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| Colleywobbles Colony |
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This year my birthday was spend with two well known
ornithologists, looking at vultures. Even better, the vulture colony we
looked at that day had over 180 breeding pairs, that may be enough to
fulfill Bird Life International's criteria for an Important Bird Area
(IBA). Since the vultures congregate and nest in large colonies, an IBA
must contain at least 1% of the global population. One global total
population estimate for the species is 9,000 individuals, which means
this colony could be considered (work in progress name for the site is
Morgan's Mountain).
With an IBA, some degree of protection could be given to it. The
other smaller unprotected colony we observed is near a construction site
for new giant electricity pylons. It might be too late for that colony,
as there are less than 100 pairs there and it is estimated that 80
vultures are killed by power lines each year in the Eastern Cape Province alone.
I
was empowered by this trip. We were doing on the ground conservation
trying to see the balance between development and preservation. And look
forward to further research collaboration and a mountain named after
me!
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| Morgan's Mountain (on left) and Executioner Rock (on right) |
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| In coming! (This was in someone's back yard) |
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| Party time! They finished up a dead dog. |
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