Vulture Ringing at Farm Frauenstein
September/October is vulture ringing season in Namibia. Most of our vultures (certainly the White-backed and Lappet-faced) are winter breeders and by September/October most of the chicks are big enough to be ringed and tagged.On Sunday 18 September 2011 eleven of us (three ringers, a trainee ringer and an assortment of assistants, observers and photographers) in four vehicles met at the Avis railway bridge and then drove to Farm Frauenstein where White-backed Vultures were known to be breeding. The expedition headed straight to Schumanndam where active nests had been observed a couple of months earlier in the course of a bird club outing. White-backed Vultures nest high up on top of trees - the nests at Frauenstein were between about 8 m and 12 m above the ground. In order to avoid the expenditure of a lot of unnecessary effort should a nest prove to be empty or contain only an egg, (these vultures lay only a single egg), a mirror on the end of a long pole is first used to check the contents of the nest. Should the nest contain a chick the long (and heavy) ladder is maneuvered into position to access the nest. White-backed Vulture chicks have the rather disgusting habit of regurgitating the (often foul smelling) contents of their crops over unwary ringers so caution is necessary when removing chicks from nests.
Lanioturdus
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Vulture Ringing at Farm Frauenstein2.pdf | 404.8 KB |