Dawie de Swardt with enthusiasts from the Escarpment Bird Club at the Paardeplaats bird-ringing site near Lydenburg.
In February Dawie de Swardt, Head of the Ornithology Department, undertook a bird-ringing trip to Lydenburg as part of his annual visit to the study site of the Gurney Sugarbird project. This year he was joined by a group of bird ringers from BirdLife Northern Gauteng, Pretoria, who were interested in the project. They assisted in capturing and ringing sugarbirds and other species and obtaining recapture data. During this visit 19 sugarbirds were captured and blood and feather samples taken. Bird ringing was also carried out in the nearby Gustav Klingbiel Nature Reserve outside Lydenburg where more than 200 birds were captured. Dawie also presented a talk and a bird-ringing demonstration to members of the Escarpment Bird Club at Paardeplaats, Lydenburg. His presentation, Gurney’s Sugarbirds in the Lydenburg area – three decades of dedicated research, gave an overview of this long term project.
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