Bokmakierie - Wits Bird Club

Bokmakierie
Newsletter of the Witwatersrand Bird Club
No 245
D
C LU B
ND
RA
BI
R
ITWATERS
W
April 2016
BirdLife
SOUTH AFRICA
Giving Conservation Wings
Witwatersrand Bird Club Annual General Meeting - photos by Jan van Heerden
Murrie Slotar
being
presented with
the Diamond
Award by
Lance Robinson
Geoff Lockwood being
presented
with the
Bearded Vulture Award
by Andy
Featherstone
Sandy Goodall, Janice Isom, Ginny Mes, Grant Morrison and Thinie van Der Merwe
were voted into office to serve on the 2016 Committee
WITWATERSRAND
BIRD CLUB
P O Box 641
Cresta 2118
Tel: 011 782 7267
Fax: 086 512 7696
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.witsbirdclub.org.za
ISSUE NO 245
DECEMBER 2015
2
Letter from the Chair
3
Getting the wind up! by Maggie
Langlands
37 Bird of the Year 2016 - Sociable
Weaver
38 Rarities and Unusual Sightings
Report: 31 March 2016 compiled by André Marx
6
A visit to the Karoo National
Park by Anthony Cavanagh
2016 Committee:
Inside this issue:
8
Birding The Great North Road
& Beyond - WBC by Patrick
Cardwell
14 Four days in Ghana by Lesley
Cornish
17 3000Km Solo Cycle Ride To
Launch New Conservation Project For The Orange-Breasted
Waxbill (Amandava subflava)
by Eelco Meyjes
Honorary President Lance Robinson
24 Update on EWT Livestock
Guardian Dogs by Derek van
der Merwe
27 The Witwatersrand Bird Club
and the Florence Bloom Bird
Sanctuary – a 43 year-long association by Geoff Lockwood
30 Mass killing continues on British military base in Cyprus by
BirdLife Cyprus
33 Eight million birds killed illegally every year at 20 eastern
Mediterranean locations by
BirdLife International
Cover Photo: Sociable Weaver’s nest
by Patrick Cardwell
Chairman
Andy Featherstone
Vice-Chairman
Koos van Dÿk
Treasurer
Sandy Goodall
Courses
Janice Isom
Conservation
Lance Robinson
Evening Meetings
Lia Steen
Website
Thinie van der
Merwe
Youth
Grant Morrison
East Rand Satellite
Chairman
Awie Coetzee
Henley-on-Klip
Satellite Chairman
David Ludlow
West Rand Satellite Chairman
Programme
Koos van Dÿk
Club Secretary
Lauraine Leigh
Ginny Mes
Cover Design: Philip Tarboton
1
LETTER
FROM
THE
CHAIR
and every cent given to them is used
to make sure our birds are protected, either through researching their
specific needs, or opposing developments that would irrevocably interfere with their habitat.
We were able to present the audited
accounts at the AGM and our thanks
go to our treasurer, Sandy Goodall,
and our auditors, HLB Barnett Chown,
for their supreme efforts. One criticism that has been heard on a couple
of occasions recently is that we have
a large sum of money ‘in the bank’
so why are the members not directly
benefitting from this? In particular,
why should we pay Club membership
fees or any nominal mark-up on trips
and outings? Unfortunately, should
we follow this route of spending the
capital, the investments would soon
evaporate and we would not have a
Club, certainly not in its current format. Frankly, the cost of running the
Club far outweighs our income from
membership. The only way that we
can cover the shortfall and support
worthy conservation appeals is to
use the allowable interest earned on
these investments. This is in keeping
with our registration with SARS as a
Recreational Club.
Dear Members,
Sadly our summer visitors have nearly
all departed for warmer climes and
winter is almost upon us. Having just
returned from a weekend atlasing
around Nylsvley, as part of our local
conservation group (LCG) activities,
I was reminded that there are still
plenty of interesting resident birds
to see at this time of the year and
we even have a few winter altitudinal migrants heading our way. Ginny
Mes has prepared another exciting
programme of day and weekend trips
and I am sure you will find something
to tempt you out on a cold winter’s
morn.
The AGM was held in February and
the 2016 Committee is now in place
(including new members and all Satellite Chairman) with Koos van Dÿk
elected as Vice-Chairman and myself as Chairman. We look forward to
another successful year for the Club
and hope that you will continue to
support our efforts on your behalf.
One of the main items discussed and
ratified at the AGM was the adoption
of a revised Club constitution. One
of the changes required was our legal relationship to BirdLife SA (we’re
now an affiliated Club) and it is no
longer compulsory to be a member
of BirdLife SA to be a member of our
Club. I would, however, strongly urge
to maintain your BirdLife SA membership. BirdLife SA are the only dedicated bird conservation organisation
Any nominal markup on weekends or
trips away are put in place to cover
leader costs and office administration.
We really do need all the help that
we can get to make sure that we
provide you with the benefits you
have come to expect from the Club.
We appeal to you to please pay your
membership dues timeously- we really do need and appreciate it and, by
default, so do the birds.
Andy Featherstone
2
Getting the wind
up!
cumulative effects of wind energy
on birds and other biodiversity in
the Kouga area. She has set a fine
example of how a group of motivated individuals can hold developers
to account; but she has done more
than that, Maggie has shown that
by finding common ground, a group
of diverse stakeholders can go from
being competitors and/or adversaries to achieve great things. Through
her efforts on the ground, Maggie
and her team have set a precedent
for wind farm developments country-wide.
By Maggie Langlands
Foreword by Samantha Ralston-Paton of BirdLife South Africa:
Amongst all the doom and gloom of
South Africa’s energy crisis, South
Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Procurement has
been a ray of light. This programme
has won international acclaim and
has seen the price of renewable
energy plummet. Each year, as new
projects come on line, the risk of
power cuts goes down, saving the
country millions from lost revenue
and fuel. Renewable energy is also
a key part of our climate change
mitigation strategy and South Africa should be proud to be finally on
that path.
There is a corner of the Eastern Cape
that is very windy. It’s a corner that
also has more than its fair share of
charismatic birds.
So when wind
farm developers started weighing up
the most promising areas of South
Africa for their turbines, birders in
the Eastern Cape’s windy corner got
rather nervous.
However, being sustainable is never easy, and even renewable energy has a dark side. Poorly planned
wind farms can kill birds and bats if
they collide with the wind turbines.
Some species may also be affected by habitat loss, disturbance or
displacement. BirdLife South Africa
has been working hard to ensure
that wind energy is developed in
harmony with nature, but we cannot do it alone. It is wonderful to
be able to rely on local champions
to ensure that site and region-specific issues are addressed.
And there was reason to be nervous.
This corner of the Eastern Cape was
selected for no fewer than twelve
wind farms. The prospect of 500+
turbines within two thousand square
kilometres was deeply worrying. It
would not just be landscape-scale
Maggie Langlands (author of the
article below, and BirdLife South
Africa Owl Award recipient) has
bravely tackled the thorny issue of
Denham’s Bustard Photo: Gregg
Darling
3
did was to set up their own monitoring programme.
The fact was that no-one in fact
knew what effect the wind turbines
would have on birdlife. There was
information from overseas, but not
only are their birds different from
ours, their landscapes are too.
Birdlife South Africa cautioned that
it was premature to judge, and that
the birds would be best served by
structuring the risk-assessment process as accurately as possible. They
brought together some of the top
bird specialists in the country and
established best practice guidelines
for pre and post construction monitoring, and this set the standards for
monitoring countrywide.
J-Bay wind turbine Photo: Wessel Rossouw
alteration of a rural environment: it
seemed that it posed a direct threat
to the birds of the area.
Those birds include Denham’s Bustard and White-bellied Korhaan,
with the highest density of any region in the country. There is also
a high concentration of Blue Crane
and Black Harrier, as well as a good
population of Secretarybird.
Not quite in time for the early environmental assessments, and some of
the earliest were in the area around
St Francis Bay. The bird club was
under-whelmed by the assessments
produced, which were mostly based
on flying visits to the area and often
only a couple of days on site.
So
they decided to do their own monitoring and be in possession of the
facts when they disputed inadequate
You can imagine how anxious the
birders of the St Francis Bay Bird
Club were about the threat that this
new industry presented, especially
knowing of the high collision rate
of bustards and cranes with power
lines in the Overberg.
Were the
hundreds of turbines going to decimate the local populations of these
threatened birds?
The first thing they did was to register as Interested and Affected Parties (I&APs) for the environmental
assessment process for each and
every proposed wind farm, and to
prepare submission after submission
on the threat to the birds, especially the cumulative threat of multiple
wind farms.
The next thing they
White-bellied Korhaan Photo:
Wessel Rossouw
4
site assessments.
the wind farm operators in in the
area.
Many of the birders are active atlassers and the ADU was the obvious
repository for the data collected by
the club. And what do you know,
the ADU launched My Bird Patch just
at the right time for this project,
because wind farms aren’t neatly
contained within pentads. So each
wind farm in the area has been registered as a Bird Patch, with its own
team of monitors, who traverse the
site once every six weeks and report the species count to the ADU.
With one exception, the monitoring
is done entirely from public roads.
The exception is an operating wind
farm which has given permission for
the birders to use its own road network.
Wind energy is green energy – certainly far better for the environment
than the smoke and smog producing coal-fired power plants we have
had up to now. So it makes sense
for wind energy to invest in conservation.
And the more land area
conserved, the more refuge area
there is for birds. The association
between the environmentalists and
the industrialists is good for all parties, including the feathered ones.
But, I hear you say, are the wind turbines good for the feathered parties,
or are they causing the feared decimation?
There are collisions, and there are
fatalities. But it is far from decimation. There are so far no records of
fatalities of Denham’s Bustard, Blue
Crane or White-bellied Korhaan, the
priority species that were of most
concern.
It is still early days – far
too early to make any assessments
with certainty – but at least the data
from the first year are not ringing
the alarm bells.
And that is an indication of a rather unexpected outcome of the clash
between birders and wind farm developers.
That outcome is a joint
association to fund a conservation
officer dedicated to that very same
two thousand kilometre-square corner of the Eastern Cape.
A conservation officer is called a
Stewardship Facilitator nowadays
and his or her job is to find the areas of valuable biodiversity (not just
birdlife) in a given territory and get
into discussion with the landowner
about getting that area protected.
Protection levels vary from just declaring a property as a conservation
area right through setting up a contracted nature reserve. And now
the Kouga/Tsitsikamma area of the
Eastern Cape has its own Stewardship Facilitator, paid for by five of
The fact that the environmentalists can work together with the industrialists, at least in this small
corner, is cause to hope that when
there is reason to be concerned, a
mutually-acceptable solution will be
reached.
5
A visit to the Karoo
National Park
quagga, which are Burchell’s zebra
that have been bred back to resemble the quagga in that their stripes
fade markedly towards their rump.
Lion were common in the area but by
the late 1800’s had been completely
shot out. Nine lions were introduced
to the park in 2011 and another two
in 2013. All the lions are collared and
their whereabouts monitored by the
park rangers who, when conducting
an early morning walk with visitors,
ensure that no lions are in the vicinity of the walking trail.
Text and Photographs by
Anthony Cavanagh
Founded in 1979, the Karoo National Park is a wildlife reserve situated
near Beaufort West in the Great Karoo area of the Western Cape. This
was our first stop on our recent trip
around the Western Cape and Sue
and I spent three days in the park
and recorded many reptile, mammal
and bird sightings. Co-incidentally
we also bumped into our next-door
neighbours from Kyalami Estate who
were visiting the park at the same
time.
Lion re-introduced to the Karoo
National Park
On our drives up the Klipspringer pass
that winds its way up the Nuweberg
escarpment, we noted Karoo prinia,
Rufous-eared warbler, Cape bunting,
Black-throated canary and Layard’s
tit-babbler, as well as a number of
klipspringers. At the Rooivalle gorge
view site Pale-winged and Redwinged starlings flew below us and
landed on the cliff face crags, while
Verreauxs’ eagle soared effortlessly overhead. Continuing along the
49km circular drive red hartebeest,
mountain zebra, and Burchell’s zebra were plentiful, while steenbok,
springbok and gemsbok (oryx) were
also seen. The newly introduced li-
Gemsbok (Oryx)
Certain mammal species have been
re-introduced to the park; pioneer
farmers for instance eradicated the
Cape mountain zebra as it competed for grazing with domestic cattle.
Fortunately the park now boasts a
large and healthy population. The
quagga once roamed the Karoo in
great numbers but was hunted to
extinction during the 1800’s and the
last quagga died sadly in an Amsterdam zoo in 1883. However the park
has now been populated with rau
6
Little Bittern
Red Hartebeest
night drive with the ranger we came
across a coral snake, a night adder,
Rufous-cheeked nightjar and many
diurnal mammals but the nocturnal
mammals of the Karoo sadly eluded
us. The typical low growing Karoo
vegetation of the Lammertjiesleegte
plains east of the chalets facilitates
the spotting of taller birds that frequent this area, and we observed a
number of Karoo korhaan, Kori bustard and also had a very good sighting of Ludwig’s bustard.
ons were spotted in the Doornhoek
area resting up under a tree during
the heat of the day.
The park has a number of 4x4 trails
and we followed one of the trails for
about 20km along which we saw grey
rhebok, Black-headed canary, Whitenecked raven, Mountain wheatear,
Karoo longbilled and Spike –heeled
lark and at a small waterhole a lone
Grey-backed sparrowlark.
Ostrich were abundant on much of
the higher ground of the park.
The accommodation at the Karoo
National Park consists of Cape Dutch
style self catering chalets all with
stunning views of the Karoo landscape, and a shady camping and
caravan park. The park also has a
restaurant and breakfast is included
in the daily tariff. The Karoo National Park is 1000km from Johannesburg along the N1 and is well worth
spending a few days when making
the long road journey down to the
Cape.
There is a bird hide at the waterhole
just a short walk from the chalets
and on our numerous visits to the
hide we saw Little Bittern, African
Reed Warbler, Southern Red Bishop, White-throated Canary, Whitebacked Mousebird as well as scrub
hare, red hartebeest and kudu. On a
African Reed Warbler
7
Birding The Great
North Road & Beyond - WBC
unspoilt by progress.
For Gauteng-based birders in search
of a change in the species mix, this
scenically appealing environment
of diverse habitat types is as rich in
biodiversity as its world acclaimed
‘treasure trove’ of precious metals
associated with the underlying geological complex of great economic
significance.
Text and Photographs by Patrick Cardwell
Narina Trogon
It is over 50 years since I, as a junior WBC member, first birded ‘The
Great North Road’, stretching due
north from its well-rutted origins in
the late 19th century mining heart
of downtown Johannesburg to the
banks of the ‘great, ‘grey-green,
greasy, Limpopo river all dotted
about by fever trees’ so eloquently
described by Kipling.
Woodland Kingfisher
Of the many destinations and lodge
options available to the birder, with
the central and northern Kruger Park
added birding possibilities depending
on the time frame, three distinctly
different lodges are featured here to
provide an integrated experience of
birding variation north along the N1
highway to Louis Trichardt.
Today the ‘Great North Road’ is a
sophisticated broad shouldered toll
road featured on route maps simply
as the N1 outlined in blue.
First in the line-up situated on the
flanks of the Waterberg and close to
the Kranskop exit toll leading to the
Bushveld town of Modimolle, previously known from the early Voortrekker days as Nylstroom, is the Koro
Creek Wildlife and Golf Estate. Here,
within the generous boundaries of
this eco-sensitive environmentally
Although much has changed along
this legendary route, following the
discovery of diamonds and gold that
gave rise to the adventurous age of
the transport operator and his ox
wagon in a time long past, the allure
of the surrounding Bushveld remains
perennially appealing and relatively
8
Cut-throat Finch, Rufous-naped Lark,
White-Helmet Shrike, White-fronted Bee-eater, Orange-breasted and
Grey-headed Bush Shrike resident
‘specials’ on the estate.
special setting, combining golf with
an impressive variety of close on 200
bird species and a delightful suite of
small and large mammals, is where
‘Monyena’ bush lodge is situated
(www.avianleisure.com), with extensive views over the Bushveld to
infinity!
‘Monyena’ lodge is named after
the Tswana descriptive for the willow-like Boekenhout trees found in
abundance in the vicinity of the bush
lodge offering self-catering accommodation for four within an open
plan design and a tranquil surrounding woodland and mixed housing environment.
Cut-throat Finch
‘Monyena’ has been designed to
provide a ‘user friendly’ base for
birders, as well as keen wildlife enthusiasts, with ample viewing and
photographic opportunity on the estate and around the bird feeders at
the lodge, providing a rich start to
any trip north.
The lodge manual offers directional
guidance in relation to trails and duration as well as up to date bird and
mammal checklists and details of activities beyond simply birding to add
to the outdoor experience.
Grey-headed Bush Shrike
Walking and golf cart trails meander
about the extensive estate affording a wide variety of wildlife viewing opportunities within a mix of
micro-habitats embracing the Little
Nyl river, reed and lily pond still-water features, open grassland, mixed
thornveld and broad-leafed woodland - each accommodating a suite
of habitat specific species with Little Bittern, Crimson-breasted Shrike,
Although ‘ Monyena’ is classified
as a self-catering lodge the fully licensed ‘Fairway Restaurant’ at the
Koro Creek clubhouse serves excellent value for money meals for those
less inclined to prepare a meal after
a full birding day.
A two to three night stay comes
highly recommended to do justice to
9
due to the absence of potentially
dangerous animals.
the area and to provide for a balance
between birding and simply relaxing
on the spacious viewing deck enjoying the sundown moment in the
company of a wide variety of birds
and nocturnal mammals visiting the
various feeding stations.
Some 400 bird species have been
recorded over the years and trained
bird guides are available by prior arrangement. Nylsvley is approximately 28 kms from Modimolle and about
40mins away from Koro Creek making ‘Monyena’ an ideal base for those
not wishing to stay in the reserve in
either a self-catering unit or the rustic camp site.
From Modimolle the recommended
route picks up on the old national
road (101) north through wooded
hills and valleys to the turn off to
the Boekenhout station and Nylsvley Nature Reserve. This RAMSAR
proclaimed site of birding importance oscillates seasonally between
drought years with little on offer, to
rain soaked wet summers of floodplain proportions attracting an abundance of waterbirds taking breeding
advantage of the periodic inundation.
Looping back to the old main road
(101) takes you further north to
Mookgopong, formally Naboomspruit, and back onto the N1 toll
road past Polokwane and the University of the North on the R71 to the
‘gem’ of forest birding destinations
in the form of ‘Kurisa Moya’ www.
krm.co.za
Pygmy Kingfisher
Great Spotted Cuckoo
Nylsvley encompasses a mix of different woodland and water related
habitats and is home to a significant
population of Endangered Roan antelope as well as Tsessebe as added
wildlife attractions. Birding by car or
on foot is quite safe as the reserve
Nestled deep within a pristine tract
of indigenous forest lies the old farmhouse free of modern day electrical
appliances beyond solar heating and
candlelight for ambiance. Close by,
for those in search of splendid iso10
lation, are two well-appointed free
standing and fully equipped self-catering forest chalets set deep within
the forest itself. Well marked forest
trails rich in fresh signs of Bushpig,
Samango Monkey and Bushbuck provide a capillary system of interlocking paths for ease of exploration in
the search for Knysna Turaco, Narina Trogon and Black-fronted Bush
Shrike as three examples of forest
delights on offer. Two regularly serviced feeding stations provide the
best views of Green Twinspot, African Firefinch, Swee Waxbill and Redbacked Mannikin I know of within
the sub-region.
Knysna Turaco
ed by David Letsoalo is without doubt
in my mind one of the top ‘Big Five’
birding days to be savoured and enjoyed by amateur and experienced
birders alike, as the avian gems of
the forest are professionally presented by David, with hardly a break
in-between and a very good chance
of a Mountain Wagtail sighting along
the way.
Green Twinspot
Basing oneself at ‘Kurisa Moya’ provides easy access to the head of
‘Forest Drive’ at first light for the
start of a unique birding experience
, descending gradually in ‘sighting’
instalments down a rugged logging
track through pristine montane forest still shrouded in early morning
mist to the tranquil and scenically
delightful Debengeni Falls at the foot
of the forest track.
Bat Hawk
From here the birding route for the
day encapsulates the birding essence
of Tzaneen with Bat Hawk and Magpie Mannikin as highlights within a
suite of low altitude ‘specials’ to
look forward to if viewing conditions are favourable.
This unique birding experience guid
11
Later the route retraces its way up
the Escarpment via Magoebaskloof
and up to the summit of Great Head
in search of Gurney’s Sugarbird within the Protea roupelliae stands lining
the crest, with spectacular wraparound views as the long but sumptuously satisfying birding day draws to
a sunset close. While total sightings
on a typical day are impressive it is
the quality of the sightings themselves that captivate the attention
with ‘lifers’ aplenty for most birders
to look forward to. As such it constitutes an unsurpassed outdoor experience not to be missed.
vari’ lodge www.shiluvari.com lying
in the shadow of the Soutpansberg
Mountains as your base for a two
night stay.
This ‘old style’ lodge and surrounding thatch roofed cottages is situated on the edge of the Dap Naude
Dam with views out across the water
and trails cutting through the surrounding habitat of mixed woodland
supporting the highest density of
Gorgeous Bush-shrike I know of in
Limpopo.
African Broadbill
Here, quietly spoken Samson Mulaudzi
([email protected]) is the bird guide
with an intimate knowledge of the
Zoutpansberg area and where to look
for sought after target species such
as African Broadbill and Blue-spotted
Dove along the flanks of the mountain range.
Gurney’s Sugarbird
At this point one can turn back south
, happily content with the birding
experience, or set off east for the
Kruger Park with a choice of either
Phalaborwa Gate leading to Letaba,
or Punda Milia to take in the northern section with the bird rich surroundings in the Pafuri area in mind.
Again, like the day spent with David
Letsoalo, time spent with Samson
is both enjoyable and productive as
various sightings are presented for
visual enjoyment at regular intervals.
For the more adventurous, returning
to the N1 and driving through to Louis Trichardt opens up new scenic and
birding opportunities with ‘Shilu-
Add the bird and mammal sightings
from the combination of ‘Monyena’,
12
‘Kurisa Moya’ and ‘Shiluvari’ together and you have an impressive and
deliciously appealing target suite to
look forward to in return for a relatively short ‘birding breakaway’ to
the Bushveld and beyond.
All in all Limpopo Province remains
a favourite destination of mine that
has never failed to deliver across
the wildlife spectrum. This in an age
where rural environments are under
increasing pressure from industrial
and commercial development along
with the inescapable reality of rampant population growth and demand
for arable land within the sub-region.
Violet-backed Starling
periences and some of South Africa’s
more exciting and colourful birds to
add to their ‘life list’.
If you do decide to go I am sure you
will enjoy the experience as much as
I always do.
Within this somewhat unfolding scenario Limpopo remains relatively
unchanged from my early memories
and comes highly recommended for
birders in search of new travel ex-
Please feel free to contact me directly for more info should you so
wish at [email protected] .
13
Four days in
Ghana
Hobby which gave us repeat views,
and the best was when it caught a
dragonfly and ate it on the wing.
The Western Reef Egret went from
lifer to trash bird this morning, as it
hung around in the rubbish.
Text and Photographs by
Lesley Cornish
Fellow WBC Member Mike Witcomb
and I were presenting at a conference in Accra, Ghana in December
2015, so as a reward, we booked four
days of birding. Everything seems to
run late in Ghana, and we were a bit
worried about our 5.30am collection
time. We need not have worried,
our guide, William, and our driver,
Frans, were early and we managed
to beat Accra’s traffic.
Immature Senegal Coucal
We drove on to our sleeping and lunch
spot, and chilled for a few hours (it
was really hot), and were bemused
by the wedding going on next door.
Our afternoon birding was at Shai
Hills, which was savannah (and fantastic). We found a really confiding
Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, and the
call was slightly different from South
Africa’s. The Senegal Parrots drove
us mad, because they flew overhead really fast and were screaming,
and it took a while to obtain a good
sighting. Other specials included:
Vieillot’s Barbet, Splendid Sunbird,
Guinea (or Green) Tauraco, Bearded Barbet and Double-spurred Francolin. We stayed until it was dark,
and found three different nightjars:
Long-tailed, Plain and Standard (alas,
without the long plumes). All these
were really patient and we managed
some nice photographs.
William holding a Plain Nightjar
First stop was Sukomona Lagoon,
which combined water birds and savannah birds. We were soon ticking
off lifers: Long-tailed Glossy Starling, Purple Glossy Starling, Yellow-crowned Gonolek (wow!), as well
as meeting up with some fantastic
other birds: Senegal Coucal, Western
Plantain-eater, Yellow-billed Shrikes,
Garganey and Spur-winged Lapwings.
There was a Yellow-billed Kite which
kept flushing up the egrets. At another place on the lagoon, we saw
a flock of over 20 Black-tailed Godwits. There was also a young African
The next morning we were back,
and found Green-headed Sunbird,
Violet Tauraco (another wow bird!)
14
Snowy-crowned Robin-chat, Yellow-throated Leaflove (a really difficult bird to find amongst the foliage,
and they would not keep still), Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters, Black-capped
Babblers, Blue-bellied Roller and
Double-toothed Barbets. We even
managed two mammals, a Calithrix
Monkey, which is very much like our
Vervet Monkey, but with a yellow
tail, and a troop of Olive Baboons.
compete with a few motor-tricycles,
which were really three-wheeler
bakkie equivalents. Again we stayed
out until after dark, and found some
more obliging nightjars, this time
Black-shouldered Nightjars which
came very close. These sound and
look very much like our Fiery-necked
Nightjars. Where the rangers stayed,
we found a Northern White-faced
Scops Owl.
Purple Glossy Starling and a family
of Yellow-Billed Shrikes
Western Reef Egret
We drove on to our lunch stop, and
while they were preparing it, we
searched for Brown Sunbird, finally
finding three very near their nest.
We crossed the Volta River by ferry,
after a long wait in the queue, and
being entertained by the driving and
the local vendors. On the other side,
we birded for a while along the road
which followed the river upstream.
Our “spots” here included Compact
Weaver (looking different from those
in East Africa), Simple Greenbul/Bulbul and African Pied Hornbill.
Arriving at our hotel for the next
two nights, we had a short rest (the
heat!) and then went off birding to
Kalakpa Reserve. This area comprised a savannah region where we
drove along the track, and had to
All of the rest of the time we spent
in Kalakpa, and found some new
birds: Green Crombec, Mottled
Spinetail, Black-necked Weaver,
Blue-headed Coucal, Ahanta Francolin, Yellow-shouldered Widowbird, Buff-spotted Woodpecker (hard
work), Red-necked Buzzard, Marsh
Tchagra (for Mike, I was looking at
something else!) and Orange-cheeked
Waxbill (a real stunner). The riverine
forest part was wonderful, but hard
work, as forests are! We saw Spotted
Honeyguide, Green (or is it now split
to Blue?) Malkoa, Forest Robin, African Shrike Flycatcher, Capuchin Babblers (wow!) and Western Spotted
Nicator (very skulky and it would not
keep still, but we saw enough to tick
15
is nice, beer is good, and we felt
safe! I would just like to go back for
longer, and see more specials! I saw
161 birds, heard 21 (mainly in the
forest), and missed out on 6.
THANK YOU FOR
YOUR DONATION
Brian Bayne
Vieillot’s Barbet
Lynn Caldwell
it!). The best was the second night,
and this time we were mainly in the
forest, and we were lucky enough to
find a Nkulengu Rail on the path! It
flew up and roosted above us, and
we could now look at it properly.
Our other good sighting was a roosting Blue-bellied Kingfisher. On the
way back to the car, and walking
through the savannah, we saw Senegal Galago, a leaf-nosed bat and an
African Scops Owl. The last morning
was spent in the forest mainly, but
we saw a Buffon Kob on the way in,
and a Brown-necked Parrot (which is
part of the super species with Cape
Parrot).
Mark Daynes
Johan de Jager
Doug Giles
George Grant
Christl Hengst
Paul Jacobs
Enid Kirby
Jim McLuskie
Wickus Swanepoel
Lorna Thomas
On our way back to Accra, crossing
back over the Volta River, we saw a
White-throated Blue Swallow flying
low over the water as our last special. All too soon we were back in
Accra, to fly back home the next
morning. Although we only saw
a very small part of Ghana, it was
enough to appreciate the place as a
good birding destination! The venues
are good, the birds great and the
people are very friendly. The food
Billy van Eck
PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR
CLUB WEBSITE ADDRESS IS:
www.witsbirdclub.org.za
AND THE EMAIL ADDRESS
IS:
[email protected]
16
3000Km Solo Cycle Ride To Launch
New Conservation
Project For The
Orange-Breasted
Waxbill (Amandava Subflava)
threatened based, on SABAP2 research, unexpected declines in certain parts of its natural habitat has
resulted in the need for the species
to be researched.
By Eelco Meyjes
Reproduced from the BirdLife SA
2016 Species Newsletter
Distribution comparison of Orange-breasted Waxbill at QDGC
level (Full protocol only)
The species has been selected by
BirdLife South Africa as an indicator
species for no less than eight threatened species, ranging from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened,
plus 84 common bird species that
live in the same habitat and all will
benefit from the research work.
This particular project is part of a
BirdLife International Preventing Extinctions initiative known as Keeping
Common Birds Common. For more
information see:
Orange-breasted Waxbill - photo
by Chris Krog
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/
sowb/casestudy/62
The Rare Finch Conservation Group
and BirdLife South Africa are collaborating on a new conservation
project to try and establish why
the little Orange-breasted Waxbill
(Amandava subflava) is disappearing
in certain parts of the species’ natural habitat. The species is a wetland
and grassland bird. Not yet listed as
http://www.birdlife.org/europeand-central-asia/keeping-common-birds-common
http://www.birdlife.org.za/conser vation/terrestrial-bird-conser vation/keeping-common-birds-common
17
Dr Hanneline Smit-Robinson , Terrestrial Bird Conservation Manager at
BirdLife South Africa stated that “
The Orange-breasted Waxbill will be
a good flagship sentinel (watchdog)
species for other grassland and wet-
Phase two: Site study. Identify and
research 10 historic and 10 new sites
where the Orange-breasted Waxbill
occurs. Academic involvement for
this second phase will be included,
using either a conservation biology
MSc or PhD student.
Marketing Communications
This particular species needed an innovative strategic approach to raise
funds for the required research.
Not only is the bird extremely small
in size, but as it not yet listed as
Threatened, it was decided that it
should rather become a sentinel
((watchdog) bird for the eight red
listed species that use a similar habitat. Species, ranging from Critically
Endangered to Near Threatened will
all benefit from the research work.
In addition to this, another 84 common bird species that also use the
same habitat will benefit from the
research work. In essence the little
Orange-breasted Waxbill will now
become the modern day “coal mine
canary”.
The Orange-breasted Waxbill is a
wetland and grassland associated
bird - photo by Eelco Meyjes
land specialists, endemics, threatened and or/common species.”
Objectives of the study
Phase one: Desktop study and Communications
•
To consolidate all distribution and habitat information of the
Orange-breasted Waxbill in South
Africa from 1900 to 2015. A first
draft of the study has now been
completed and is currently being
reviewed by BirdLife South Africa.
Creative Strategy - small is BIG.
The Orange-breasted Waxbill, because of its sentinel status, is now
a small bird with a BIG responsibility
The creative challenge going forward will be to make the small bird
a BIG HERO
• Using
the
little
Orange-breasted Waxbill as a sentinel
species, create a public awareness
campaign for the BirdLife International Preventing Extinctions Programme: Keeping Common Birds
Common conservation initiative.
The little waxbill, with its lovely
bright orange colour, will be made
into a hero bird that can be loved
and admired by children (and appreciated and enjoyed by parents and
grandparents). Its heroic role, as the
modern day coal mine canary, that
• Fundraising for the Orange-breasted Waxbill project
18
helps to save threatened and other common birds species (using the
same habitat) will be dramatized in
a fun and memorable way. Preferably both the small size of the bird
as well as the colour “Orange” will
be simultaneously leveraged to their
maximum effect.
On average one could say that in
SA the distances between towns is
approximately 70km, whereas in
Botswana they are approximately
100km apart, with some days requiring far longer rides, sometimes with
no water, food or electricity available at the other end. In addition to
this you also need to manage international mobile network communication challenges (often with GSM
dead spots) as well as the reality of
having to cycle through some wildlife habitat in the very far northern
parts of the country.
The launch of the public awareness
and fundraising campaign: a solo cycle ride from Cape Town to Vic Falls.
To raise awareness in today’s highly competitive and much cluttered
media world is not easy. Economic
times, as we all know, are also very
tough. In essence something BIG had
to be done to appeal to the imagination of the general public.
After having completed a very memorable unsupported solo cycle ride
from Joburg to Cape Town, a distance of 1485km, in 2013, I thought I
had done my bit with ultra-long distance cycling (or enduro cycling as I
like to refer to it) The new distance
was now 3000km and, given that I
had only got back into cycling eight
years ago, this was going to be my
Mount Everest of southern African
cycling.
Enduro cycling is not about speed,
it’s all about survival. Managing your
health and safety are your number
one priorities. Enjoying the journey,
by stopping and meeting some of the
interesting locals, plus sightseeing
and taking photographs, is as important as making sure you reach your
destination. Nearly everything must
have a plan A, B,C or D. Sometimes
plan C or D, when one is forced to
use it, you later discover is actually
far better than your original plan A
or B. So you need to be flexible and
be prepared to get out of your comfort zone.
Needless to say by including two
African countries, it suddenly made
the combination an entirely different
ball game. For starters, Botswana
doesn’t have the B+B infrastructure
that South Africa has. Other than
in Gaborone, the capital, there are
no specialist cycle shops the way
we know them in SA. So you need
to make sure you have all the right
spares with you. The distances between the towns are also a lot longer.
For safety reasons having the correct
satellite tracking equipment is also
very important. When I rode down to
Cape Town I only used one system,
but now the distance had doubled
and, because I was going into other
African countries, I decided to use
at least two different systems (one
never goes deep sea fishing with only
one engine on the boat). The same
can be said with enduro cycling in
Southern Africa. Always have at least
19
two satellite tracking systems (just
in case one fails ) and ideally each
one should be different in the way
it works One system was an app
sponsored by NEVAREST and linked
to my smartphone. It used virtual
pegs and as I rode through them it
would pick up my location. The second system was a separate remote
device with a panic button which
gave me peace of mind. This system
was sponsored by Safesporttracking
and it tracked my ride in real time
on Google Earth. Both systems were
GSM reliant (which meant mobile
connectivity was required). Having
four Facebook social media partners on board (BirdLife South Africa, Africa Geographic, Cyclelab plus
Ride magazine) also helped to give
the launch of the Orange-breasted
Waxbill conservation project greater
public exposure.
safety and power supplies. To ride
at night in the Karoo has its own
particular magical beauty, but it
can also sometimes be very scary,
daunting and freezing cold. At night
you need to watch for hyperthermia
which is the exact opposite to avoiding sunstroke in the day.
On both my enduro rides a friend of
mine, Mark Kronenberg, who is based
in Joburg, was my base manager. He
had my entire route plan which included all the distance splits, elevations, planned stop overs and safety points. He always knew exactly
where I was to be at all times of the
day and night. Mark was also linked
to all my debit card transactions
so, if I had been robbed, he would
very quickly pick up that there was
a problem the minute they started
going on a wild spending spree.
After Joburg there were two more
major hotspot areas before reaching
Vic Falls. An 11km stretch through
Hammanskraal just north of Pretoria, plus cycle through a 12 km township to get out of Mokopane (Potgietersrus). Fortunately Ernst Retief
from BirdLife South Africa kindly
escorted me through Hammanskraal
very early one Saturday morning and
the South African police very kindly
led the way for me at 2 am from the
Mokopane CBD to the open road that
took me to Martins Drift on the Botswana border. Both are heart-warming stories that were described in
detail and well ‘liked’ on my Facebook page.
In order to cross the Little as well
as the Great Karoo, which is more
than 700 km (I have now done it
twice), you need to be prepared to
ride at night. This in itself provides
new challenges with managing your
Learning how to manage and ride
through dangerous or potential hotspots is also part of the enduro experience. Coming into and exiting big
cities requires meticulous planning.
Arriving in Joburg via the backend
of Soweto, after 24 days from Cape
Town, was an important milestone
for me. At 1,753 metres above sea
level, not only had I reached the
highest part of the journey but, after 1654 km, I was now well over the
half way mark to Vic Falls in Zimbabwe
Botswana is a beautiful country, its
people are extremely friendly and
20
knew that I would have to camp in
an old deserted pump house, at the
end of the ride, where there would
be no water, food, electricity or GSM
connectivity. This meant that I had
to have enough food and power to
last at least 2 days before I reached
a place called Pandamatenga. The 7
litres of extra water needed also put
a huge amount of additional weight
on the bike, making it extremely difficult to handle. At 4.30am, when
it was still dark, I suddenly had two
hyenas literally 3 metres away from
me, on the left side. They quickly and
quietly slunk off into the long grass
and, needless to say, I had the fright
of my life. Later as the sun began to
rise, I started to see more and more
elephants. One or two truck drivers
stopped and asked if I was mad, or if
I knew that there were wild animals
there or asked if I had a gun to protect myself! All that I had was a little
pepper spray, ultra sonic alarm and
my trusted Swiss army knife.
always willing to help. Often people
would stop and ask if I needed extra
water or help. It’s not surprising that
their country’s slogan is: Our Pride is
Your destination. Botswana people,
both rural and urban, are certainly
very proud and hospitable and with
only 2.5 million people in a country
half the size of South Africa, it is
also very clean. What makes the going tough in Botswana, as mentioned
earlier, are the massive distances.
With very few B+B’s, camping has to
be done, which in turn impacts on
how you manage your water, food,
recovery and the recharging of all
your equipment In addition to this
the wildlife, potential GSM dead
spots which will impact on your safety, also has to be factored into your
world. Using the old traditional bush
telegraph system (of telling people
in the next town that you were on
your way) worked wonders. The last
500km of the Cape to Vic Falls enduro is arguably the toughest and requires a lot of good planning.
By 9am I came across an elephant
that was not going to allow me to
pass. It was absolutely adamant. He
Cylcing amongst wild game was a
brand new experience for me. I
could find nothing on the internet
on how it should be done. I certainly had to learn a lot very fast. From
about 130km out of Francistown one
starts to see elephant road signs.
The road to Nata, where there is a
beautiful bird sanctuary, is also very
dangerous in certain parts with lots
of pot holes and fast moving trucks
driving to and from Zambia. With my
first major ride going into a wildlife
area, which was from Nata onwards,
I foolishly decided to start the ride
at 3am. It was a 100 km ride and I
Elephants are not used to seeing
cyclists and often made it difficult to pass them - photo by Eelco Meyjes
21
nally able to get past. On a different
ride I heard the roar of lions and I
must confess that for once I was extremely pleased not to see them.
had obviously seen many trucks and
cars in his time, but not too many
cyclists. This particular jumbo, as
the locals call them, mock charged
me five times and would not let me
through. At first I thought it was a
bit of a joke, but with all the extra
weight on the bike it wasn’t easy to
turn the bike around and get away
quickly. Invariably I would be in the
wrong gear and to make matters
worse, I was trying to take selfies
using an extended selfie stick to
capture the moment. Fortunately a
safari vehicle eventually arrived and
saw that I was in trouble.
The five key lessons that I learnt from
cycling amongst wildlife is: 1) don’t
ever ride at night. Probably the very
best time to ride is at midday when
the predators have done their kill for
the day and they are well fed and
need a rest. 2) If there is no traffic,
ride in the middle of the road so that
you still have some time to swerve if
there is a problem. 3) Riding a bike is
very quiet and it sometimes catches
the game off guard, so make a bit of
a noise every now. By barking out a
couple of choice words you will often see how well the game responds
to it by moving away. 4) The more
time the game has to be aware of
your presence the safer it is. 5) How
to do the “elephant dash “if an elephant is on the right hand side of the
road, wait for an oncoming vehicle.
Waive it down. Make sure the bike is
in the right gear. Then flag the vehicle to come through slowly and you
then quickly dash behind the vehicle
and hope to hell there isn’t an elephant hiding in the bush on the left
hand side of the road!.
My final ride from Chobe in Botswana, to Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe,
was probably the most beautiful ride
of my life. It was a distance of 90
km. I started the ride at 6 am just
as the sun was coming up. It was
the first time that I was riding in
an easterly direction in a very long
time. I could now take photographs
on both sides of me without having
On one occasion where an elephant
mock charged me five times, a safari vehicle rescued the situation by
going between myself and the elephant.
The driver put the vehicle between
the elephant and myself and revved
the engine to distract it and I was fi22
to worry about the sun. I had another border to cross and the custom s officer very politely warned
me of the wildlife”Be careful of the
elephants, they will be coming from
your left side to cross the road, after
their morning drink at the Chobe river. “ I saw elephants, lots of giraffe,
baboons, Vervet monkeys, warthogs
etc. I also saw road signs saying that
there were painted dogs (wild dogs)
in the area. A question I kept asking
myself: if a pack of wild dogs were
to see me on a bicycle, would they
chase me and go for my legs, like a
domestic dog does, or would they
simply run away? I still don’t know
the answer to this.
Eelco Meyjes at Victoria Falls photo by Lesanne Dunlop
If you would like to support this
very worthy new conservation project then please make a donation
to: Rare Finch Conservation Group,
Nedbank. Branch 193 305 Account
number 1933198885.
Finally, after 44 days and 3008km (
of which 7 were rest days ), averaging nearly 82km per day, I arrived
at Victoria Falls knowing that we
had successfully launched the public
awareness program for the little Orange-breasted Waxbill conservation
project!
The Rare Finch Conservation Group,
which was founded in 2005, is a registered non-profit Organisation.
All donations, unless otherwise stated, will be publically acknowledged
on the Rare Finch Conservation
Group website www.rarefinch.org.
Otters’ Haunt is a rustic country retreat
with a good variety of birds on the island
trails and bushveld walk. More than 60
species have been seen over a weekend.
We have maintained a peaceful and secluded ambience in spite of the tourism
developments that have gone on in Parys and surroundings.
There’s plenty to do at Otters’ Haunt! We are the adventure centre
of the area. In addition to birdwatching, there are walks & hikes,
mountain biking, kayaking and even rafting. We are Lonely Planet’s “Pick” of the Northern Free State. Out of hundreds of lodges,
hotels and guest houses in this area, we came out tops for adventure and hospitality.
For more information contact Graeme & Karen Addison
082 475 8767, 056 8181814 or 0842452490
[email protected]
23
Update on EWT
Livestock Guardian Dogs
one dog who is really not working
well and the farmer has put in a lot
of effort to try get the dog working.
Not all puppies develop into successful Livestock Guardian Dogs and
we have been very fortunate not to
rehome a single dog over the last
two years. Usually just over 80% of
dogs develop into successful working
dogs. Two of our 5 dogs are working well. We are struggling with the
other three, it has been very difficult to bond the dogs with their Dorper sheep due to the fact that the
Dorper breed is not a herding breed
and mostly feed at night when it is
By Derek van der Merwe
Carnivore Conservation Programme: Conflict Mitigation
Field Officer
With this year flying by I thought I
would update you on our Livestock
Guardian Dogs unfortunately we had
some minor incidents which we fortunately managed to sort out. We
have been struggling to bond our 5
Maluti Livestock Guardian Dogs in
the Northern Cape with their sheep.
Three of the 5 dogs are very playful and have caused a few problems.
They have also grown so much and
the sheep are struggling to bond
with them as they are much more intimidating. This has led to the death
of a number of sheep on two of the
farms where we have placed dogs.
Unfortunately the dogs have been
resting at the water cribs especially
during the heat wave which has been
preventing the sheep from drinking.
We have tried a number of methods
to correct this behaviour by using
dangle sticks and putting the dogs on
walking lines with little success. Unfortunately we will have to rehome
Mieka in the field with her
sheep
Rex escaping the hot sun by
having a dip in the crib
cooler. None the less we are hoping
that we will be able to sort out these
24
leopard. He has settled in well and
has been chasing jackal away from
his heard. Frostie is doing very well.
Unfortunately he had biliary but has
been treated and is working in the
field again. Frostie now spends all of
his time in the field and stays with
his herd. The farmer has to locate
the herd to feed Frostie. One of the
resident leopard whose home range
overlaps the two farms that the dogs
are working on has had another litter of cubs. It is encouraging to see
farmers working with conservationists in order to save predators. If
Sockies in the field with her
sheep
Vendetta with his sheep
Frostie showing typical LSGD
behaviour, walking with his herd
Woolies resting in the shade of
the water drum
behavioural problems.
Camera trap photo of Rommel
chasing two jackal away from
the kraal.
Our Dogs in the Magaliesberg are doing very well. We have moved
Rommel to another property which
was experiencing a few losses to
non-lethal mitigation methods work
25
quite the celebrity as he was filmed
by 50/50 once again. I will update
you when the programme will be
aired. He was bitten by a puff adder but fortunately his owners reacted quickly took him to the Vet and
he has since recovered well and is
working again. Jane developed some
behavioural problems over December, she was spoilt and treated by a
family staying on the farm over December. She was therefore returning
to the house on the farm. We tried
various methods to encourage her
to stay with her herd. Eventually
as a last resort we fitted her with
a shock collar and have sorted the
problem out. She is staying with her
herd now. There have been plenty of
leopard tracks on the farm recently. Fortunately not one calf has been
lost.
Camera trap photo of Brandy
the resident female leopard with
her second litter of cubs
and are successfully implemented
farmers will buy into the idea.
Our two Anatolians in the Waterberg
are working well. Buks is becoming
26
The Witwatersrand
Bird Club and the
Florence
Bloom
Bird Sanctuary – a
43 year-long association
By Geoff Lockwood
Buks in the field
Delta Park Environmental Centre
Jane inspecting the work vehicle
In 1973 it was decided to redevelop the disused Delta Sewage Treatment Works and surrounding area as
a public park and members of the
WBC Committee began negotiating
with the Joburg City Council to have
a portion of the area set aside as a
bird sanctuary. Approval in principle
was given, but with the proviso however that no Council funds would be
forthcoming for the development of
the sanctuary.
The EWT Livestock Guardian Project
has had a very busy few months.
Perhaps the most encouraging thing
is that farmers with livestock guardian dogs are now buying their second dogs. We are going to be placing
some more puppies in April. The project continues to grow from strength
to strength and we could not continue without your continued support.
ERRATUM
Norman Bloom and his two brothers
– Dave and Harry had recently donated bird baths to three of the city’s
parks - Zoo Lake, Melville Koppies
and The Wilds, in memory of their
late mother, and WBC committee
members Norman Elwell and Har-
The vulture on the Cover of the
December 2015 Bokmakierie was
incorrectly labeled as a White-headed
Vulture. It should have been labeled a
Hooded Vulture
27
ry Cook approached the Blooms to
sponsor the erection of two hides
and the construction of a second
dam in the proposed sanctuary. The
brothers agreed and, after a twoand-a-half year development period,
the Florence Bloom Bird Sanctuary
was opened.
Highlights have been many, but the
appearance of a Madagascar Cuckoo
in December 2003, and a sighting of a
sub-adult Sooty Falcon in the poplars
behind the Centre in January 2010
were possibly the most unusual and
unexpected additions to the growing
checklist for the park. Another highlight has been having my “own” pair
of Spotted Eagle Owls nesting on the
roof and being able to study these
birds at close range as they reared
successive broods.
Len Gillard – a major name in birding
and sound-recording in southern Africa undertook the task of developing a bird checklist for Delta Park and
he and other club members recorded
111 species between 1971 and 1975.
In July 1976 Tony Statham, together
with Brian Asher and myself took up
the reins, pushing up the species total for the park to 144 species over
the next two years. When Tony returned to England, I took over the
long-term monitoring of the birdlife
in the park, moving into the Centre
on the 10th December 1981. Looking
out the front window towards the
sanctuary movement caught my eye
. . . . and I was looking at a stunning
male Eurasian Golden Oriole – my
first garden bird!
Spotted Eagle Owl Photo: Geoff
Lockwood
Many of the longer-standing members will remember with fondness
the regular club meetings held every
third Saturday afternoon of the
month. These wonderful events introduced members to the amazing
birdlife in the sanctuary and surrounding park and the walks were always followed by a bird talk given either by members, or visiting birders
on the lawn in front of the Centre.
Best of all, we were all treated to
ice cold cool-drinks supplied by the
Bloom brothers! It was at these outings that I, as a very new (and very
young) member of the club first cut
my teeth on the ins and outs of bird
identification, and rather diffidently
Living in Delta Park made monitoring
much easier, and the advent of the
first atlas project (SABAP 1) meant
my records for the park were contributing to the first region-wide
project to map bird distributions.
New species continued to turn up
on a regular basis and by the end
of April this year I had recorded 248
species in the park. Many of these
new arrivals reflected the dramatic
changes that were occurring in the
surrounding suburbs but others were
as a result of drought cycles bringing
“bushveld” birds into Johannesburg.
28
began to guide some of the regulars to the correct identity of some
of the birds we were seeing. It was
also at one of these meetings that I
gave my first public talk - on owls of
course!
surprise and delight and the long
span of records have highlighted
major changes in the birdlife in the
area. When I started birding in the
park in the mid 1970’s, Red-faced
and White-backed Mousebirds were
the only members of the family we
recorded. Now, Speckled Mousebird
has totally replaced White-backed
(my last record of White-backed
Mousebird was in 1981). Other losses
include the Hamerkop (which used
to breed in the sanctuary); Lanner
Falcon (no records since April 2009);
Pied Starling (last record in March
2006) and Cape Weaver (no records
since November 2009). Replacing
at least some of these species have
been Peregrine Falcon (becoming
regular in the park); Red-winged and
Common Starlings, and Thick-billed
Weaver. Rose-ringed Parakeets first
nested in the park in 2004 and a
researcher working on the species
this past summer found over 14 pairs
nesting in the park. No doubt we will
continue to see change into the future and hopefully I will see a new
(and younger) group of birders step
up and continue to monitor document the birdlife in this amazing
park.
Although these afternoon meetings
later fell away, the club still retained
strong links with the sanctuary and
for many years hosted an end-of year
braai for members in the park.
In 2000, the Centre celebrated its
25th anniversary and in recognition
of the role that the sanctuary had
played in the establishment of the
Centre, we began the process of
restoring the Florence Bloom Bird
Sanctuary. The eradication of invasive alien vegetation was identified
as an urgent priority and a number
of club work parties were held under
the leadership of Athol Midgely, Cynthia and me. Progress was slow, but
we eventually were able to hold the
first of a number of indigenous tree
plantings in the sanctuary. The trees
were sponsored by club members, in
many cases in memory of lost loved
ones, and were chosen to provide
food, nest sites and shelter for the
birds. This process is still continuing
and the WBC is intending to extend
the plantings on Arbour Day in September. The club is also sponsoring
the cutting of fire collars around
all the trees already planted in the
sanctuary to prevent any losses in
the event of any veld fires.
Membership
subsciptions
from 1st July 2016:
Individual
R 320
Family
R 450
Senior Citizen (over 60)
R 170
Senior Citizen
(over 60)
Looking back over the past 43 years,
the Florence Bloom Bird Sanctuary
and Delta Park have come a long
way. New birds have continued to
29
Family R 300
Full-time Student
R 170
Overseas
R 600
Mass killing continues on British
military base in
Cyprus
going to assist with combating the
illegal killing of migratory birds in
Greece. Unfortunately it is not just
Greece that takes part in this illegal activity but many other Mediteranean countries as well. We have
reproduced two articles which recently appeared in the BirdWatch
and BirdGuides newsletters to illustrate the scale of the situation.
Over 800,000 birds were trapped
and killed illegally on a British military base in Cyprus last autumn, according to the latest research by the
RSPB and BirdLife Cyprus.
The songbirds are illegally trapped
to provide the main ingredient for
the local and expensive delicacy
of ambelopoulia, where a plate of
songbirds is illegally served to restaurant diners.
Editor’s Note: Many of you will
have seen the recent emails and
articles requesting sponsorship of
Trevor Hardaker and his team’s entry into the 2016 Champions of the
Flyway race. Money raised will be
Organised crime gangs are running
this illegal practice on an ‘industrial
scale’, which is estimated by the Cypriot authorities to earn criminals on
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30
Jonathan Hall, Head of UK Overseas
Territories at the RSPB, said: “The
RSPB congratulates the British Sovereign Base Area for taking important
steps in tackling the illegal killing occurring on MoD land. Approximately
one third of the invasive acacia trees
which were planted on the firing
range to attract migrant birds have
been removed and these efforts are
to be congratulated.
the island 15 million Euros every year.
Survey data from BirdLife Cyprus and
other organisations have recorded
over 150 species of bird which have
become trapped in nets or on limesticks. More than half of these species are of conservation concern.
On a positive note, the results from
2015 show that there’s been a stop
to the annual increases of the last
five years in numbers of birds killed
on British Territory, thanks to various measures taken to tackle the
problem by the Base authorities. The
numbers however remain around record-breaking levels, with levels of
illegal killing still far worse on British Territory than in the Republic of
Cyprus.
“However, we are disappointed
that the numbers of birds still being
trapped for huge profit by organised
gangs remains unacceptably high
and the rest of this illegal-killing infrastructure needs to be removed in
order to put an end to this barbaric
practice.”
Juvenile Masked Shrike trapped on a limestick (Photo: RSPB images)
31
The latest survey data confirmed
the industrial scale of illegal bird
trapping, both with mist nets and limesticks. The survey found that as
much as 19 km of mist nets could
have been active during the autumn
of 2015 within the survey area across
British Territory and the Republic of
Cyprus. These trapping levels could
have resulted in over 2 million birds
killed across the island as a whole.
More than 5,300 limesticks were also
confiscated by enforcement agencies, mostly within the Republic.
with mounds of gravel at one side.
“The gravel is brought in by truck
and is thrown to scare the birds into
the nets. More needs to be done to
reduce the trapping and prosecute
restaurants serving up these birds in
the Republic. A consistent zero tolerance must be adopted.”
Although enforcement action took
place on the trapping fields, enforcement against restaurants serving ambelopoulia has been very limited and much reduced in the last
few years; these restaurants are
exclusively found in the Republic.
Small-scale trapping of songbirds for
human consumption on Cyprus was
practiced for many centuries, but it
has been illegal on the island for 40
years, when it was outlawed in 1974.
Dr Clairie Papazoglou, Executive Director of BirdLife Cyprus, said: “The
scale of the trapping found within
the survey area has to be seen to be
believed. Long avenues of planted
acacia trees that resemble vineyards
The endemic Cyprus Warbler is among the species found illegally killed
(Photo: David Moreton)
32
Eight million birds
killed illegally
every year at 20
eastern Mediterranean locations
Historically, trappers have relied on
lime-sticks, where stems of pomegranate are coated in a locally-manufactured ‘lime’ and are then placed
in trees and bushes. Passing birds
become stuck on the lime-coated
sticks where they fall easy prey to
trappers. Lime-sticks are still used
in many areas. Today, most trappers
will use long lines of nearly invisible
netting, known as mist nets.
BirdLife International scientists have
estimated that just 20 locations in
the eastern Mediterranean may be
responsible for eight million individual birds being illegally killed or taken alive each year.
Cyprus has two songbirds that breed
nowhere else in the world: Cyprus
Warbler and Cyprus Wheatear. Both
of these songbirds have been found
illegally trapped.
In the paper ‘Preliminary assessment
of the scope and scale of illegal kill-
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33
ing and taking of birds in the Mediterranean’ published this week in
the scientific journal Bird Conservation International, the authors present a detailed analysis of how many
individual birds and which species
are impacted, where the 20 worst
locations are and why different species are targeted in each country.
Trapping and killing is also prevalent
in Greece, and Birdwatch is raising
funds to tackle this problem by entering a team in this year’s Champions of the Flyway competition in
Israel.
The highest estimates of birds illegally killed or taken in the Mediterranean region were for Italy (3-8 million
birds), Egypt (300,000-11 million) and
Syria (3-5 million), while the density
of illegal killing or taking was highest
in Malta (18-667 birds per year per
sq km), Cyprus (146-351 birds per sq
km) and Lebanon (161-335 birds per
sq km).
“We were shocked to discover that
25 million individuals of over 450
species are estimated to be illegally killed or taken alive in the Mediterranean region per year, mainly for food (eaten as a delicacy or
sold for profit), sport and for use as
cage birds or hunting decoys,” Dr
Anne-Laure Brochet, lead author of
the report, said. “Importantly, eight
million birds are estimated to be
killed or taken at just 20 locations.
Given the uncertainty around these
numbers because of the difficulty in
documenting illegal activities, the
total could be anywhere from five to
11 million.”
“It was disturbing to find that despite
the positive impact of EU legislation,
half of the top 10 countries with the
highest levels of illegal killing are
Member States of the EU. This indicates the need for greater effort to
ensure that the EU Birds Directive is
fully implemented at national level,” said Willem Van den Bossche,
co-author of the paper and Flyway
Conservation Officer for Europe and
Central Asia at BirdLife Europe.
These 20 worst locations are found
in just four countries: Cyprus, Egypt,
Lebanon and Syria. They include the
Famagusta area of Cyprus, where
400,000-1 million individual birds are
illegally killed or taken each year,
and the El Manzala area of Egypt,
where 30,000-1.1 million individuals birds are illegally killed or taken
each year.
The species affected by illegal killing
include Blackcap (1.2-2.4 million individuals per year), European Turtle
Dove (300,000-900,000 individuals
per year) and Song Thrush (700,0001.8 million individuals per year),
along with many others.
70th Anniversary Celebrations
2017 is going to be a BIG year for Wits Bird Club!
Look out for details of forthcoming events!
34
The data were collected by BirdLife
Partner organisations across the region using a variety of sources, including targeted monitoring data,
police records, publications, reports
and expert opinion. In many cases, the numbers were extrapolated
from data or estimates of the number of mist-nets, shooting incidences, recoveries in animal hospitals
and rehabilitation centres, and illegal lime stick traps used to ensnare
birds with sticky glue.
A Red-backed Shrike caught on
an illegal lime stick is an all-toocommon phenomenon around
the eastern Mediterranean
region. Photo: Mindy el Bashir
(Nature Conservation Egypt).
“Illegal killing is a complex conservation problem, with key methods of
killing, targeted species and motivations varying between countries,”
explained Dr Vicky Jones, co-author
of the paper and Senior Flyways Officer at BirdLife International. “Addressing this issue requires action
on a local, national and international scale, involving law enforcement
agencies, the judiciary, hunting
associations, national government
authorities, non-governmental organisations and international policy
instruments.”
its enforcement, improving monitoring and supporting efforts to take
action for individual species.
“Unsustainable exploitation is one
of the major threats to the world’s
birds, and much of this is illegal. Our
study is the first to compile detailed
quantitative estimates of the scale
of the problem in the Mediterranean. Our identification of the worst
locations will help to focus efforts
on the ground to tackle the issue,”
said Dr Stuart Butchart, co-author
of the paper and Head of Science at
BirdLife International.
National action plans to tackle illegal
killing have recently been developed
by a wide range of stakeholders in
Egypt/Libya and Cyprus, with the
aim of strengthening legislation and
NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS
Bokmakierie is published three times annually. Contributions may be in Afrikaans or English. English names of birds should be those used in Roberts VII. Views expressed are not
necessarily those of the Editor, Club, the Committee, Members or those of BirdLife South
Africa. The Editors reserve the right to edit articles as necessary.
This issue of Bokmakierie has been produced and edited by Andy Featherstone and
Lance Robinson.
35
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birdlasser
BirdLasser is fun for birders and good
for birds. For both beginners and
twitchers, BirdLasser is a fun way to
record your sightings and share with
friends, your community and contribute to conservation.
Plot your sightings with GPS precision, instantly update your lifelist,
compete in challenges and seamlessly share your data with conservation
causes. For the citizen scientist, use
BirdLasser to atlas – the app provides
time-keeping, maps with pentad
grids and keeps track of species in
the correct order. Submission to SABAP2/BirdMAP is a click away.
Windows Phone: https://www.
microsoft.com/en-za/store/apps/
birdlasser/9nblggh2k5kq
About BirdLasser
Web: www.birdlasser.com
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So, while you have fun spotting and
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Help with BirdLasser
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Email: [email protected]
36
Bird of the Year
2016 - Sociable
Weaver
Sociable Weaver and is proudly sponsored by Builders.
The Sociable Weaver is an icon of
southern Africa’s arid zones, and one
of the drawcards that bring people
to visit the Kalahari. They are small
birds with big personalities, and a
complex social life, living in colonies that can be hundreds strong.
Colonies are like villages, made up
of nuclear families organised into
close-knit societies with strict social
hierarchies.
Birds are excellent flagship species
and valuable indicators of the environment as places that are rich
in bird species are often abundant
in other forms of biodiversity. The
presence of birds indicates a healthy
environment and thriving ecosystem. BirdLife South Africa conserves
our country’s birds. By focusing on
birds, the sites and the habitats on
which they depend, BirdLife South
Africa hopes to improve the quality
of life for birds, for other wildlife
and ultimately for people.
Although Sociable Weavers are not
found throughout South Africa, other weavers are more widespread, so
the learning resources and materials
(which can be downloaded below)
are linked to weavers in general.
Issues addressed include their intricate weaving skills, diversity of
breeding systems – ranging from monogamy to polygamy, and from solitary to colonial breeding and information about the 17 weaver species
found in South Africa.
Each year a Bird of the Year is chosen by BirdLife South Africa. Bird
of the Year is one of BirdLife South
Africa’s annual initiatives for creating awareness about birds and bird
habitat conservation. Educating people is one of the key components of
BirdLife South Africa’s conservation
work. The aim of the project is to
choose a bird species and focus education and other activities on it
during the coming year and improve
public awareness about the species
and the need to protect the species
(and related species) and its habitat.
Sociable Weaver
The Bird of the Year for 2016 is the
37
Rarities and Unusual Sightings Report: 31 March 2016
Compiled by André Marx
There were a number of excellent
rarities this past summer, with pride
of place probably going to the much
celebrated and obliging Spotted
Crake at Waterfall Estate in Midrand,
which was viewed and photographed
by nearly 1500 people. It was one of
the best summers at Marievale as
well, which has improved tremendously as a birding destination after
the good work undertaken with regard to habitat management there,
and a steady stream of good birds
was reported; more Spotted Crakes,
Black-tailed Godwit, Pectoral Sandpiper, Western Marsh Harriers and
more. The other top locality in the
very north-east of the region – Mkhombo Dam – delivered again, with
Caspian Plover, Black-tailed Godwit,
Collared Pratincole, White-fronted
Plover and a very interesting gull,
more of which is written below, to
name just some. A Tree Pipit in Pretoria also attracted a lot of attention. The reports for this 6 month
period were numerous and not all
were included, especially of more
regular rarities such as European
Honey Buzzard. My thanks to all who
submit sightings and photos to me or
via SABAP2 and the various Internet
forums.
Spotted Crake, Waterfall Estate photo by Don Reid
Spotted Crake, Waterfall Estate photo by Simone Swiel
ekte: a single bird was observed at
Marievale on 7 Jan 2016 (R&KW).
In the days and weeks following
at least another two birds were
seen at the same locality (Gbird).
On 21 Jan 2016 a solitary bird
was noticed at a small wetland at
the entrance to Waterfall Estate,
Midrand (PV). This chance sighting eventually resulted in hundreds of birders from all over the
country converging on this site
to tick the bird in the following
weeks, and became the biggest
twitch to date in South African
history when nearly 1500 people had been to see it.Godwit,
Black-tailed. Griet, Swartstert-:
one bird was located at Mkhombo Dam on 29 Mar 2015, EdB, DV,
TH), with one bird, presumably
the same one, still being report-
National Rarities/ Nasionalerariteite
Crake, Spotted. Riethaan, Gevl38
ed in early Oct 2015.
Regional Rarities/ Streeksrariteite
Godwit, Black-tailed. Griet,
Swartstert-: at least two birds
were still present at Mkhombo
Dam on 5 Oct 2015 (Gbird), with
records of this species still being
reported well into Feb 2016. One
bird was at Marievale, 26 Dec
2015 (NL).
Buzzard, European. Wespedief:
several sightings of this species
occurred; one bird at Leeuwfontein Estate, north-east of Pretoria, 21 Nov 2015 (LL); one at
Rievlei Dam NR near the coffee
shop 22 Nov 2015 (AB); one again
at Rietvlei NR, 3 Dec 2015 (A&GBo). Another bird was at Delta
Park, Johannesburg, 9 Jan 2016
(DH). Several more sightings of
this species were reported this
summer in Gauteng, with this
raptor being reported more regularly than some resident raptor
species!
Gull,
Lesser
Black-backed.
Meeu, Kleinswartrug-: The immature bird at Mkhombo Dam
was still present on 28 Sep 2015
(Gbird) and remained present
until at least Feb 2016 when a
number of birders reported it.
This bird had been studied in
detail and with the help of gull
experts from abroad the opinion
was expressed as the bird came
into moult that it belonged to the
subspecies Larus fuscus barabensis, the form known as “Steppe”
Gull, considered to be part of
the Herring Gull/ Lesser Blackbacked Gull complex.
Openbill, African. Ooievaar,
Oopbek-: one bird was at Mkhombo Dam, 6 Dec 2015 (MB). A
single bird was briefly seen at Rietvlei Dam NR, 16 Jan 2016 (FO).
Another sighting was of one bird
at Vaalkop Dam on 20 Mar 2016
(FP).
Harrier,
Western
Marsh.
Vleivalk, Europese: an immature
male was seen at Marievale Bird
Sanctuary, 9 Nov 2015 (reported
by MT and JvR), and in the ensuing weeks up to 2 and 3 birds
were present at this locality
(Gbird).
Sandpiper, Green. Ruiter, Witgat-: at least one bird was in the
vicinity of the vlei bridge at Rietvlei NR for several weeks, 15 Oct
2015 (Gbird) when it was seen and
photographed by several birders.
A single bird was at Waterfall Estate, Midrand, 21 Nov 2015 (RS).
African Openbill - photo by
Faansie Peacock
Pelican, Great White. Pelikaan,
Wit-: a single bird was at Mkhombo Dam, 28 Nov 2015 (MJ).
39
Pelican,
Pink-backed.
Pelikaan, Klein-: one bird was on
the southern side of Roodeplaat
Dam, 28 Dec 2015, (DT), with another bird sighted at this locality,
12 Jan 2016 (ER).
finding a small group of these
birds at Ezemvelo NR when the
distinctive features could be
noted, 10 Oct 2015 (EM et al).
Etienne Marais notes: the extreme winter weather forces
birds to depart their high breeding grounds [in Lesotho and surrounds] from about early April.
They return again in the second
half of October. Where they go in
the intervening months is one of
the enduring mysteries of southern African ornithology. Given
that related pipits are resident or
short-distance nomadic migrants
in the South African winter, it
seems plausible that the Mountain Pipit is merely an altitudinal
migrant.
Pink-backed Pelican Roodeplaat
Dam - photo by Duard Teichert
Phalarope, Red. Fraiingpoot,
Grys-: a single bird was found
at Mkhombo Dam on 16 Jan 2016
(RG) and in the following weeks
was reported by many birders.
Another bird in non-breeding
plumage was reported from Hartbeespoort Dam, 15 Mar 2016 (RK).
Mountain Pipit, Ezemvelo - photo
by Thinus van Staden
Pipit, Tree. Koester, Boom-: one
bird was found on 5 Feb 2016 in
Wonderboom Nature Reserve,
Pretoria, (TvS). Several birders
saw this local rarity in the following weeks.
Red Phalarope, Hartbeespoort
Dam - photo by Rick Kleyn
Pipit, Mountain. Koester, Berg:
a very interesting discovery was
40
Collared Pratincole, Mkhombo
Dam - photo by Wouter Cromhout
er, Geelpoot-: a single bird was
Tree Pipit, Wonderboom - photo
by Celia Human
Plover, Caspian. Strandkiewiet,
Asiatiese: at least 8 birds were
still present at Mkhombo Dam on
5 Oct 2015 (Gbird). At least 5 birds
were present at the floodplain at
Kgomo-Kgomo, 11 Dec 2015 (LR).
Pectoral Sandpiper, Marievale photo by Celia Human
found at Marievale Bird Sanctuary, 23 Nov 2015 (DM).
Caspian Plover, Mkhombo Dam photo by Wilma Moreby
Turnstone, Ruddy. Steenloper:
at least two birds were at Mkhombo Dam, 5 Oct 2015 (Gbird).
One bird was at Marievale Bird
Sanctuary, 9 Nov 2015 (MT).
Plover,
White-fronted.
Strandkiewiet, Vaal-: one bird
was at MKhombo Dam, 14 Oct
2015 (JB) and remained present
until at least 19 Dec 2015.
Whimbrel, Common. Wulp,
Klein-: a single bird was at Mkhombo Dam, 24 Nov 2015 (CvW)
Pratincole, Collared. Sprinkaanvoël, Rooivlerk-: one bird was
at Mkhombo Dam, 5 Oct 2015
(Gbird).
Other Interesting Observations/
Ander Interessante Waarnemings
Bee-eater,
Sandpiper, Pectoral. Strandlop41
Blue-cheeked.
Byvreter, Blouwang-: one bird
was at Marievale on 12 Dec 2015,
(RvT), an unusual record. Another
interesting record for the region
is one bird seen at Hamerkop Bird
Sanctuary, Roodepoort, 17 Dec
at the Tree Pipit site at Wonderboom NR in Pretoria, 6 Feb 2016
(JvRo).
Finfoot, African. Watertrapper:
this species was confirmed as occurring at Rietvlei NR in Centurion, 18 Oct 2015, at the new hide
downstream from the vlei bridge
(Gbird).
Kingfisher, African Pygmy. Visvanger, Dwerg-: an unusual
sighting for the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens in Johannesburg
was two birds of this species, 21
Nov 2015 (JvRo).
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Marievale - photo by Rowan van Tonder
Moorhen,
Lesser.
Waterhoender, Klein-: one bird was
an unusual sighting at Hamerkop
Bird Sanctuary in Florida, Roodepoort, 30 Dec 2015 (BA). A single
bird was at Glen Austin Pan, Mid-
2015 (BA).
Cuckoo, Common. Koekoek, Europese: one bird was found at
Waterfall Estate, Midrand, 11 Jan
2016 where it remained for a few
days (Gbird).
Eagle, Ayres’ Hawk. Arend,
Kleinjag-: in early October 2015 a
few birds were noted in the vicinity of Weskoppies Hospital in Pretoria, and in the ensuing weeks
and months they were observed
by a number of birders, still being present during January 2016,
(Gbird). Another bird was seen
Lesser Moorhen, Hamerkop Bird
Sanctuary - photo by Anthony Paton
rand, 10 Jan 2016 (JA).
Owl, Southern White-faced. Uil,
Witwang--: one bird was a surprise find at The Sandton Field
and Study Centre grounds, 14 Oct
2015, where it remained for a few
days and was observed by several
local birders (KT).
Ayres’ Hawk Eagle, Pretoria photo by Robert Wienand
42
2015 (GL). A report from the last
CWAC count along the Vaal River was that it revealed 24 birds
of this species in trees and lawns
next to the river, 15 Aug 2015
(JBr).
Whitethroat, Common. Sanger,
Witkeel-: one bird was observed
at Helderfontein Estate, north
of Fourways in Johannesburg, 31
Jan 2016, a first sighting at this
locality (AM). One bird was at
Waterfall Estate, Midrand, on 7
Feb 2016, an unusual bird for the
area (RS, AM). Another bird was
recorded at Klipriviersberg NR in
the south of Johannesburg, 20
Dec 2015 (LR), a new bird for the
reserve.
Southern White-faced Owl, Sandton - photo by Jéan van Rooyen
Owlet, Pearl-spotted. Uil, Witkol-: a sighting of one bird at
Hamerkop Bird Sanctuary in Florida, Roodepoort, is an unusual
record for the Greater Johannesburg region, 7 Nov 2015 (BA).
Common Whitethroat, Waterfall
Estate - photo by Ron Searle
Pipit, Short-tailed. Koester, Kortstert-: this species was located
again along the Mabusa backroad
near Verena, 13 Nov 2015 (EM), a
highly localised bird in the Gauteng region.
Observers/ Waarnemers:
Amanda & Gary Boyle (A&GBo)
Andrew Buitendach (AB)
André Marx (AM)
Starling, Common. Spreeu, Europese-: a single bird was observed at Delta Park in Johannesburg on 30 Oct 2015 and another
individual was recorded foraging
next to the N1/ N14 interchange
just south of Pretoria on 10 Nov
Bradwin Adendorff (BA)
Corrie van Wyk (CvW)
David Myburgh (DM)
Dirk Human (DH)
43
Duard Teichert (DT)
Johannesburg and Pretoria, however
observations made further afield are
also welcome. While the majority of
records are included it is sometimes
necessary to exclude some depending on whether the subject matter
has already been well reported. Occasionally records are sourced from
the Internet and from SABAP2 records. Members are invited to submit details of sightings to André
Marx at e-mail [email protected]
or 083 4117674.
Ernst Retief (ER)
Etienne Marais (EM)
Faansie Peacock (FP)
Fransie O’Brien (FO)
Gauteng Birders (Gbird)
Geoff Lockwood (GL)
Jason Boyce (JB)
Jerome Ainsley (JA)
John Bradshaw (JBr)
Johan van Rensburg (JvR)
WEBSITE
Jéan van Rooyen (JvRo)
We are pleased to announce
that the Wits Bird Club website
has been rebuilt and is now
back up and running.
Kevin Trinder-Smith (KT)
Lance Robinson (LR)
Leon Labuschagne (LL)
Mark Tittley (MT)
www.witsbirdclub.org
Martin Benadie (MB)
Michael Johnson (MJ)
Norman Lok (NL)
Pieter Verster (PV)
Rick Kleyn (RK)
Rob Geddes (RG)
Rolf & Karin Wiesler (R&KW)
Ron Searle (RS)
Rowan van Tonder (RvT)
Thinus van Staden (TvS)
This column is mainly concerned
with observations of rarities and
interesting sightings made in the
Greater Gauteng region, defined as
being 100km from the centre of both
44
Wits Bird Club outing to De Rust February 2016 - photos by Jan van Heerden