South Africa #10: Raptors

For one of my data tasks last week, I chose to track raptors.  No, we are not working at Jurassic Park.  Raptors is another word for birds of prey.  It was weird to get used to saying that word at first, but now I can't look at a bird of prey in the sky without shouting "Raptor!"



Do you see it?

I mainly chose this data task because I wanted to learn more about the birds here, and this is our only research task that involves birds.  After doing it for one week and the following Monday morning, I can say that I did in fact learn a lot and have a greater appreciation for raptors.  However, the task itself is quite annoying so I won't be volunteering at our team meeting today to do it again this week.



I only noticed this poster today, which was hidden behind a few other posters laying on the ground.  This would have been helpful to see before starting this task.


The reason that I found it annoying is only due to the fact that I felt like I was a bother to everyone else, but that is necessary if you want to be sure to do the job correctly.  Let me explain.  When doing this task, I need to keep your eyes open for big birds flying high in the sky or perched on trees.  Sometimes other volunteers are nice and are on the lookout too, but primarily the task falls upon me.  When I see a big bird, I have to yell out "Raptor" so that the driver/guide will stop the vehicle, and hopefully they do stop without me having to yell again.



Raptor in a tree.


Then, I am totally dependent on the guide to identify what type of raptor it is.  Some examples of raptors are eagles, vultures, hawks, owls, falcons, buzzards, and kites, but different types have different names.  Almost always the birds are flying extremely high, so I have no idea how the guides are able to discern which type of bird it is using only the naked eye.  Sometimes they break out binoculars, but usually they don't.



Yeah, um, sure, those are White-Backed Vultures.


Then I need to write down the name of the raptor on the data sheet and make sure that I spell it correctly so that the data will later be entered correctly into the computer database.  I have to double check the name on a long list of raptors to be sure that I wrote it correctly, because some have hyphenated names with both words being capitalized and some have only the first word capitalized.

The raptor cheat sheet.

After wasting time doing that, I also need to mark how many of the birds there were and what their activity was, such as flying, feeding, perched, or drinking.  Sometimes there are multiple types of birds together, such as 3 eagles and 7 vultures, to make things even more tedious!

A vulture on the ground.

Before or after doing that, I need to grab the one of the GPS units in the vehicle to jot down the GPS coordinates of where we are.  I also need to record what the time was when we spotted the raptor.


As if that wasn't enough, I also have to write which reserve we are in and yell at the guide once again to ask where exactly in that reserve we are.  Their first answer is usually spoken too fast or with too thick of an accent for me to understand what they said.  So I have to ask again, and usually end up needing to ask them to spell it also since this needs to be spelled correctly too for data input.  We do have a sheet that lists all of the location names in each reserve, but sometimes what the guide says is not listed on the sheet.  In those cases, I just go with what the guide said and hope that ends up being alright.

A raptor in a nest.

The goal is to get all of this done as quickly as possible.  Everyone else in the vehicle gets really bored while all of this is going on.  Sometimes the guide begins to drive off before I even finish, and I have to shout for them to stop.



This morning's sightings.


Sometimes we come across so many raptors in one drive that it becomes confusing.  We are only supposed to count each raptor once.  So if I see two vultures flying and then 10 minutes later see two more vultures flying, I will only count the second sighting if we are fairly certain that it is two entirely different vultures.  In the example above however, so many of the sightings came within a 30-minute period in the same general area.  But even when I was sure that there were new sightings, I basically had to argue or debate with the guide to get him to stop or to determine if these new vultures were going to be recorded or not.





I was lucky or unlucky during my reign as raptor data dictator in that there were SO MANY raptor sightings.  I am glad that there are lots raptors out there, because many of them are endangered species.  But I am also glad that I won't be the one doing this task again this week.  I have had enough of seeming like a jerk and/or idiot every time we go out for a game drive.

This is a Bateleur.  I didn't realize that raptors could look this awesome!  I figured all of them were just brown, black, and white.