One of the main activities of my work for the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Threatened Grassland Species Programme (EWT-TGSP) is monitoring the endangered migratory Blue Swallow population during their stay in South Africa. They come here to breed during the summer months from around September until April. Blue swallows are very specific in their nesting requirements and only nest in pre-existing holes or excavations.  In Mpumalanga this mainly takes the form of old mining or prospecting shafts and addits, whereas natural Aardvark holes and sinkholes are more commonly used in KwaZulu-Natal.   An important function of the TGSP is to ensure adequate nest site availability by checking that all potential nest sites meet the swallow’s specifications. This involves activities such as clearing vegetation at the entrance of a hole to ensure that the swallows have a clear flight path to the nest.
 
While out in the Graskop area in Mpumalanga in early September, accompanied by Mpumalanga Tourism and Park Agency officials, Malcolm Bain and Hannes Marais, I saw my first four Blue Swallows while checking one of the nesting sites.  What an amazing experience! Blue Swallows are by nature very inquisitive birds and flew around us for a few moments before disappearing over the horizon.  

In early November, during a trek up the mountain in the middle of a thunderstorm, I arrived at a nest hole to find a beautifully repaired nest, lined with grass and feathers, containing 3 small white speckled eggs. The following week, Nikki McCartney (Birdlife SA) reported that one of the nest sites on her monitoring route was also active and she had seen the female sitting on 2 eggs! For me, the breeding season had finally begun!

My elation at finding these eggs was short-lived, as unfortunately both of those breeding attempts were unsuccessful, with the eggs presumably being lost to predation. Luckily for us they started on their second attempt soon after. By mid-December three new active nests were located, bringing the total number of active nests to 5.  During the 2008/2009 breeding season, there were only 2 active nests in Mpumalanga with only one of these, the nest in Kaapsehoop, being successful and fledging 2 chicks.

In early January, Leigh Potter, Steven Evans (private Ornithologist and certified bird ringer), Malcolm Bain and Maryna Mathee (MTPA Ornithologist) set off to check the active nests and ring the chicks provided they were the right age.

Typically, Blue Swallows need to be ringed when they are 12-16 days old. They are brooded by their mother until about 9-10 days of age, which would make them too young for ringing. At around 12 days, their tarsus has reached adult size, meaning that the ring will not slip down onto their toes or up over their ankle.  If they are older than 16 days, when putting them back in the nest they will often try to escape, which can lead to fatalities.

 The photograph (right) shows a young Blue Swallow chick which is approximately 4 days old and far too young for ringing as you can see! 

The above photographs show Steven attending to a ring, with Malcolm looking on (left); Steven putting a ring on one of the chicks (centre) and Steven holding one of the chicks to show the wing development (right). (Photos: L. Potter)

In total 15 chicks were ringed in the Graskop/Sabie region during the 2009/2010 season. These are the first Blue Swallow chicks for this area to be ringed. Steven had previously ringed 25 Blue Swallow chicks at Kaapsehoop as part of his PhD thesis.

This season proved very successful for Blue Swallows in Mpumalanga as the 5 active nests yielded 22 fledglings. This may not sound like many, but when you compare these results to those for KwaZulu-Natal, which had 36 active nests only yielding 48 fledglings, you can see just how successful Mpumalanga Blue Swallows were this season!


Left: Photo showing 3 Blue Swallow chicks about to Fledge – note the characteristic blue sheen on their feathers.


Enos Zulu, who assists with the monitoring at the Kaapsehoop Blue Swallow Natural Heritage Site (BSNHS), did not find any active nests despite more intensive monitoring this season. On occasion he spotted single birds in the area. This is quite alarming as we are not sure as to why they have stopped using the BSNHS for breeding. Steven, Enos and I will be conducting some experiments in the area to see whether the birds return here.

I have really enjoyed monitoring these nests and have learnt so much about Blue Swallows since I started with this work roughly a year ago. I have recently compiled a report on the breeding success of Blue Swallows for both Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. Should you be interested in obtaining a copy of this report, please contact me on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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