Red billed Queleas

The red bill Quelea is a small brown passerine bird (11-13cm) During mating time the male gets an extremely colorful red bill. They live in the savanna regions in big flocks. They nest in acacia trees in or near a swamp. These birds is a pest, because they can eliminate farmer's fields in a short period. A flockof 2 million can consume 50 tons of grain in a day. They are one of the most destructive birds in the world.
To control these birds they spray these birds wit a poison called organophosphate fenthion, this has negative effects, because non target animals get sprayed as well. Another way to control them is to destroy their habitat using explosives or bulldosing it.
By law, if this bird is on your farm you have to get rid of it otherwise you can get a big fine.

conservation gaurdianship

On Friday we did an assimilation on anti-poaching. W covered a certain area. Four of us walked in a straight line formation, and we looked for things out of the ordinary. We saw  snares and path markers and came across 4 "poachers" that we had to confront and arrest using the appropriate methods. After they were arrested we collected the evidence without getting our fingerprints on it. Doing this we saw what must be done in a real life situation. All your senses must be very good, you must be able to see and hear and smell anything out of the ordinary.

Veld fires

It is winter and the fire season has started. We did a fire drill where we put on all the fire clothing and went on the vehicle to practice and see what really happens if there is a fire. Yesterday there was a fire at one of the neighbor farms. Sondela helped to put it out. The 1st years took all the equipment out for the people going to help and when they came back we put everything back. When they got to the fire it was luckily almost out, but later that evening it came up again, but it was too far so other people had to put it out.

working at entertainment

On weekends we work at entertainment. The morning we get a fire going for the farmyard market to boil water for coffee on. After that we get the horse and the donkeys. When the children wants to have a ride on the horse they pay R5 and we write a receipt Someone takes the horse and lead it and the other person walks beside him and hold the child so they won't fall of. If we are finished with that (usually at 10) we take the horse back. the rest of the day we play games with the kids and paint their faces.

Erosion

We looked at erosion on Sondela. There was a road from reception to the boys' house that became a problem. It was a straight road so all the water went down it when it rained and taking all the valuable soil with it. They closed the road and made blocks with sickle bush. In each block they used a different method to recover the road. The ones that looks like the most effective was to cover the the block with sickle bush, so when it rains everything gets stuck in there so it grows in that block. The other method that also worked well was to plant seeds in the block. Hopefully in a years time that road would be fully recovered.

plant press

We went to the springbok flats and got plant samples for the wild life center. They want to see what plants the animals like at the wildlife center. we got sweat bush, monkey thorn, Gwarrie and puzzle bush. After we got that we took samples of everything and pressed it. We put it in the plant presser with it's details and pressed it.
 While we were there we picked wild basil for the kitchen, they are going to make pesto from it. We pressed that as well.

Combat problem plants

On Friday we did our assessments on combat problem plants. We sprayed ink berry with roundup. Ink berry is a toxic plant and especially dangerous to cows in the winter. Roundup is a herbicide. We put colorant in so we can see where we already sprayed. We also cut the ink berry and dabbed the stems with the roundup. After a while we'll do a check up and see which method was the most effective. When you work with something that is toxic like roundup you need to wear protective gear, like gloves, goggles and a mask.