The Cape Bird Club
Conservation – Atlasing during National Bird Week – May 2009
Of bulbs, birds and the bokkeveld plateau by Doug Harebottle and Peter Nupen.
During National Bird Week (3 - 9 May 2009) we travelled to Nieuwoudtville (3119AC) to accomplish two things:
(1) speak to the local high school about birds and bird conservation as part of National Bird Week and
(2) carry out some atlas surveys.
The high school presentations were arranged under the auspices of the Hantam National Botanical Garden (NBG), a recently established botanical garden located on the outskirts of Nieuwoudtville.
The garden was formally establsihed in 2007 and is the first NBG in the Northern Cape. Its primary purpose is to conserve the unique diversity of plants, particularly bulb species in the Fynbos/Karoo ecosystems of the region. Nieuwoudtville is known as the bulb capital of the world, with more bulb species per square meter than anywhere else in the world, and has a spectacular display of flowers during springtime.
An incredible 1 350 plant species have been identified in the region.
photograph by Doug Harebottle
The renovated farm house which is now the main office for Hantam NBG.
Although fragmented, the gardens cover a staggering 6000 ha and aims to be a centre for biodiversity research in the Bokkeveld Plateau and Succulent Karoo regions.
The purpose of the bird presentations was to make the learners aware of National Bird Week, its purpose and the important role that birds play in the environment. About 40 Grade 10 -12 learners from Protea High School attended the presentation which was held at the Hantam NBG and included a bird ringing demonstration.
photograph by Doug Harebottle
Peter discusses with Grade 11 and 12 learners about the role of birds in the environment
photograph by Doug Harebottle
Peter Nupen explaining to Grade 10 learners about the ins and outs of bird ringing
photograph by Doug Harebottle
Here Mr Boks, the Biology teacher, watches a learner releasing the bird.
photograph by Doug Harebottle
A learner releasing a female Mountain Wheatear
photograph by Doug Harebottle
We retrapped the same female Mountain Wheater the next day.
Atlassing
When we were not involved with the school presentations we were out atlasing in the surrounds (what else!). Although some atlasing has been done in the area, there are still many gaps and many pentads (and a few QDGCs) remain unvisited to date. This gave us the opportunity to visit some new and exciting areas and complete the first atlas cards for a handful of pentads.
We started with the north-east corner of the Nieuwoudtville QDGC, 3115_1910. The area is mainly used for sheep farming and the vegetataion varied from Karoo veld, riparian zones and farm dams. We clocked up 50 species for this pentad in two hours including species such as Karoo Korhaan, Cardinal Woodpecker, Dusky Sunbird, South African Shelduck, Pied Avocet and Fairy Flycatcher.
Tuesday morning greeted us with thick mist and we had to change our intended plans of travelling to the adjacent QDGC and opted to survey two virgin pentads to the south of Nieuwoudtville, 3125_1905 and 3125_1910, where the mist was a lot thinner and had alreday started lifting.
In 3125_1905 we clocked up 40 species, including good numbers of Capped Wheatears, flocks of Common Starling and about 50 SA Shelduck feeding in some fallow fields. Fairy Flycatcher and Namaqua Warbler were seen along the riparian zone of the Oorlogskloof River. Interstingly we found Cape Bulbuls in this pentad, about 700 m.a.s.l. An African Harrier Hawk (Gymnogene) made an appearance just before the end of the 2 hrs.
This was followed by a 2 hr survey of 3125_1910 where we totalled 45 species, but managed to get some nice west coast specials - Rufous-eared Warbler, Sickle-winged Chat, Large-billed Lark and numerous Namaqua Warblers. Red-winged Starlings were seen in town and were quite unexpected and are on the edge of their range in this part of the country.
Thick-billed Larks were plentiful and were heard calling in most of the pentads which we surveyed.
Wednesday morning was a repeat of Tuesday morning - more mist, but this time even thicker than Tuesday! We had planned to venture to three virgin penatds about 30 km east of Nieuwoudtville but had to change plan realising the mist was not going to lift soon. So we decided to atlas the Nieuwoudtville pentad 3120_1905 first, hoping that the mist would lift in the following two hours before we could head out to our scheduled pentads. After struggling to find a handful of birds in the mist, we headed for the local municipal dam situated within the municipal camping site. Although visibility was still poor, we picked up African Black Duck, Grey Heron, Brownthroated Martin and African Darter.
photograph by Doug Harebottle
Typical vegetation of the Bokkeveld Plateau.
Besides large stretches of succulent Karoo, wheatfields and pastures comprised most of the remaining habitats, and it was often tough going to get to 40+ birds per pentad.
The mist did start to lift and by 11h00 we headed out to tackle pentad 3125_1920. The pentad is pretty homogenous in terms of vegetation cover (mainly karoo veld) but regular stops, especially at reservoirs/drainage lines and farm dams ensured we got a fairly decent list of 40 species after two hours. Highlights here included Karoo Long-billed Lark, Cape Penduline Tit, Larklike Bunting, Rufous-eared Warbler, Sickle-winged Chat, Alpine and Black Swift (our first swifts for the trip!) and Namaqua Sandgrouse (calling).
Atlasing never ceases to surprise us with amazing birds and incredible adventures!
Acknowledgements
Firstly, we are extremely thankful to our sponsors for the trip - the Cape Bird Club for sponsoring the fuel, and
SABAP2 for covering the accommodation and food costs.
Our thanks also go to Collen Rust and Eugene Marinus from Hantam NBG for arranging and coordinating the school programme and for making use of their facilities at the gardens.
Finally, we would also like to thank Elsa Goldfarb for allowing use of their caravan during our stay at Groenrivier Guest Farm, which is highly recommended for clean, comfortable and affordable camping in Nieuwoudtville.
