Bird Ringing Programmes

A Rocha Bird Ringing at Rondevlei

Rondevlei Nature Reserve is an important protected area in the Cape Town metropolis. It attracts a large number of visitors, especially school children. It is thus a great venue for an A Rocha project. Birds have been ringed here for several decades, but for the last two years the ringing has been under the banner of A Rocha. The ringing is currently happening once a month, on a Saturday morning. There is a group of regular attendees, and sometimes members of the general public stop to watch. A Rocha members Dieter Oschadleus and Doug Harbottle from the Avian Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town take turns to lead the ringing.

Usually only a handful of birds are ringed but this gives the opportunity for people to chat and to focus on specific features of the birds being handled. There is a high recapture rate which shows people that ringing does not harm the birds. An interesting recording at Rondevlei has been that of African Marsh Warblers in summer, which migrate to central Africa. All ringing data from the Rondevlei is stored in the SAFRING database at the ADU for analysis, along with all other ringing data from South Africa.