Earthwatch Project: South African Penguins
Diary of Team Six
Monday 25th June 2001:
The season's closing team, team 6, met at the City Lodge Hotel on the Waterfront. The team members are Janna and Ben Williamson from Wyandotte Michigan, Eric Baker from Phoenix, Arizona and Karen Piastunovich from London, England, all ably led by Peter Barham, who you'll know from Team 3's diary is the developer of the new band being tested in this project. We enjoyed the traditional dinner at the Musselcracker, where we were joined by team two leader Phil Whittington, Mario Leshoro, Robert Crawford, Sue Kuyper, Bruce Dyer and PhD student Jenny Griffin.
Tuesday 26th June 2001:
A 06:45 start meant that we easily caught the 7:30 staff ferry to Robben Island. After an uneventful 30 minute crossing we arrived, carting our bags and enough food to feed an army for a week (thank you Jane!). We were lucky that it was a sunny, cool day with blue skies. Mario treated us to an introductory tour of the island where we saw our first penguins, as well as springbok, steenbok, fallow deer and a large variety of birds some of which we hadn't seen before. In the afternoon we checked the project nests at the Kramat. Highlights of the day: finding that, unusually, two of the nests had birds which were on their second set of chicks; not running into an ostrich; seeing gannet and skuas on the ferry ride over and discovering two penguins in an unmarked nest (our freezer) where none had been before.
Wednesday 27th June 2001:
We started the day with a hearty breakfast of VegemiteŽ toast (at least one of us did), cereal, unidentified juice and coffee. We made a quick check of Mario's nest. He was at home, so we decided to stop and pick up the Chap to lead us on a brief survey of the project nests. More importantly, we knew we would need an extra hand in picking up trash off of the beach. A quick check of previously marked nest sites gave insight into the neighbourly relationships amongst penguins. A bird had removed the red nylon marking tag from the adjacent nest several feet way and used the tag as nesting material to line its own nest. We spent two hours cleaning refuse off the 130-meter stretch of beachfront the penguins use to get to and from the sea. The birds can easily become ensnared in items such as fishing line or use the shiny bits of debris in the nest. As an example, a bird was found nestled with a chick yesterday, in a nest lined with a rusted tin can lid. Natural predation takes its toll on birds too. Ben found the remains of bird number S4916 during the cleanup, whose carcass washed ashore after it had apparently fallen prey to a seal. It's steel tag was removed and checked against the register, revealing that the bird was about 10 years old. In another sad event, Karen had to leave the team to deal with an illness back home. The days work was completed with two telescope teams taking tag numbers from the penguins as they returned from feeding at sea for the night. We were fed by Peter, who is also an accomplished chef, much to our benefit.
Thursday, 28th June 2001:
We woke to a rainy morning and a Springbok in our yard. None of that changed our plans: pick up Mario from the prison and check the project nests on the north-west corner of the island. Most were abandoned. Our other task for the morning involved combing the beach north of the harbour for fishing line. Inspired by Peter's words yesterday ("that's what kills penguins") we managed to collect enough to fill two garbage bags. Toward the end of the morning we spotted an oiled penguin on the beach, perhaps the most difficult place to catch it. In spite of Peter's stealth in stalking the bird, it would not be had, but swam out to sea. We had lunch with Mario, and headed back out to the beach with telescopes to wait for the oiled bird to return and collect tag numbers. The oily penguin never came back, but we recorded 173 numbers from other birds.
Friday, 29 June 2001
This morning we took the scenic route to Mario's office. Along the way we saw a herd of at least ten Bontebok. We also noticed that penguins are making nests all along the north fence of the prison. When we reached Mario, we made him aware of the leaking drainpipe in our kitchen. He nodded his head and picked up the telephone. For our morning task, we split in to two groups: Ben, Janna and Mario; and Peter with Eric. These groups set out to check the nests that have been abandoned. Thanks to Mario's nest site intuition and GPS skills we finished this task well before lunchtime. Peter and Eric also made good time, and found penguins occupying two of the nests they checked. Instead of retiring to the village pub at this point, we decided that the extra time would be better spent spotting the band numbers of nesting penguins. When we arrived back at our house for lunch, we were surprised to find that a plumber had visited us and replaced our drainpipe (with one that doesn't leak). Wonder if Mario knows a heating and cooling expert? After lunch, we took our spotting scopes to the beach to collect more band numbers. There we noticed that the same oiled penguin was back, and we prepared to catch him. As one knows, this is not easy work, especially when the bird is anywhere near the water. The odds bore themselves out, and we had no luck in capturing the penguin before it swam off out to sea. Today we were joined by Barbara Barham, a penguinophile without match. Welcome aboard, Barb!
Saturday, 30 June 2001
We set out to find 2 specimens: X0006 and A20018. These two birds were wearing a metal band and a plastic band respectively. A control group of metal bands was designated as series "X" in order to compare the wearability of a metal band and a plastic band over the same period of time. X0006 was not in its nest but a bird wearing an M series band marked with picric nearby served as a comparable specimen because it was banded during the same time period as the control group. We found A20018 at home and removed its band. Wear around the flipper of both birds was documented. After lunch, Ben and Janna went on a hunt for the 25 nesting boxes set out at the beginning of the project. Since the boxes were originally set out, many of them had been moved around without documentation. We found all 25 boxes and recorded the GPS coordinates for each one. Peter, Barb and Eric spent the afternoon spotting band numbers at various locations.
Sunday, 1 July 2001
This morning we broke into two groups in order to search the island for all active nests and record the activity there. Ben, Janna and Mario formed one group and Peter, Barbara and Eric the other. Several of the nests appeared to have seen no activity in recent days. The penguin occupying the nest at 922/238 wore a rubber study band that was turned around, effectively concealing its identification number. We would have caught the bird and removed the band had it not been sitting atop two eggs. We decided not to take the chance of the bird not returning to its eggs afterward. In the afternoon Eric, Ben and Janna took to the beach to record band numbers while Peter and Barbara entered a mounting backlog of information into the study's database. The three volunteers arrived back at the ranch happy to see the lights in the kitchen burning and the aroma of ostrich in the air. Other offerings from Peter's hearth tonight: mashed potatoes and home made garlic bread. Yummy!
Tuesday, 3 July 2001
We woke this morning to drizzling rain. Our plans for the day included capturing a wounded penguin and its two chicks to send for treatment at SANCCOB. Also, we intended to examine several birds wearing metal bands in order to inspect for any signs of undue wear they may cause to the birds' feathers. Such information may prove helpful in any qualitative comparison between rubber and metal bands. We were successful in capturing the wounded bird and its chicks, but the sprinkling rain of the morning gave way to a steady down pour that kept us inside for the rest of day. This, however, presented the perfect opportunity for us to join a tour group visiting the Robben Island prison. We look forward to clearer skies tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, 4 July 2001
Happy 4th of July! I'm afraid if we had fireworks here, they would all be extinguished by the rain that has plagued our efforts since yesterday. The goal for the day was to remove any plastic bands that we could and also to find two of each letter of metal band and photograph the wear the band has caused around the bird's flipper. It had been decided in the last couple of days by our fearless leaders, that any birds having eggs or very small chicks would have the plastic bands left on and that they would be taken off later by someone else once the chicks were grown. Of the bands eligible to be taken off, we were able to find two birds at home. With scissors, we cut one off and the other had already ripped to such an extent that it needed little assistance to be removed. We located two M bands, one L, two A's, one S band and one V. We pulled these birds from their nests and documented signs of wear caused by each band. By the time we examined the last bird, we were drenched and decided to call it a day.
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