VultureVagabond: June 2013

This past Monday was Youth Day, a national South African public holiday. I decided to take a birding trip out to Midmar Dam, about a 20 minute drive from Pietermaritzburg. This is an Important Bird Area, with the dam dominating the landscape. It was a good raptor day with: Black-shouldered Kite, Long-crested Eagle, Jackal Buzzard, African Fish-Eagle, and Lanner Falcon. Early in the day I had good views of two Cape Grassbirds. This is an endemic species that has a really cool song! They also have cute little mustaches. The grassbird is said to monogamous and has a bowl-shaped nest. Their breeding season starts in July, but perhaps the pair I saw was gearing up for the season.

In total, I observed 35 species in 3 hours, and drove around the whole lake. Midmar is so big, it is best to drive around it. There are no good trails for hiking, but there is a paved road that can take you through most of the park. In the game reserve section, one can see zebra, and blesbok. All in all it was a good day off spent at a beautiful place!

Cape Grassbird in the hand

Blesbok at Midmar Dam

African Wattled Lapwing at Midmar Dam

Last week, I presented at my first conference! It was hosted by Endangered Wildlife Trust at the Sefapane Lodge, near the Phalaborwa gate of Kruger National Park. It was my fist time at Kruger as well! This park is legendary! The lessons learnt from this conference started with the drive up with Ben from the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary. The drive to Pharlaborwa was broken up over two days, and I was astounded by the vastness of South Africa. I have never been that far north, and between Pietermarizburg and Johannesburg, there is empty land according to my perspective!

The first day, I got to drive around Kruger with employees from KZN wildlife. It was so much fun seeing the park through their eyes and learning from them! Then it was on to the Cape Vulture Task Force meeting. People from all over southern Africa who participate in monitoring the breeding colonies of this species were present. I spoke briefly on the status of the birds in my study area, as the outcomes of my project will aid in management decisions for this species.

That night, at 3:00AM, I heard lions from the research house inside Kruger. I recognized the roar from working at the Pittsburgh Zoo. It was the day of my talk. We were given about 20 minutes to present, and I spoke about both my interview data and some preliminary movement data. I had a good idea of the make up of the audience and geared my talk towards them. My theater background helped me rock the talk!

I got constructive feedback, and asked the fellow scientists to be hard on me. From auditioning for numerous plays and being rejected, I have developed a thick skin. In the show biz world, you are rejected if your style doesn't match the type they are looking for. In science, you are rejected if your work is questionable. But if you take the time and become the 'expert' on your study, you can rock a talk too! Now on to rock this paper for publication!