Making the most of the SABAP2 website - 5: checking your submissions and accessing your ORFs
SABAP2 workshop: Intaka Island, Century City – ths Saturday 11 May, 09h00 – 15h30
SABAP2 reaches 70% coverage in Limpopo
Making the most of the SABAP2 website - 5: checking your submissions and accessing your ORFs
Making the most of the SABAP2 website - 4: finding those gaps and other interesting pentad information!
SABAP2 workshop: Intaka Island, Century City, Sat. 11 May, 9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Weaver Wednesday: Golden Palm Weaver
Colour Rings on Swift Terns
Gravit8 Weaver Wednesday [44]: Speke's Weaver
Gravit8 Weaver Wednesday: Speckle-fronted Weaver
April Aliens – the Common Myna continues its march across the southern African landscape
April Aliens – if the voracious European Shore Crab reaches the Saldanha Bay-Langebaan Lagoon system, well, dot dot dot
The butterfly to think about on Threat Thursday is the Fraternal Widow
The DARK BLUE news – coverage up to 6%
On this Threat Thursday we pay attention to the Black Stork, a species which is not doing well in our region
67%
Threat Thursday in National Water Week : African Marsh Harrier
The GREENest range-change map of all: Southern Masked Weaver
Gravit8 Weaver Wednesday : Southern Red Bishop
Have you seen an unCommon Sandpiper recently?
Today's Snake Sunday focuses on the Western Stripe-bellied Sand Snake
Time for another SCORPION SATURDAY!! Today we are featuring Opistophthalmus lawrencei
Don't delay. Act today. If you have not yet ordered your butterfly atlas, you should do so now
Two-thirds coverage
The good news Threat Thursday: The "Critically Endangered" Waterberg Copper, thought to be extinct, rediscovered on 2 March 2013
The bad news Threat Thursday: The "Critically Endangered" Table Mountain Copper is probably extinct
Threat Thursday moves to the KwaZulu-Natal coast, and contemplates another aristocratic sounding species, the "Critically Endangered" Pickersgill's Reed Frog
A Mad Mammal Monkey for Mad Mammal Monday!
Butterfly atlas Pre-publication offer
Snake Sunday features the Brown House Snake
Southern Bald Ibises building nests on artificial structures
Weaver Wednesday [36]: Taveta Golden Weaver
Does this carnage in this picture pose a threat to butterflies?
14087 waterbirds of 68 species were recorded on the Vaaldam CWAC last Sunday
It's World Pangolin Day!
OdonataMAP: "What a terrific response" says Warwick Tarboton, faced with 1514 records to identify!
Annual Report for the ADU 2012
SummerMAP has 20 days to run
Hey, it is Snake Sunday, and we are celebrating the remarkable Beetz's Tiger Snake
Zimbabwe becomes part of the SABAP2 family
What do these species have in common?
What is happening to the Rock Kestrel?
Weaver Wednesday: Holub's Golden Weaver
Today is Sappi TREE TUESDAY! We are featuring a species that attracts birds, Halleria lucida, the Tree Fuchsia
Sssssssssnake Sunday! Today, Schlegel's Beaked Blind Snake
60 enthusiastic birders attended the SABAP2 workshop in Harare today
Sixty six per cent!!
Twelve million records in the combined database of the bird atlas projects
Doug Harebottle travels to Zimbabwe to do a series of SABAP2 workshops, and welcome Zimbabwe on board
Martial Eagles spiral downwards
Les Underhill (2012-02-11)
In the Martial Eagle text for SABAP1 published in 1997, Andre Boshoff wrote: "Although numbers have decreased locally in many areas, often dramatically, the Martial Eagle is still widespread in southern Africa ... The conservation status provides cause for concern ... The main causes [of the decrease] are direct persecution (shooting and trapping) by small-stock farmers, indirect persecution by poisoning, drowning in sheer-walled reservoirs, reduction of natural prey through habitat alteration and degradation, and electrocution on electricity pylons." 
The process seems to have been ongoing between SABAP1 and SABAP2. The dominant colour on this range change map for Martial Eagle is RED, which indicates quarter degree grid cells where the species was recorded in SABAP1 but not in SABAP2.
The general wisdom two decades ago was that birds of prey such as the Martial Eagle were doing OK in the large conservation areas such as the Kruger National Park. In fact, in the 2000 Red Data Book, Keith Barnes expressed the hope that the large conservation areas could "act as source areas for recolonization" once "landowners' attitudes" towards this species had become more tolerant. But closer inspection suggests that Martial Eagles are not doing well even in these areas. For example, the lower map shows the northeastern corner of South Africa, including the Kruger National Park. The two numbers in each quarter degree grid cell are the SABAP1 and SABAP2 reporting rates, at the top and bottom, respectively. Most of these quarter degree grid cells have quite large samples of checklists, for both projects. So the reporting rates are likely to be fairly well estimated. The most frequently occurring colour is ORANGE, indicating a decrease in reporting rates. In general, many of the changes are so large that they cannot be attributed to differences in protocol between the two projects. The largest changes are from SABAP1 reporting rates of 96.8% to 0% in SABAP2, and from 82.4% to 5.3%.
The decreases in the Kruger National Park cannot easily be attributed to any of the human-related factors in the list of causes mentioned above. So it is tempting to suggest that environmental factors are also impacting on Martial Eagles. It could be disruptions to the prey base, it could be climate change related. But it certainly needs investigation.
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