Cherpy's Release

You remember Cherpy? He was the little baby bird that I wrote about in NEW BABIES in October. At that stage we still thought that Cherpy might be a Black-headed Oriole. However, Jez Simms came to visit us one day and was delighted to find Cherpy here. He immediately identified him as a Bar-winged Weaver. For more info on these interesting birds, refer to my notes on my Lumwana Wildlife Blog at http://lumwanawildlife.blogspot.com. I also made contact with John Caddick of the African Bird Club and Pete Leonard in the UK to find out some more info on Bar-winged Weavers. Unfortunately it seems that not much is known about them at all so all my observations on Cherpy will be forwarded to them. Follow this link to http://birdquest.net/afbid/birdspecies.php?func=view&slideno=1&af_bs_id=2258 for Cherpy's inclusion on the African Bird Club website. We were hoping for some feedback from other birders via this link but unfortunately we have not yet received anything. Well, during the 3 months that Cherpy stayed with us, he matured into a pretty interesting bird who offered us loads of entertainment every day - more on this on the Wildlife Blog. On Sunday morning, we took him out into our back yard (inside his cage) and opened the cage for him to come out. It took him a few minutes before he realised that the door was open. He hopped out and sat on the edge of the cage for a few moments and then jumped back inside. We were amazed! I used to let him out of the cage every day on the verandah to give him some time to fly around and exercise and also to chase around some moths that I would catch for him every morning. I wanted him to get used to finding food on his own and not rely only on what I give him. Getting him back into the cage every night was a mission as he would obviously not want to return when it was time. So now, here he was given his freedom and he decided to go back into the cage! He came out again a few moments later and sat on Pierre's finger for a while checking out the garden. Then, at last, he flew into a tree close to us. We watched him move from tree to tree, exploring, and we then lost track of him. A while later we were out again watching some other birds when Cherpy came back and sat on the verandah roof above our heads. That was so great for us - almost like returning to say goodbye properly! We saw him again a few times that day - once we watched him challenging a Greyheaded Bush Shrike - trying to snatch a moth from him. In case you don't know - a Bush Shrike is at least twice Cherpy's size! A while later we saw him being chased by another bird so we're sure he's going around making trouble wherever he goes. But, we're not worried about him. He's so innovative and gutsy ("windgat" would be the appropriate Afrikaans word) that we're convinced that he would be able to fight his own battles and hopefully not get into too much trouble in the process. Cherpy, I think of all the amazing "patients" we've had over the past year, you must have been the most interesting and entertaining of all. We miss you very much! The photo above is of big boy Cherpy in the tree after his release.