Vulture Special

A quick special report for you all.

Dawn’s been up a cherry picker!

A great last week at Mkhuse although Wild Dog sightings were at a minimum but we managed to have a great day out with the annual vulture tagging.

This was probably one of the best times we have had since being here and was a great experience.

There were about 20 or so people involved although most were like us, ‘hangers on’, but due to the annual event, this is big news here and everyone wants to be involved.

The light aircraft was used a few weeks ago with regard to the annual vulture count and from this 8 nests were chosen to hopefully tag some juvenile birds.

We all met up early although for us we had an hour lie in as we had to meet at 6.00.  For reasons of decency we have not published the photos of Dawn actually being manhandled into the cherry picker (although David will be happy to share – usual fees apply!)

A number of trees later we managed to actually find a bird big enough and it was manhandled into a green bag for research purposes!

A big tag later, samples of blood and numerous measurements and it was safe to be returned back to the nest.

Lucky for Dawn it was her turn for the return of M029.

One bird returned nice and safely although it should be known as the headless vulture!

Even time to take a quick photo down the side of the box without even looking and not a bad one either (please note the way Dawn managed to get some excellent shadows in the shot!).

We have now just arrived in Tembe which looks a lovely place and is very relaxed so an update on this in a week or so.

Next time we have the best picture so far of us having a great time in South Africa so something not to be missed.

Tip of the week:-

Always have good manners – don’t forget to place your hand over your mouth when yawning, especially when travelling in an open top vehicle travelling at 40 kph! The dung beetles are big here!

Got to go just seen a 6 foot Black Mamba (a snake we have always wanted to see) and keen to tell everyone about it.

Don't forget to check out http://www.wildlifeact.com/ especially the facebook wall and their twitter site - the link is at bottom right of their site or on our previous pages as this shows other things us and the other volunteers have been up to over the last five weeks.

Love

David and Dawn