Four feathered celebrations

Cheers: Peter Mayhew from the RSPB in Inverness, Scotland, is visiting the Avian Demography Unit for three weeks as part of his sabbatical. He was welcomed by ADU PhD student Marta de Ponte.

There was a small celebration in the Avian Demography Unit last week when staff gathered to remember four highlights: the 65th year since the first sighting of Blacksmith Plovers in the Western Cape; the unit's recent WESSA Award (see Monday Paper 23#28), the publication of the CAMP Workshop Report , the Conservation Assessment and Management Plan for Southern African Coastal Seabirds, and lastly, the arrival of Pete Mayhew from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in Inverness, Scotland, who is visiting UCT three weeks as part of his sabbatical. Mayhew's previous sabbatical was spent in Greenland ringing geese, but this time he had a yen for Africa, he says.