Wakkerstroom National Ringing Course, 1-8 December 2001

SAFRING Wakkerstroom National Ringing Training Course

1-8 December 2001

This event was held for the second time at BirdLife South Africa’s Wetland Centre at Wakkerstroom, Mpumulanga and was as successful as the previous one held here (December 2000) and the first one held at Witsand Nature Reserve in the Northern Cape (March 2000).

BirdLife South Africa’s Wetland Centre

Attendees at a lecture

The course was attended by 35 participants, including ringers and trainees, coming from as far as Zimbabwe and Germany, as well as different parts of South Africa.

Every morning attendees left at around 4 am to put up mistnets in the vlei, forest or other sites.

Extracting birds from mistnets at the Wakkerstroom vlei

Ringing table with interested bystanders!

Cliff Swallow colonies around Wakkerstroom were enthusiastically tackled again, with many being retrapped from the ringing sessions exactly one year ago.

Dries with his team mistnetting Cliff Swallows

Ringed Cliff Swallow

A large number of weavers, bishops and widows were ringed. The males in breeding plumage are easily identified, while the females provide more of a challenge.

Adult male Masked Weaver

Female Redshouldered Widow (left) and female Red Bishop (right)

With mistnetting there is always the possibility of exciting or unusual captures, like the African Marsh Harrier that got away, and the Hottentot Teal that didn’t!

Hottentot Teal

Dries Nel again led an outing to ring Bald Ibis chicks with metal and colour rings. Birders and ringers in Natal and Mpumulanga are requested to look out for these colour ringed birds and to report any sightings to SAFRING.

Ringed adult Bald Ibis

Colour ringed Bald Ibis chick, after being returned to its nest

Pied Starlings around the BirdLife homestead at Wakkerstroom have also been colour ringed by Steven Piper.

Colour ringed adult Pied Starling

If you are interested in attending a ringing workshop, watch our web page for details.

List of birds ringed, 1-8 December 2001, with a comparison of the 2002 Wakkerstroom workshop

Below are the totals for the two ringing workshops at Wakkerstroom. Ringing occurred at the wetland, forest and scrub areas on nearby farms, Cliff Swallows breeding on bridges within 10 km or so, and a Bald Ibis colony 40 km north of Wakkerstroom. The effort and specific sites varied in the 2 years. The number of ringers and trainees was 35 in 2001 instead of the nearly 60 of 2000, thus resulting in a lower total number of birds ringed. The top five birds ringed in both years were the same, i.e. Red Bishop, Cliff Swallow, Masked Weaver, African Marsh Warbler and Cape White-eye respectively. The numbers of these 5 species were higher in 2000, except for the African Marsh Warbler because of Kobie Raijmaker’s superb efforts at targeting warblers more effectively in 2001.