Bokmakierie Newsletter of the Witwatersrand Bird Club August 2018 No 252 Wesson Farm, Magaliesberg - Saturday 19 May 2018 Photos by Koos van Dyk Bokmakierie Newsletter of the Witwatersrand Bird Club August 2018 No 252 Witwatersrand Bird Club Inside this issue: P O Box 641 Cresta 2118 2 Letter from the Chair Tel: 011 782 7267 Fax: 086 512 7696 3 How ancestors of living birds survived Email: [email protected] asteroid strike by Helen Briggs BBC Web: www.witsbirdclub.org.za News 5 New chick on the block by Bo van der 2018 Committee: Lecq HON. PRESIDENT: Lance Robinson 9 Barn Swallow migration by Hugh CHAIRMAN: Andy Featherstone Chittenden VICE-CHAIRMAN: Awie Coetzee 12 Birding In Zululand, albeit the wrong time of year by Leslie Cornish TREASURER: Sandy Goodall COURSES: Janice Isom 16 Birding in the Soutpansberg by Anthony Cavanagh CONSERVATION: Lance Robinson EVENING MEETINGS: Lia Steen 21 Dael’s U.K. after party by Dael Stojakovic WEBSITE Paige Simons PROGRAMME: Fiona van Zyl 23 Statement of cybercrime activities at Wits Bird Club by Andy Featherstone EAST RAND CHAIR: Awie Coetzee Trip Reports HENLEY-ON-KLIP CHAIR: Ben Botha 25 WEST RAND CHAIR: Koos van Dÿk 28 World Shorebirds Day - 6th September CLUB SECRETARY: Lauraine Leigh 2018 NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS 29 Rarities and unusual sightings report: Bokmakierie is published three times annually. Contribu- 30 June 2018 by André Marx tions may be in Afrikaans or English. English names of birds should be those used in Roberts VII. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the Editor, Club, the Committee, Members or those of BirdLife South Africa. The Editors reserve the right to edit articles as necessary. This issue of Bokmakierie has been produced and edited by Andy Featherstone and Lance Robinson. COVER PHOTO: Immature Amethyst Sunbird by André Stapelberg MAGAZINE LAYOUT: Andy Featherstone Bokmakierie August 2018 No 252 | 1 4 mm Body top Letter from the Chair Swifts and Swallows. This let Lauraine know so that particular talk proved to be she can add your name to very popular and we will the roster. It’s not difficult try and add more of these work, there will always be an bird identification talks into experienced member there our future mix of afternoon to guide you, and it provides speakers. It is evident that yet another good excuse to the Saturday afternoon talks visit the Fair. Full details of have a better attendance the events will be published Dear Members, than our Thursday evening on the BirdLife South Africa I have enjoyed travelling to meetings, so we will contin- website. ue with Saturday meetings some of our winter venues The 2019 calendar photo going forward. despite having to get out competition has closed and of bed before sunrise and The Christmas in July af- the judges will soon be se- having to brave the cold ternoon meeting proved to lecting the photos to adorn mornings. It’s an effort at the be a lot of fun and a great next year’s calendar. The time but rewarding once you success and will be repeat- quality of entries received arrive at your destination ed on next year’s calendar. A to date is again of a high and start to bird. To suggest reminder that later in August, standard and the calendar to non-birders the thought we will be holding our promises to showcase some of travelling to a destination annual quiz with Lester Niss of our member’s photo- like the Devon grasslands, as our talented quizmas- graphic talents. Calendars with its endless sea of brown ter. These quiz events are will be available at the Bird grass, is to experience raised always very enjoyable and I Fair in September. eyebrows and a sad shake of am sure that this year will be With the continual rise in the head. For birders, how- no exception. ever, encounters with Blue fuel costs, it can sometimes Korhaan, Blue Crane, Secre- I would also like to remind be discouraging to go along tarybird and the numerous you of our Arbor Day at to outings, particularly the larks makes it all worthwhile. Delta Park on Saturday 15th ones to more distant areas. We will soon be greeting September, combined with We recommend that you the first of our intra-African a talk by Linda de Luca on contact Lauraine to find out migrants and areas such as gardening for birds. Trees who else is going and to ask the Devon grasslands will can be booked in advance her to try and find someone come alive with birdsong through Lauraine for planting to share a lift with. It’s both once more. We can then on the day. September is environmentally friendly to enjoy the challenge of trying also the month for the annu- cut down on fuel costs and to identify all those little al African Bird Fair at Walter a great way to socialise with LBJ’s so beloved by Faansie Sisulu Botanical Gardens other people who share your Peacock and his ilk! which this year will be on the interest. 8th and 9th September. Wits As always, I look forward Spring and summer will Bird Club will have a stand to seeing you at one of our enable us to try out all the and we appeal for your future talks or outings. little identification tips that help in manning the stand. Stephan Terblanche passed If you can spare a couple of Andy Featherstone on to us at his recent talk on hours to assist then please 2 | Bokmakierie August 2018 No 252 How ancestors of living birds survived asteroid strike Text by Helen Briggs BBC News What the asteroid strike might have been like by Phillip Krzeminski The ancestors of modern birds may have survived the asteroid strike that wiped out the rest of their kin by living on the forest floor. The new theory, based on studying fossilised plants and ornithological data, helps ex- plain how birds came to dominate the planet. The asteroid impact 66 million years ago laid waste to the world’s forests. Ground-dwelling bird ancestors managed to survive, eventually taking to the trees when the flora recovered. “It seems clear that being a relatively small-bodied bird capable of surviving in a tree- less world would have conferred a major survival advantage in the aftermath of the asteroid strike,” said Dr Daniel Field of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath. Bokmakierie August 2018 No 252 | 3 4 mm Body top We already know that the early ancestors such as palms and pines happened much of modern birds were probably capable later, which coincides with the evolution of flight, and relatively small in size. and explosion of diversity of tree-dwell- ing birds,” said Dr Antoine Bercovici from Scientists have now pieced together their Smithsonian Institution. ecology to better understand how these partridge-like bird ancestors managed to The researchers found that once the for- avoid destruction in a particularly bleak ests had recovered, birds began to adapt moment in the Earth’s history. to living in trees, acquiring shorter legs than their ground-dwelling ancestors and “Teasing these stories from the rock re- various specialisations for perching on cord is a challenge when the action took branches. place over 66 million years ago, over a relatively short period of time,” said They eventually diversified into ostriches Dr Field, who led a team of UK, US and and their relatives, chickens and their rel- Swedish researchers. atives, and ducks and their relatives. The plant fossil record shows that the as- “Perhaps the best modern analogue teroid caused global deforestation and for one of the surviving birds lineages extinction of most flowering plants, de- are modern tinamous - this is a modern stroying the habitats of tree-dwelling an- group of flying relatives of ostriches: they imals. are relatively small bodied, and live on the ground,” said Dr Field. Birds didn’t move back into the trees again until the forests recovered thousands of Today’s “amazing living bird diversity can years later. be traced to these ancient survivors”, he added. “The recovery of canopy-forming trees Tinamous resemble partridges and quail but have limited flight capability - photo by Daniel J Field 4 | Bokmakierie August 2018 No 252 New Chick on the Block! Text and Photos by Bo van der Lecq Twenty 17 was a dismal year for the Mey- er’s Farm Verreaux’s Eagle pair nesting on the outskirts of Alberton, southern Johan- nesburg, in that both breeding attempts were a total failure! Herewith an account of the failures: First Attempt Nest refurbishment commenced during late February and she laid her first and second egg on the 6th and 10th April re- spectively and, according to our calcula- tions, the first egg should have hatched on 21st May followed by the second on 25th May 2017. However, when neither egg hatched ten days later, we knew Female on nest that this was a failure. The eagles prob- ably had the same notion as we did that Second Attempt something was amiss, but in true resilient eagle fashion, both continued to share in- Ideally, the eagle pair should have abort- cubation until both aborted on 27th June ed and then not attempted to lay another - a staggering 82 days after the first egg clutch as this would extend the breeding was laid. We instructed project member, period well into summer and naturally Neil Hadfield, to climb up the cat-ladder interfere with the 2018 breeding season. to the nest and retrieve the clutch of eggs Usually, the eagles have an approx.