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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by Les Underhill

  1. L

    Ornithological Observations has new papers; there is one on "shadow-boxing"

    After a bit of a gap in publication due to an accident involving the editor, there is a string of new papers in the ejournal Ornithological Observations (OO), http://oo.adu.org.za/'. The most important is by Joël Roerig, and it is a review of "shadow boxing" in birds --- the term "shadow...
  2. L

    Review of "shadow boxing" (ie birds attacking reflections)

    There is a great new paper in the ejournal Ornithological Observations (OO), http://oo.adu.org.za/ --- It is by Joël Roerig, and it is a review of "shadow boxing" in birds --- the term "shadow boxing" has been used since 1916 to describe birds attacking, pecking, and flying at their reflections...
  3. L

    April Aliens --- the Common Myna continues its march across southern Africa

    During April, the Animal Demography Unit will have a series of news items under the banner "April Aliens" --- the full set will be on the ADU website (http://adu.org.za) and the Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/animal.demography.unit) --- each news item will carry the "aliens ahead" logo...
  4. L

    April Aliens --- the Common Myna continues its march across southern Africa

    During April, the Animal Demography Unit will have a series of news items under the banner "April Aliens" --- the full set will be on the ADU website (http://adu.org.za) and the Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/animal.demography.unit) --- each news item will carry the "aliens ahead" logo...
  5. L

    Why should an eagle mob a leopard?

    This is the first paragraph of the newest paper in the ejournal Ornithological Observations. On 1 August 2012 whilst observing a pair of Verreaux’s Eagles Aquila verreauxii in the Cederberg Mountains I noted an unusually short and repetitive dive being performed at first by one of the pair of...
  6. L

    SABAP1 vs SABAP2 comparisons for seven species

    The Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project has been on the go for 5.5 years. We discovered "slideshare.net" a few weeks ago --- this has enabled us to share powerpoint presentations in a way that we did not know was possible! --- This short presentation shows how the distributions of seven...
  7. L

    How to make 2.5 billion termites disappear? A case for protecting the Amur Falcon

    What impact does the recently reported hunting of Amur Falcons in India have on South Africa? The original news item, written by Conservation India, has the title "Shocking Amur Falcon massacre in Nagaland." Shashank Dalvi and Ramki Sreenivasan, who authored the report, summarize it as follows...
  8. L

    Visual progress with the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project

    Sorry, a pentad is 5 mins of latitude by 5 mins of longitude --- it works out to be about 9 km north to south, and 8 kms east to west, more or less square. There are 17000 pentads in South Africa (and 10000 in Namibia). We have no particular target in mind, apart from an unrealistic 100%! ---...
  9. L

    Visual progress with the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project

    Initially, 2007 onwards, SABAP2 was funded exclusively by SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute) --- (1) SANBI's mandate is South Africa, so the money had to spent in South Africa (2) SANBI is funded by the SA govt; if we started to run atlas projects in other countries, that...
  10. L

    Amur Falcon harvest in NE India

    The following report is on the website of the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town (http://adu.org.za/index.php) What impact does the recently reported hunting of Amur Falcons in India have on South Africa? The original news item, written by Conservation India, has the title...
  11. L

    Annual progress with the bird atlas project in South Africa

    SABAP2, the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project, is the most important bird conservation research project in southern Africa. If you don't know the distributions of birds, and how they are changing, you cannot do conservation intelligently and effectively. This slideshow demonstrates how...
  12. L

    Visual progress with the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project

    SABAP2 (http://sabap2.adu.org.za/) is the most important bird conservation research project in southern Africa. If you don't know the distributions of birds, and how they are changing, you cannot do conservation intelligently and effectively. This slideshow demonstrates how the citizen...
  13. L

    Clowning crows

    Thanks, everyone for the fascinating responses!
  14. L

    Clowning crows

    Fascinating observation!
  15. L

    Clowning crows

    One of the latest papers in the ejournal Ornithological Observations (http://oo.adu.org.za) reports several incidents of a bizarre piece of Pied Crow behaviour --- for example "We came across what appeared to be a Pied Crow hanging upside down from a telephone wire about 20 m from the roadside...
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