Farewell to a bird ringing legend
EMMARENTIA - Bird ringer John Bunning, who spent many years at the Melville Koppies, passes away.
John L. Bunning ringed birds at Melville Koppies for more than 20 years.
From 1972 to 1994, he spent every weekend setting up mist nets before dawn often sleeping overnight at the Koppies Lecture Hut to get an early start in the morning. Every bird that was caught was weighed and measured, their data recorded, and then released.
Bunning expanded the early list of birds that could be seen at the Melville Koppies adjacent to the Botanical Gardens and Emmarentia Dam from 45 to over 200. In 1998 he produced an informative pocket-sized booklet on ‘The Birds of the Botanical Gardens, Emmarentia Dam and the Melville Koppies’.
Sadly, the booklet is currently out of print.
Bunning also introduced many youngsters to bird ringing, including Marcus Hofmeyr, who at first watched the ringers from the top of the Koppie until John invited him down. Hofmeyer is now the chief vet for SANParks.
“I was privileged to meet such a kind, gentle, inspiring man who had dedicated so much of his life to collecting valuable scientific data from bird ringing at the Koppies,” said Wendy Carstens of the Melville Koppies, “his records are possibly the oldest, most complete records of bird ringing in South Africa.”
