I am a Ecology student in Cape Town and is busy doing a project on Wadering Birds for my final year in my Bachelor degree.
For two weeks we, me and 28 other students, were sent to West Coast National Park to look for a project and obtain the field data during January.
a screenshot from Google maps of the Lagoon we stayed and worked around
Here is some of my fellow students watching the sunset
For the two weeks we got a stack of articles to work through, and each of us got one to present as a presentation. Inbetween all the reading, we had to go out in the field and collet data for our project of choice. My group and I found an interest in the birds (This location, Geelbek, is famous for being a hotspot for migratory birds) and called ourselves the Plover Lovers. We decided to determine the Species Richness and Abundance of the all the Waders.
We stayed in old stables built on a farm which was established in 1785. Today the Main house in a restuarant and the slables are sleeping quarters for big groups like us.
the stables
We chose 4 locations to count from, grabed our sunscreen, hats and the Scopes and walked to the locations. The one location was about one kilometre's walking along soft shore sand, eish!
Busy counting birds
We counted with the tide for a few days. The tide time was extremely difficult to predict, because we worked around a lagoon.
Lesser flamingo's flying and a Greater flamingo foraging in the foreground
this is a Common Whimbrel, still attempting to forage with the incoming tide
Ringed Plovers
After the counting we had to start thinking about stats. This part I find very difficult, and I'm still busy figuring out the stats at this moment.
Trying to do stats
In the area there were a few few game roaming around, I am accually surprised that there were any due to the dry Fynbos vegetation that offers little shade and food.
an Eland
a Bontebok
Ostriches
for more birdy photos, please check out my previous post: https://steemit.com/nature/@kiekie/my-swift-bird-story-and-photo-s