C212 again and more details of its movements

C212 - tagged Cape Griffon seen again at Ngamo

Yesterday I saw C212, the tagged Cape Griffon, again at Ngamo and this time all bloodied up from feeding on an elephant carcass with many other vultures.
I have sent this sighting in to add to the list of sightings that this bird is racking up!

Shortly before I saw it at Ngamo last week it as seen in the Limpopo region: This from their records

This bird was also spotted by Joseph Heymans 14/05/2015 248558.6 282124.3 On the sprinbok plains near Settlers in Limpopo Province.

We will keep you updated if we see it again

                                                                    The Hwange Birder 

Latest news on the tagged Cape Griffon in Hwange

This is the latest on the tagged Cape Griffon

Many thanks to Vulpro and the various people who responded.

David Pretorius 8:13am Jun 26 C212 was ringed G31869 and tagged as a juvenile on 24/01/2014 at Blouberg Nature Reserve in the Limpopo Province as part of EWT vulture monitoring project. There is a suggestion that the Cape Griffons we see here in Hwange are all dispersal aged birds exploring.                    The Hwange Birder

Another tagged "Capie" in Hwange

Just a day or so ago I was looking for lions in the Ngamo area of Hwange when a large vulture caught my eye. Its wing seemed to shine and when I put my bins on it I realised why......it had a tag!
I took a careful photograph from about 100m just in case i couldn't get closer but in hind sight I needn't have bothered because with a careful approach I managed to get underneath the tree it was in.
The 400mm lens did a superb job of getting me a shot clear enough to see the number on its yellow wing tags and as luck would have it.....I had 3G coverage on my cell. I Googled "Tagged Cape Vultures" and got a contact address and send in my re-capture sighting. Within an hour or two I had a reply from Kerri Wolter (Vulpro) to say that that bird had been rehabilitated and released from the Blouberg nature reserve in South Africa. More info is being collected for me on the other sightings but in the mean time I have looked back in my photos and found another Cape Griffon that I saw in Hwange with tags. That one too was a rehabilitated bird from the same area.

Cape Griffon (tag number C212) seen in Ngamo, Hwange

                                                                    The Hwange Birder

Prof Mundy - Eat your heart out!

The Cape Griffon Gyps coprotheres is a very rare sight here in Zimbabwe with only a few confirmed sightings now and again. For those following this blog you will remember one of my first posts with photos of one seen on an elephant carcass in Hwange National Park in 2011.
The widely held belief is that the ones we see here are away from their breeding colonies (typically cliffs) and are sub-adults on a bit of a wander!

My workmate Jane found 3 eland carcasses near the railway line in Hwange (all killed by the train) and watched and waited as the "eyes from the sky" arrived. Then sure enough a large ADULT Cape Griffon arrived and she managed to get some superb shots. Details of this will be logged and sent to the "Prof"...perhaps we are seeing more adults now that the theory would suggest.

The Hwange Birder