Ringing

Yet another wonderful morning out ringing this morning. The weather forecast was perfect, clear day with no wind and no rain, and it did indeed turn out to be a perfect day. Surprisingly though, with such good weather the 43 birds we caught was a bit disappointing. That said, cool birds make up for low numbers and a Scaly-throated Honeyguide, Knysna Woodpecker, White-browed Scrub Robin and another Victorin’s Warbler made the day! At the same time, today was the launch of a new project looking at the blood plasma glucose levels in certain species in the fynbos. The hope is that at our long-term fynbos ringing site we can regularly catch certain species and this allows us to investigate the effect of time of day, season, temperature, and to some extent species and diet, on blood plasma glucose levels of naturally foraging birds. Quite excited to see what we are going to get out of this cool little project!

Knysna Woodpecker.

Scaly-throated Honeyguide.

Investigating Erica spp pollination with a Southern Double-collared Sunbird.

Interesting yellow colouration on a Cape White-eye.

A grumpy Victorin's Warbler.