Scuba

After a long break from scuba diving I did two boat dives within a week. The first was to a site called Grootbank to do the first dive of my Advanced Course. This was a deep dive, meant to go down as close to 30m as possible. Michael and I dropped down and hit the reef at 21m, in pitch black. We expected a dim, dark dive but to not be able to see more than 30cm with a dive torch was horrid! Darkness in water is far worse than darkness on land I have since discovered, immediately my mind turned to all the creatures that we couldn't see but could probably see us. It was a short dive, but it was still good to be back in the water in scuba gear!

The second dive was just for fun. This time to a site called Jacobs Reef, where I have dived before. Unfortunately the visibility was again shocking and so we ended up surfacing quite quickly and moved to a shallower site, Blinders. It ended up being a pleasurable dive, it is always so wonderful to spend time hovering just about the reef looking at the corals, nudibranchs, fish and anemones, swaying with the current.

A happy diver I am.

Flower power

Another side project that I have been working on is looking at the pollination syndrome of Brunsvigia orientalis. Monica from Offshore Adventures has been running this project, supervised in part by Mark and I have been assisting with a lot of the fieldwork. Besides locating as many populations as possible and counting the number of flowers in each (sometimes ranging up to and over 1000 plants!) we have been bagging flowers and measuring nectar volume and concentration. We have also been doing pollinator observations, and it seems that sunbirds are the primary pollinators. We are hoping to publish the data we have collected, which would be awesome!

Amethyst Sunbird on a Brunsvigia plant.

Bagged flowers.

One of the fields we were working in, and our faithful fieldwork companion.

Full anther contact on a Greater Double-collared Sunbirds head.

Natural and human hazards

While out on the boat with Offshore Adventures collecting seal behavioural data I have seen some interesting things. One being a seal that had miraculously escaped death by shark but bore the marks of the encounter. A half moon bite mark, seeming severe but seals are resilient creatures and will survive this, but the next seal may not be so lucky.

Once bitten twice shy?

The other sighting of note was a seal with what appeared to be netting or twine wrapped around it's neck. The seal didn't seem to be in great discomfort but the noose was a little too tight for my liking. Unfortunately I have not spotted this individual again, and not for lack of trying! I can only hope that it somehow managed to free itself.

Human hazards.

Swimming with seals

One morning Mark and Jesse joined me on a seal swim with Offshore Adventures. Jesse was very taken with the pups, and them with him, perhaps due to his small size. We all had an awesome time and I got another session of data collection done, I am going to miss this once all the data has been collected!

Mark and Jesse.

Jesse and I.

Monica from Offshore Adventures.

Jesse greeting the seals!

They come very close, and are often interested in the dive slate that I use to record data.

Sleek seals

While doing boat observations with Offshore Adventures, I took the opportunity to take some photos of the seals that I am spending so much time watching. They really are such cute creatures!

Offshore Adventures

Although the kelp gull breeding season, and my fieldwork, is finished I have managed to not be confined to my desk for too long! Mark has set me up as a research assistant with Offshore Adventures doing seal behavioural observations. Observations need to be done from land, from the boat, and from the water looking at the seals reactions to swimmers in the water. Robberg is home to a colony of roughly 5000 Cape Fur Seals and I got into the water with them. At this time of year, the pups are testing themselves and learning their limitations, and they are exceptionally friendly! Luckily, the first excursion into the water was for me to familiarise myself with the seals and their behaviour. I was far too taken with these incredible animals to do any data collection! If you have the opportunity to swim with seals, take it! It is a most incredible experience!

Ready to jump in!

Fynbos ringing

Ringing in the fynbos near Nature's Valley is progressing regularly, and this week was an interesting one. A new species for me was the Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher. A pleasurable catch was a pair of Cape Siskins.

Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher.

Babalwa is doing well in her training.

A pair of Cape Siskins, male on the left.

White-fronted Plovers

We were made aware of some White-fronted Plover chicks in Nature's Valley and so a trip was made to go and ring them, a new species for Mark to add to his ringing list! There were two pairs and we ringed a total of three chicks. They are very difficult to find, and a mission to catch, but with 4 of us we managed to get them, putting both metal and colour rings on.

What a cutie!

A lightweight.

Get it OFF!

The view.

Colour-ringed and ready for resightings.

Bird in the hand

On the way back from Robberg after fieldwork, I spotted a Forest Buzzard on a light pole. A quick dash home was made to collect mice and the raptor trap. We made the drop, and before I had even managed to turn the car around the bird was on the trap! As we were so close to home we went home to do the ringing so Jesse and Kate could also see the bird. It's not every day that you have a buzzard in your living room!

An interesting deformed talon.

Taking measurements while Selena gets more handling experience.

What a beauty!

Shirley releasing the buzzard at the capture site.

Girl power

Shirley and I, along with Selena a visiting potential MSc student, decided to spend a morning roaming the roads to do some raptor ringing. Unfortunately we only managed to catch the one Common Buzzard, but one in better than none!

Ringed!

Selena holding her first buzzard!

Amur Falcon.

European Roller.

Giant Kingfisher.