Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve

This past weekend, I had the chance to visit the Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve. From my university e-mail I got a message detailing an open invitation for people interested in watching a bat capture. Yes I said a bat capture! Earlier in the year, I had the chance to help recapture Wahlberg’s epauletted fruit bats to remove their GPS units. I was so amazed by the little critters that another chance to see them in the hand was awesome! 

Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat

Vernon Crookes is located in southern KwaZulu-Natal and is roughly 2189 ha. This reserve is very important because it is one of the last natural areas in a sea of sugarcane (as apparent in our drive there). Vernon was a big sugarcane baron, and the reserve gets its name from him. It is also quite famous for earthworms, with specimens reaching almost 9 feet! http://showme.co.za/tourism/vernon-crookes-nature-reserve-south-coast-kwazulu-natal/

 

They are believed to be the largest earthworm in the world! Needless to say there is worm poop everywhere…

Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve

Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve

Birding wise, I was on the lookout for three species: Broad-tailed Warbler, Short-tailed Pipit, and the Pale-crowned Cisticola. I was not successful in finding these species, but I did get four lifers! Two lifers heard: African Wood-Owl and White-starred Robin. I was scared at first when I heard the owl, because I thought it was a person that might be up to no good in the night! http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Strix&species=woodfordii

The other two lifers I got very good views of: the Croaking Cisticola and African Pygmy Kingfisher. The kingfisher is a good find because of it is a summer migrant, its small size, and is normally a terrestrial kingfisher (not exclusively found near water). 

African Pygmy Kingfisher. Photo by Glen Mclean.

The bat catchers were part of the Honorary Officer program and were so nice! Although we only caught a common Banana Bat, they were very good teachers. It was nice to spend the weekend with people as enthusiastic about the outdoors as I am.  Plus since Halloween was just around the corner, they made bone cupcakes! 

Collecting data from the Banana Bat

Sunday morning was occupied with a hike on one of the many trails. The habitats encountered included open grassland and thick old growth forest. Can you guess where I saw the jackal pup? Yes in the forest! It was the last mammal I thought to see there. While on the trail, we saw the pointed ears and thought it was a caracal (cat), but this small pup ran towards us. I was thinking “Oh great! Wish I had my rabies shot”. Its mother had booked it when we first appeared. However, we were probably the first people this young pup has ever seen and he wanted to play! After a few tense seconds, it realized that it could not play with us and retreated to its mother. 

All in all it was a good weekend and would highly recommend it to anyone (just be careful not to step on any worms!) 

Black-backed Jackal pup. Photo by Glen Mclean.

‘I hit a cow’ and other updates from the past three weeks

Week 1: Attended the South African Wildlife Management Association Conference (SAWMA). I created my first legit scientific poster that will be on display at the 2012 Pan-African Ornithological Conference. The take home message from that meeting for me: very few people are working in my study area.  It is difficult to find information on this area, but it was interesting to contrast this with how much research is happening elsewhere in South Africa. 

At the end of the conference, I got to hold both a chick and adult Cape Vulture at VulPro. It was great training on how to work with the ‘heaviest vulture in southern Africa’.

Holding a vulture chick at VulPro

Very excited about holding an adult vulture!

My poster!

Week 2: Helped place a GPS transmitter on a Cape Vulture from the Drakensburg Mountains with the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary/KZN Wildlife. It has now been successfully released. Then with barely any time to breath, it was down to Mkambati for the last vulture monitoring of 2012. There were lots of large vulture nestlings! I put my construction skills to work with the hide for the vulture trap. The hide had to be constructed in the workshop though, due to a downpour that lasted almost 24 hours. I just kept thinking of the vultures on the cliffs! And as I would find out the following week, it is possible for their nests to be washed off the cliffs!

Field work rocks!

Baboon poop in a very odd place...

Me at the Superbowl

Week 3: Vulture monitoring road trip. We joined up with a group that was monitoring and locating vulture colonies in the Transkei region.  Since the colonies are spread out and few hotels in the region, it means lots of driving! Most of the good roads are single lane tarred highways, with lots of 16-wheeler trucks, hence lots of passing is involved with driving. The bad roads are dirt with gravel poking out that makes your vehicle bounce up and down!

Vulture Colony in the Rain

Notice all the vulture dots

Another big hazard is the livestock. They are free to go where ever with few fences restricting their movement. They always seem to enjoy munching the grass on the side of the road. Road kill is common on these roads, and this causes dogs to be attracted to the carcasses (and vultures), which only make more obstacles to avoid! On this particular day, the caravan leaders were speeding a long, despite the misty/rainy/foggy weather. On the single lane tar road, a truck was coming towards us with people behind us and a cow on our side of the road. We slowed down, but it was still moving too slow. We tapped its butt and heard a cracking sound. The cow continued to walk off, but we were so upset! We stopped soon afterwards to find the spotlight of the vehicle dangling by its wires. Eish!

I can’t believe we hit a cow! This is one of those things that you joke about, but should never happen! 

 The good news: the garage was able to fix the car up as good as new! The bad news: one less carcass for the vultures!

Yellow-billed Kite

Filling the Gaps

Searching for the breeding cliffs from the reserve side

 

 

               This Friday when we got back from the August vulture monitoring trip, a set of old slides were brought out to examine. I’m actually not even sure how slides are made. I opened the box that said “The plight of the Cape Vulture”, these belonged to the late scientist that researched the vultures for decades (and who took the photographs of the site I work at).

                 

              The slides were for a presentation about Cape Vulture conservation. It included such phrases as “Cape vultures go everywhere, so they need to be conserved everywhere”. Three out of the 100 or so slides contained information about the site register. The register is almost like a work of fiction to me. It is a compilation of all roosting and breeding Cape Vulture sites. Imagine having 2,000 records of where one species of bird slept and reproduced. It is a massive undertaking, but for a vulture that is 90% restricted to South Africa it is necessary. 

Not all vulture colonies are this easy to find...

 

 

                     As I go through the slides, I find another clue in this mystery. My studies have the makings of a good novel: interesting characters, thrilling adventures, idiotic moments (car keys), dead animals, and giant birds. Ok, it might not be a typical novel, but a good one nonetheless. 

Students Investigating during the June 2012 trip

 

                As I conduct my work and continue to read, write, and collect data I am constantly reminded that it does matter.  From communicating and working with conservationists, scientists, retired researchers, professors, volunteers, and undergraduate students I am beginning to piece together the bigger picture. As a grad student, that is my job; to synthesize information and to boil it down. It is hard work, but I’m putting it together piece by piece.