Temminck's Courser in Hilton, KZN

Malcolm Robinson saw this Temminck's Courser in pentad 2930_3015 [at 29.51533S 30.3311E] on 8/12/10. A very good sighting for the KZN midlands [the next KZN record for SABAP2 is just north of the 28° line].

Who has been Atlasing in KZN

Priority QDGC's in KZN

Priority QDGC's in KZN

Priority QDGC's in KZN

It's been a while since I last posted these stats, so here is an update for the period from 2-Aug-10 to 6-Oct-10.

I have ordered the list by the number of new cards per observer, then by the number of second card/pentad per observer and lastly by the number of cards returned for the period.

Thanks to all who have contributed.

Priority QDGC's in KZN

Pentad and Priority QDGC Map for KZN

Pentad and Priority QDGC Map for KZN

Pentad and Priority QDGC Map for KZN

KZN Priority QDGC's

This week has seen some movement in 2831DA with Richard Johnstone adding two new pentads.

Otherwise there has been a continued assault on yellow pentads, with more turning orange.

Last Set of Submissions for KZN

For the 32 day period from 1/07 to 2/08 we saw 247 cards submitted for KZN, 17 of which were for new pentads, while 16 were second cards for their respective pentads.

This equates to 7.7 cards per day, 4.6 cards per observer and 0.53 new cards per day. For the 44 days from 18/05 to 1/07, we also had 7.7 cards per day, slightly more cards per observer at 5.5 and less new pentads at 0.43 per day. So over the last month, we essentially we covered more new area, the same number of cards relatively, but with fewer observers.

Duncan McKenzie led the charge with 7 new pentads, followed by Alan Manson with 3 and Tim Wood with 2. Mr J Janse van Rensburg, Tessa White, Lawrie Chivers, Sharon Louw and David Maphisa all chipped in with one new pentad each.

Iain Guthrie submitted the most second cards, 3, followed by Mr J Janse van Rensburg and Tim Wood with with 2 each. Sarah Burns, Pam Nicol, Tessa White and Alan Manson all chipped in with one card each.

Tim Wood submitted the most cards, 34, followed by Mr J Janse van Rensburg with 15 and Iain Guthrie and Johan Gouws with 14 each. Barry Porter and Duncan McKenzie both managed double figures with 12 and 10 respectively.

KZN Pentad and QDGC Map

The map showing the KZN pentad coverage is looking better and better. We still have only one empty QDGC, 2731DD which lies SW of Mkuze.

Our other challenge is to continue turning the yellow pentads orange. The Durban Group, led by Tim Wood, has been doing some good work here, as you can see by the widening belt of orange coloured pentads north of the DBN-PMB axis.

KZN Card Submissions

In the 44 days from 18 May to 1 July 2010, 337 cards were submitted for KZN. 19 of these were for new pentads, while 11 of them were the second card for a pentad.

This averages out to 7.7 cards / day, 5.5 cards / observer and 0.43 new pentads / day.

The the last reporting period [29 days from 19/04 to 18/05] had 8.2 cards / day, 4.7 cards / observer and 0.31 new pentads / day.

So we were half a card / day down, but with more cards / observer and more new cards / day.

Observers who covered new pentads were Alan Manson with 5, C Gerrans with 4, Brian Byers with 3, and then Tim Wood, Malcolm Robinson, Peter Spence, David Maphisa, Frank Rautenbach and Malcolm Rivett all with one.

Alan Manson completed the second pentad card for two pentads, while Barry Porter, Hanno Pretorius, Rina Pretorius, Dave Everard, Sharon Louw, Sarah Burns and Craig Symes all completed one second card each.

Tim Wood submitted the most cards during this period with 33, followed by Malcolm Robinson with 24, Johan Gouws 21 and Richard Johnstone and Derek Spencer with 16.

Well done and many thanks to all who are participating in the atlas.

KZN Card Submissions

In the 29 days from 19-Apr to 18-May, 239 cards were submitted for pentads in KZN. There were nine new pentads covered. 51 observers made submissions.

This equates to 8.2 cards per day, 4.7 cards per observer and 0.3 new pentads per day. It is interesting to compare the submissions per day over the last few reporting periods:
19/04-18/05 [29 d]: 8.2 cards / day
29/03-19/04 [21 d]: 8.7 cards / day
15/03-29/03 [14 d]: 9.9 cards / day
17/02-15/03 [26 d]: 7.7 cards / day
11/01-14/02 [37 d]: 8.5 cards / day
05/12-11/01 [37 d]: 10.2 cards / day

What this does seem to indicate is that we have a fairly stable submission rate of between 8-10 cards / day for KZN.

What is noticeable in these stats is that new pentads are certainly much harder to get to. For the same period, the card submission rate for new pentads was as follows: 0.31, 0.71, 1.14, 1.00, 0.89 & 0.93.

The attached list is sorted [in descending order] by new pentad submissions, then by number of cards, then by Observer, which means that Alan Manson topped the list with 4 new pentads and 4 cards, followed by Tim Wood with 1/11, Duncan McKenzie with 1/10, Klaus Heyer with 1/3 and Frank Rautenbach with 1/3.

If we change the sort order to te number of cards submitted, new pentads and then name [again in descending order] we have: Johan Gouws on 21 cards with 0 new, Michael Lee 19/0, Trish Strachan 14/0, Richard Johnstone 12/0 and Tim Wood with 11/0.

Again, well done to all the many others who also contributed.

KZN Card Submissions

These are the submissions for KZN pentads for the period 29 Mar to 19 Apr 2010.
In these 21 days we had 183 cards submitted, 15 of which were for new pentads, i.e. 8.7 cards a day and 0.71 new pentads a day.
48 observers submitted cards, which is 3.8 cards per observer.
In general we seem to be holding fairly steady in terms of card submissions and new pentads.
My question now is do I start keeping track of who is managing to do the second card for each pentad as well?

Priority QDGC's in KZN

Since the last Priority QDGC posting, we now have only one empty core QDGC left in KZN. This thanks to Alan Manson's work in the COLLESSIE QDGC.

Our empty core QDGC is: 2731DD NGXONGWANE.

So please, if anyone is up in the Mkuze area, a little to your west, you have a choice of NINE empty pentads.

We only have 3 empty boundary QDGC's left, viz.:

2731AB MOOIPLAATS

2832BC ST LUCIA ESTUARY [EAST]

3028BB LEHLOHONOLO

From a pentad coverage point of view, Southern KZN is looking especially good with very nearly complete coverage. Now we just have to look at changing some of the yellow-coloured pentads to orange.

The N3 Axis from Mooi River to Durban is also looking quite good, slowly moving through the colours from blue, to red, to purple and ultimately to pink. Again we have to look at trying to expanding this coverage outwards, especially to the north.

Breakdown of Observers in KZN

This graph gives a breakdown of how many KZN-based atlas observers live where, also classing them by the number of cards that they have submitted [nationally]. This was as at 29/03/2010.

For instance, there were 23 observers who had submitted one card, 6 in from the Midlands, 5 from Northern KZN, 5 from Port Natal, 1 from Sisonke [Southern KZN], 4 from Trogons [South Coast] and 2 from Zululand.

Alternatively we can see that in the Midlands we have 6 who submitted 1 card, 4 have submitted 2-4 cards, six 5-9 cards, three 10-19, five 20-49, three 50-99, two 100-149, another two 150-199 and last but not least, one observer who has submitted between 400-499 cards.

If one assumes that observers who have submitted 5 or more cards can be said to be regular atlassers, then of the 240 people who reside in KZN that have registered, 84 [or 35%] of them have gone on to atlas regularly. It is also interesting to note that only 127 people [of the 240 who have registered], have actually gone on to submit a card, i.e. only 53%. In other words 53% of the people who have registered have actually gone on to try their hand at atlassing, while only 35% have gone on to submit more than 5 cards.

Last Set of Submissions for KZN

The list on the left are the card submissions for KZN pentads for the period 17/02/10 to 15/03/10.

During these 26 days we had 201 cards submitted, 26 of which were for new pentads. We averaged 7.7 cards / day, with 3.5 cards / observer, and 1.0 cards per new pentad per day.

The three observers who submitted the most cards, were Iain Guthrie with 24, Tim Wood with 16 and Mr J Claassen with 15.

Alan Manson and Trish Strachan submitted cards for 7 new pentads each, while Iain Guthrie, Barry Porter and Brian Byers submitted 2 cards each for new pentads.

These are the submissions for the fortnight from 15 - 29/03/10.

35 observers submitted 138 cards, 16 of which were for new pentads. This works out to an average of 9.9 cards / day, 1.1 new pentads / day and 3.9 cards / observer.

Trish Strachan and Ms L van Deventer submitted 15 cards each, Tim Wood 13 cards and Iain Guthrie 12 cards.

Trish submitted cards for 12 new pentads, Malcolm Rivett 2, and Ernst Retief and Alan Manson 1 each.

Thanks to all who contributed, and keep up the good work.

Last 37 Days Cards for KZN

316 cards were submitted between 11 January 2010 and 17 February 2010 by 68 observers. 33 cards were for new pentads.

This equates to 8.5 cards / day, 4.6 cards / observer and 0.89 new pentads / day.

Well done and many thanks to all who contributed.

Priority QDGC's in KZN

The QDGC colours have changed again slightly since the last post. This time Barry Porter has added a pentad in 3029DD, so we are now down to three boundary QDGC's, along with our two core QDGC's that are still empty.

Northern KZN have also moved 2730CB from 33% coverage to more than 33%.

Well done to all involved with these efforts.

Priority QDGC's in KZN

Since the last time that I posted these maps on the 20th of November 2009, we have progressed to only two core QDGC's with no cover in KZN.

Many thanks to Sharon Louw for filling in a pentad in 2830BD FORT LOUIS and Alan Manson for filling in a pentad 2731DC NONGOMA.

This means that we only have two core pentads left: 2731DD NGXONGWANE & 2830DA COLLESSIE.

The other QDGC's left are all boundary QDGC's:

2731AB: mostly in Swaziland [1 pentad partly in KZN]

2832BC: 8.4 ha of mostly beach just North of Mission Rocks, rest is Indian Ocean

3028BB: mostly Eastern Cape & some Lesotho [1 pentad partly in KZN]

3029DD: mostly Eastern Cape [2 pentads partly in KZN]

I must also mention the great work done by Northern Natal, Rina Pretorius and Klaus Heyer especially, and Alan Manson [from the Midlands], who have filled in an incredible number of gaps in the north-west of KZN. This work has changed a number of QDGC's to lighter [or no] colour on these maps.

There has also been some lightening of the QDGC colours in Zululand, despite the tragic passing of Pete Outhwaite. Well done to Richard Johnstone, Johan Gouws, Frank Rautenbach and Ben Baxter especially.

Southern KZN has also seen some movement, thanks to Barry Porter and Trish Strachan for their hard work.

I must also mention that a number of other birders have helped push KZN along smartly this summer, Tim Woods and Iain Guthrie deserve a mention here. Many thanks to all the others who have helped as well, even if I have not mentioned you specifically.