Scavenging on beaches yields many wonders, not least the history of sea birds RECENTLY I received a very exciting e-mail. The message came from Safring, the South African Bird Ringing Unit based at the University of Cape Town.I had been waiting to get information requested about a year ago on a gannet I found many years ago, washed up on the beach after two days of storms in December 1997.The curt e-mail stated the following: ring 937727 had been placed on the bird by a Dr NTW Klages on March 5, 1985. The bird, Morus capensis, had been ringed on one of the largest remaining breeding colonies in SA — Bird Island off Algoa Bay.It had been 4,315 days between ringing and the day I discovered it in between the flotsam and jetsam that is pumped out of the Mbashe river onto the beach during the Transkei’s summer rains. Eleven years and 10 months to the day.Countless summers, autumns and springs wandering the dunes, beaches, rock pools and lagoons as a child always gifted treasures: from su...
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