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    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...
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    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...
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    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...
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    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...
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    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...
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    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...
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    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...
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    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%! ---...
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    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...
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    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...
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    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...
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    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...
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    Clowning crows

    Thanks, everyone for the fascinating responses!
  14. L

    Clowning crows

    Fascinating observation!
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    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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    Online reliable resources for non-UK birds

    In South Africa, the Animal Demography Unit's website provides data from the ongoing bird atlas project: http://sabap2.adu.org.za --- Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project --- by going to the link "Summaries" and then choosing "Gap Analysis" and clicking on the map that appears (which is...
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    RANT: Plastic string etc. (not nice pictures)

    For an accurate documentation of the consequences of fishing line in a seabird nest, have a look at http://oo.adu.org.za/content.php?id=57 --- we document a case in which a cormorant chick took at least 88 hours to die, between first being observed entangled and last being observed alive. This...
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    Extraordinary range expansion of the White-fronted Bee-eater

    During SABAP2 (Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project), the White-fronted Bee-eater has been recorded in 153 quarter degree grid cells where it was not recorded in SABAP1 --- the range expansion over the past two decades is mainly to the west and the south --- the range-change map is...
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    Entangled Bank Cormorant chick dangles for at least 88 hours before it dies

    Eye-witness accounts of seabird death by entanglement are rare --- mostly it is dead seabirds that are discovered, and it is clear that the cause of death was entanglement --- the Bank Cormorant colony on Robben Island is being kept under regular surveillance was part of a postgraduate project...
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    Best birding reads --- Ornithological Observations

    We have recently published the 63rd paper in the ejournal Ornithological Observations --- OO for short --- the URL for the journal is http://oo.adu.org.za --- there are three volumes, with the first in 2010. Each article is a separate pdf. The pages are in landscape format, so each page neatly...
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    Best birding reads

    We are producing a new e-journal in southern Africa called "Ornithological Observations" --- OO for short --- the website is http://oo.adu.org.za --- the journal now contains more than 60 papers in three volumes, and most of them document fascinating aspects of bird behaviour, breeding...
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    Southern African Forum

    Thanks, Dave, we appreciate all the support of the Virtual Museums at the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town. The ADU's main website is at http://adu.org.za --- our biggest project is the bird atlas, the second one is called SABAP2, and its website is at...
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    ejournal Ornithological Observations : lots of new articles

    Our ejournal Ornithological Observations publishes interesting observations about birds : most of these are going to need to be cited in the next edition of Roberts! So far 58 papers have been published, so they cover a broad spectrum of interests. Go to http://oo.adu.org.za and click on...
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    Entangled Bank Cormorant chick dangles for at least 88 hours before it dies

    Dead seabirds, entangled in discarded fishing line, are frequently encountered. It is not often that birds are found entangled before they are dead. If this happens, they are usually released. One of the latest papers in our ejournal, Ornithological Observations (OO), reports an incident in...
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    MammalMAP: African Mammal Atlas Project

    Have a look at this video on YouTube, which describes the background and objectives of MammalMAP, the African Mammal Atlas Project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy2i75bgHNU&feature=youtu.be MammalMAP has a group of Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/204298239617083/ and a website...
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