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Dyer Island Blog #4 - 16 March 2009
On my nest rounds this week, I came across a pair of penguins starting to settle and make a nest in one of the building
ruins, the 'South West Seabird'. Their preferred location turned out to be an old drum that was used to melt down the seal
fat when the island was used as a sealing station.
I'm used to seeing these little fellas making use of all sorts of spaces for their nests, so their location didn't
necessarily surprise me. What was of interest to me though was that one of the birds has a stainless steel flipper band on
its left flipper with the 'R1898' inscription. (see first photo down the right hand side) These flipper bands are used to
monitor all sorts of things, including survival rates of the penguins, breeding success of birds released after oiling,
movements between colonies and so on. When I had a look at the banding history of this bird, I discovered that the ring had
been placed on the bird on the 19th November 2002.
I'm not sure if this was done when it was a chick, I'll need to investigate that further. If it was, then the bird is at
least 6 years old. The interesting thing is that this bird was rung on Robben Island. African Penguins generally go back to
their natal colony (the colony where they hatched) to breed once they are about 4-5 years old. If conditions are
unfavourable, such as lack of sufficient food, they may move to other colonies. I didn't pick it up in my records on Dyer
for 2008, so I'll go back into the databases that are held in SAFRING (the South African
Ringing Unit) and see if I can find some more information about the history of this bird. Will let you know.
After my rounds this week, I'm also relieved to see that many of the penguins are coming back to their nests to breed after
the desertions we experienced in late February. I'll do a complete penguin breeding census of the island at the end of March.
In the meantime, here's what is happening in our nests we're tracking. I found another banded bird in nest #2. R3788 was
banded on 10th October 2003, also on Robben Island, so is at least 5 years old. I found this bird's nest in exactly the same
location in 2008!
Nest 1: Still 2 chicks in this nest with the adult.
Nest 2: R3788 with 2 eggs
Nest 3: this bird is incubating 1 egg
Nest 4: this pair still incubating 2 eggs
Nest 5: this pair still has 2 eggs. They seem a bit unsettled so
I'm not sure yet how this nest will do.
I'll be back on the island next week to do my nest rounds and will fill you in on what's happening on Dyer. Will also give
you a report back on the entangled penguin we found on Robben Island, and hopefully some more information on the banded
birds we found.
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© 2009 Dyer Island Conservation Trust
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Penguin pair in drum. Bird on the right has a band on it's left flipper |
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