Hello Everyone!
January has been quite an eventful month for the Passerine Survey team here in Mauritius and I’m excited to tell you all about it! I’m happy to report that so far the survey team is doing quite well with our New Year’s resolutions to find more birds, and to put rings on some of the ones we know about already.
We had a really exciting and enjoyable day in early January, when the entire Survey team took a trip to a Nature Park near Pigeon Wood. We weren’t planning to participate in any of the horseback riding, zip-lining, or quadding activities normally offered to visitors – we were, of course, there to look for birds. And we found them! We heard and saw several pairs of Mauritius Olive White-eyes in this area. This is big news for a species that doesn’t have many individuals left in the wild!
Personally, I get so excited when we find olives. They are wonderful little birds, and due to the fact that they are so tiny and usually live in quite dense vegetation, they are often difficult to spot. Luckily, they are really noisy for such tiny creatures and their distinctive call points us in the right direction. Still, seeing them is a special treat. This particular day, it was sunny, we were hiking in a scenic valley, there were white-tailed tropic birds soaring over the nearby mountain and, best of all, there were olives everywhere (or so it seemed!). I had some good sightings – one in particular when I heard faint calls coming from a river below me, paused to listen, heard a little “peep” next to me and turned my head to see a little olive perched not four feet away, feeding on one of their favourite species of flower. It was a day I’ll remember for a long time to come!
Our other exciting news is that we have finally managed to accumulate the necessary equipment, expertise, and time to begin mist netting at Pigeon Wood! As I think I mentioned last month, we wanted to put small plastic rings on the legs of the birds, so that we can identify them by their different colour combinations. This will help us to tell how many breeding pairs actually live in this area. The density is so high that at the moment, we can’t tell neighbouring birds apart unless we see more than one at the same time!
January 19th was another very memorable day – we caught and rung our first fody! He’s an adult male, and lives in the forest right next to the Pigeon Wood field station. We named him Captain Jack after the character in Pirates of the Caribbean; we decided he needed a pirate name because he only has one eye! Captain Jack is now sporting a lovely yellow ring on each leg, and he couldn’t have been too upset by the process since he still turns up every morning to wake us with incessant plicking outside the bedroom window!
Since then, we have put rings on four more territorial males. We attract fodies to our nets by playing a recording of a male making territory calls. The idea is that the resident male will come to investigate and fly into the net in the process of trying to chase off the “intruder”. This seems to working well, and we should be able to ring more birds in the weeks to come. This will be useful for our work this season, and hopefully for studying the population in future seasons as well.
As usual, I’ve been keeping busy outside of work as well. As well as the traditional barbecuing, beachifying, and Saturday afternoon football games, I’ve been getting out and about as well. It was Chinese New Year on the 23rd of January. A group of us drove up to Port Louis, the capital city, to watch the parade and other events. There were dancers, singers, martial artists, and, of course, dragons! It was a really fun evening, and great chance to get out and about and experience the diversity of culture here in Mauritius.
It’s been another good month and as the end of the season draws to a close, I’m even more appreciative of the opportunity to be here. I hope everyone at home is having a similarly good start to 2012!
All the best until next time,
Ffion
Ringing a Mauritius Fody
