Avian Demography Unit
Department of Statistical Sciences
University of Cape Town

BIRD NUMBERS

The newsletter of the Avian Demography Unit

Volume 7 Number 3, December 1998

2. Letters to the Editor
Readers of Bird Numbers are invited to write to the editor, by post, fax or e-mail (e-mail is preferred). Addresses and numbers are given on the inside front cover. Letters of general interest will be published, space allowing, and will be edited for publication. We would also be grateful to receive copies of bird-related cartoons and jokes. - Ed.

WRYNECKS

     It was with great interest that we read the submission by De Swart and Griesel (vol. 7 no.1) on Redthroated Wryneck in the southern Free State. On our way to our holiday destination in mid-December 1997, we stopped over at Prior Grange B B, approximately 5-10 km south of Springfontein (3025BC). While relaxing outside our cottage, we observed for more than an hour a pair of Redthroated Wryneck going about their business among bluegum trees and dense shrubbery in the garden. It seems that the species' occurrence in the area may be more common than anticipated.

Rolf Becker and Alma Moller
University of the North, Pietersburg

BRAINY BIRDS

     I read with interest the letters appearing under the heading 'Brainy Birds' (vol. 7 no. 1) and thought you might be interested in reading the enclosed pamphlet on Gombi-Gombi, the pet Ground Hornbill. The Diaz Cross Bird Club bought Birds of Africa Vol. V for the Albany Museum and, in order to recoup the cost, I got Mrs Gamble to tell me the story of this remarkable bird. We ask R5 for the pamphlet and we have almost reached our target.

Dorothy Sülter
Albany Museum, Grahamstown

     The story of Gombi-Gombi is most touching and interesting story! The pamphlet, which I recommend to readers of Bird Numbers, also includes an extract from the book The Bowkers of Tharfield by T. & R. Mitford-Barberton (1952) which tells a similar tale of a bird owned by Col. Bertram Bowker, an 1820 Settler. This extract follows. - Ed.

     ‘Col. Bowker had a turkey buzzard (Ground Hornbill), caught and tamed as a young chicken. This bird was devoted to him and was intensely jealous of anyone who came near the Colonel. He slept near him and used to follow him all over the place. When the Colonel was lying desperately ill in bed, the bird walked distractedly up and down and tried to pull the sheets with his beak in his efforts to make the Colonel get out of bed. Finally the bird darted out of the room and returned triumphantly with an enormous frog and placed it near him. When he found Colonel Bowker was not interested, the bird came back with a lizard in its beak, and danced up and down at the side of the bed. However, the lizard proved disappointing. After an absence of a few hours, the bird came back wild with excitement with a wriggling grass snake in his beak and was most distressed to see the native take it away. Colonel Bowker, relating the episode afterwards to Mr Roberts, said he had never been so touched in his life as with the fidelity, thought and intelligence of the bird.’

TERMITE EATERS

     The write-up on termites in the last issue of Bird Numbers reminded me of an incident about four years ago in Umfolosi, and will add two more termite munchers to the list.
     We had arrived at Mnindini prior to leaving on a Wilderness trail. It was a dull overcast afternoon, and we noticed a termite eruption about fifty metres away. Among the other regular termite eaters was a Tawny Eagle hawking from the branch of a tree, and to crown it all, making like a domestic chicken at the exit of the eruption, was a Palm Nut Vulture.

Joe Gillat
Durban North

     Reading the ‘Termites & Ants as Bird Food’ article, in your February Bird Numbers, reminded me of the Hobby Falcons I used to see after summer rainfall in the Hoekwil (Wilderness) area catching termites. They did this with their feet and then transferred them to their mouths. Several Hobbies would arrive suddenly, occasionally and catch the termites over the little valley below our cottage, so that I was able to watch them on the same level as the window.
     Large flocks of swallows flew across ‘our’ valley on summer evenings from west to east. They came when the sun was still very bright in the West and huge numbers of birds caught insects on the wing. Thinking about it at the time, I came to the conclusion that they were employing the same tacts as the R.A.F. fighter pilots did during the last war, using the bright sunlight to obscure them from the enemy and therefore taking them by surprise! The swallows were far too numerous to count, and would travel from west to east for an hour or so, always catching their food as they went. I seem to remember I thought they were European Swallows but stupidly I made no note at the time, and the flocks may have been mixed.
     I would also notice swallows going east to west in the early mornings, but not in large flocks. Since living in Darling for over three years, I have seen very large flocks of the Little Swift but they circle round at great speed after the flying insects rather than fly consistently from west to east.

Brenda K. Balchin
Darling

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