Project publicity

So the story of using a drone for aerial counts of the colony, and my MSc project in general, has made it's way to the newspapers. Exciting much!

Darvil day

An unexpected trip home brought more surprises than just being able to spend time with family and friends; I was in time for Darvil ringing! In PMB, once a month on a Saturday a team gathers at the Darvil Bird Sanctuary, which is on the property of the Darvil Water Works; delightful aromas fill the air and soak into your pores. So Saturday morning I was up at 04:15 to be ready to leave at 04:45 to meet the team at Darvil at 05:00. I like to think of myself as a morning person, this Saturday in particular I was not. Bleary eyed I rolled out of bed to dunk my head under the tap and begin making myself somewhat presentable to public appearance. By the time I reached Darvil excitement was setting in, smelling the familiar smells and seeing all the old faces and happy smiles lightened my heart and countenance. There had been some rain recently and the track to our site was very muddy with some wonderfully deep puddles to 4x4 through, but we made it to our ringing site. We split into teams, those with gumboots to the muddy track those without to the grassy track. Altogether we put up 14 nets and then settled in to wait for the arrival of our first volunteers (the birds that is).

Some days you get lucky with a nice variety, and some unusuals that aren’t often caught, some days you can catch a whole bunch of the same birds. That day we caught roughly 30 Thick-billed Weavers. These birds, true to their names, have rather thick bills. And they bite. HARD! A rather painful crushing that doesn’t stop until you manage to pry their beaks off whatever area of your digits they have latched onto in retribution for being caught. Taking them out of the nets I joked about who would start squealing first, it was me..

It was a wonderful morning out. The rain threatened, and started on and off for most of it but to be out with all the people and extracting birds and taking photos was just a super way to start off the trip home! And so we retired home for a shower (wash off all the Darvil sewage), with soaking wet, mud encrusted takkies, and a happy heart.

Off to check the nets..

Hard at work ringing the volunteers.

Nets cleared and birds to the table to be ringed.

An active Malachite Kingfisher that wouldn't keep still for his profile.

By-catch that was extracted without dismemberment.