More eggs

More interesting eggs!

A mini egg!

Interesting colouration.

There are a few eggs in the colony with paler colours.

The aftermath of a day in the field.

Oystercatchers!

The first Oystercatcher nest has been found, with 2 eggs! Another important part of Shirley’s project has begun! Starting with catching and ringing the pair. Interestingly, the first nest was found on lookout beach, the site with the highest anthropogenic disturbance. We managed to catch one of the pair, but the second individual was not going to go into the trap. It was such a pleasure ringing the oystercatcher, compared to the gulls which bite and struggle and all too often cover us in poo. I look forward to ringing more of these birds, and hopefully we will find more nests.

The oystercatcher eggs.

The first trapped bird of the season!

Shirley with her first African Black Oystercatcher!

Lookout

Another day out at the Lookout colony.

Evidence of eating octopus.

The birds do not like us in the colony. Photo by Mark Brown.

And definitely don't like me fiddling with their eggs. Photo by Mark Brown.

Chicks

The first chicks have hatched! They are so precious, so cute and fluffy! Soon the site will be teeming with mobile fluffballs which in due time will turn into squawking replicas of their parents.

Incubation - you're doing it wrong.

A just-hatched chick, almost out of the egg.

All dried out and downy.

They are precious creatures.

I got distracted..

GPS logger

We have our first GPS logger back! I was quite glad to get it back, catching the bird was a worry as well as the concern about whether the logger would stay on, but we got it! The data from it is so interesting; the bird spent a lot of time at the dump and we got no GPS points out at sea. The start of an interesting story!

The logger stayed on!

A very interesting story of the bird's movements.

Interesting eggs

The eggs come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colouration.

Robberg

Robberg finally has eggs! And now I am grateful for the often strong winds on Robberg; it makes any divebomb attempts a little difficult! It was low tide and I enjoyed a break investigating some rock pools where I found the most amazing cushion stars! The beach was also teeming with sea snails, most buried up to the shells in the sand. Robberg always has an interesting sight to offer!

Cushion stars in the rock pool.

Nothing else to do when incubating but nap.

Sea snails.

So many sea snails!

GPS logger

We have deployed our first GPS logger! Exciting times! It was a nerve-racking experience, and a grumpy bird did not help at all! We caught it relatively easily but the rest of the process was not easy at all! We put a colour and metal ring on it, and did the standard measurements as well as affixed the logger onto its back. A smooth release and then it was in the water, washing all the human (how disgusting!) off. There were cheers when it flew, a mild irrational concern that it couldn’t, and went back to incubate the eggs. A huge sigh of relief! On subsequent trips to the peninsula I have checked up on the bird which seems to spend the majority of its time on the nest, hopefully this bodes well for its recapture!

Trapping the bird.

Attaching the logger. Photographs by Mark Brown.

Awkward photos at the end. Photographs by Mark Brown.

A smooth release. Photographs by Mark Brown.

A good wash. Photograph by Mark Brown.

And a short flight before returning to the nest. Photograph by Mark Brown.

Sacred Ibis ringing

Each trip to the peninsula included a check-up on the sacred ibis chicks. It has been so enjoyable watching them grow up from downy chicks to long-legged juveniles. Once they were moving off the nests we decided it was high time to ring them. Shirley and I built a shade-cloth trap of sorts, which we could set up in the field as a boma and herd the flightless juveniles into. Good intentions but it didn’t quite work out! We were too late with the ringing, many of the chicks could already fly and our herding skills weren’t up to par. That said we still managed to catch and ring 9 individuals. They really are precious little birds, with incredibly long toes! Many of the adults are on eggs or have young chicks, so we may have an opportunity to try and ring those little ones when they are old enough!

The colony with the boma in the background. Photograph by Mark Brown.

The colour rings we used.

Shirley and a chick.

Releasing the first ringed chick.

They are such cute birds! Photograph by Mark Brown.

Busy days

We don’t seem to be having much luck with canoes. The Green Machine is no more. It has been stolen. The last time it was taken it was returned, but not this time, this seems to be a final re-appropriation. Regardless to say, it was not a good day! We gratefully borrowed a canoe from Keurbooms Lagoon Caravan Park, who has also generously allowed us to launch from their private site, making our paddle journey a lot shorter! We had a look around for our canoe, but we couldn’t find it, so continued our journey to the peninsula. By now we had only about 2 hours before we had to head back, and it went so quickly! Just before we left we deployed the first egg temperature loggers, an exciting moment!

A huge starfish!

Growing up.

An interesting new "ibis" moved into the colony!

An egg logger.

While out looking for our missing canoe, I came across an abandoned canoe lodged firmly in the sand below the high tide mark. I returned the next evening with a spade and a dog to dig her up. I was able to finally get her out and ponderously drag her water-logged body up the beach for floatation trials the next day. As I was feeling like I was losing my grip on all the nests and eggs that were on the peninsula Shirley and I headed back over with the sole purpose of marking and checking nests, but first we had to hope our new canoe floated! What a wonderful craft, she got us there and back safely and smoothly and with a dedicated scribe I got a lot done!

Dog disturbance on the peninsula.

My dedicated scribe!

Burgeoning birders

The Plettenberg Bay birdclub generously donated birdbooks and binoculars to the education programme at Nature’s Valley Trust, which enabled them to run a birding course with the eco-clubs they work with. This culminated in a fieldtrip out birding to put theory into practice. On two separate days I joined firstly and then for an afternoon walk through Goose Marsh. Some people from the birdclub as well as some of the NVT team showed the kids how to use firstly the binoculars to see the bird more clearly, and then how to go about trying to identify it using the birdbooks. Both days went well, and it was so encouraging to see a light flicker on in some of the kids; perhaps the new generation of ornithologists!?

Fork-tailed Drongo.

Blacksmith Lapwing.

Evidence of the Little Egret in a pond.

Kelp Gull.