Times in Tanzania: Catching birds: Mist nets

This past weekend we had a chance to visit our friend, a professor of conservation biology from a major US state school. He is currently a Fulbright scholar spending the year teaching a the College of African Wildlife and Management, Mweka. As part of his research he catches birds in "mist nets", measures them, checks their breeding status, as well as molting patterns.

Mweka with Kili in the background.

Mweka is located up the slopes of Kilimanjaro, about a 1/2 hour ride outside of Moshi. We left at about 6:00AM to help our friend string up the nets and the early morning ride was very chilly. Upon arrival we walked to the edge of the campus where the student dormitories were and set up four sections of mist nets.

It was my first time ever seeing mist nets and the set up was pretty straightforward. We dug holes and insert bamboo poles, then strung up the nets making sure they weren't too tight. Then we went to a nearby picnic table and chatted while having a tea.

After about a half hour, we checked the nets and removed any birds, put them in a clothe bag, and then took them to be measured and inspected. We repeated this process for the next few hours, each time removing only about 3-5 birds.

It was quite interesting to see birds so close. The birders referred to it as "in hand" and quite literally they were in our hands. I learned you could pinch them around their neck or pinch their legs if you needed to inspect their backside. I was fascinated to see them so close and less than fascinated to have a few Baglafect Weavers nipping at my fingers.

White and black mannikin.

Releasing the birds makes for epic photo opportunities.

Tambourine dove.

Overall the level of bird investigation was a bit over my head, though it was interesting to learn information about their molting patterns and obviously to see things that can't always be seen through binoculars or with the naked eye. I felt kind of bad for the birds as I'm sure it was a pretty traumatic experience, though they were typically in and out in under a 1/2 hour. I also don't think their brains are quite like an elephant or monkey and I assume they have goldfish brains and 15 minutes later they have no recollection of what happened.

Unfortunately we didn't see a huge variety of species, though I can't complain. We saw baglafect weavers, black caps, a yellow bishop, a nightingale, tambourine dove, and black and white mannikin. My favorite was the baglafect weaver since it's a beautiful bird that I always see, but seeing it close up gave me a renewed appreciation for its color!