
| 251 | Curlew Sandpiper | 1 |
| 253 | Little Stint | 2 |
| 256 | Ruff | 1 |
| 276 | Burchell’s Courser | 1 |
| 391 | White-backed Mousebird | 3 |
| 463 | Large-billed Lark | 1 |
| 474 | Spike-heeled Lark | 1 |
| 1183 | Eastern Clapper Lark | 2 |
| 485 | Grey-backed Sparrow-lark | 130 |
| 492 | Stark’s Lark | 1 |
| 544 | Red-eyed Bulbul | 1 |
| 1104 | Karoo Thrush | 4 |
| 568 | Capped Wheatear | 1 |
| 572 | Sickle-winged Chat | 1 |
| 581 | Cape Robin-chat | 1 |
| 606 | African Reed Warbler | 1 |
| 619 | Rufous-eared Warbler | 1 |
| 637 | Neddicky | 1 |
| 646 | Levaillant’s Cisticola | 4 |
| 4139 | Karoo Prinia | 4 |
| 686 | Cape Wagtail | 3 |
| 707 | Common Fiscal | 5 |
| 722 | Bokmakierie | 2 |
| 735 | Wattled Starling | 7 |
| 746 | Pied Starling | 11 |
| 786 | Cape Sparrow | 40 |
| 4142 | Southern Grey-headed Sparrow | 1 |
| 803 | Southern Masked Weaver | 33 |
| 805 | Red-billed Quelea | 45 |
| 808 | Southern Red Bishop | 30 |
| 871 | Lark-like Bunting | 21 |
| TOTAL | 367 |
