Image Conscious

How photographs benefit birders

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It was a sweltering afternoon and we'd been travelling from Cape Town for four hours. Now we were descending into the Boskloof of the Koue Bokkeveld along a serpentine, sandy road with no shade, just low-growing karroid fynbos and Cederberg sandstone formations as far as the eye could see - at least until the heat haze rendered them invisible. The only sound was of the occasional gust of wind whistling through the rock cutting below. The landscape didn't look or sound promising, but I was determined.

You see, I had recently decided that I was going to try this 'birding thing. So, armed with plastic Bushnell binoculars and my Canon SX35, I climbed out of the air-conditioned Kombi, waved the family on and began my slow five-kilometre hike down to the house where we'd be staying. Sunburn, sweat or dehydration - nothing was going to stop me from discovering whatever birds were hiding among the rocks and bushes.

It didn't take me very long to realise that the Koue Bokkeveld is no paradise for birders. In fact, at 15h00 when the temperature is nudging 37 degrees Celsius, it's practically devoid of birds. It was a long trudge with little reward. But then, after a soul-searching descent and on the final straight towards the house, there was a movement in the bushes to my right. I wheeled on the spot, lifted my camera and snapped a shot before the bird disappeared. I hit the review button and there, almost in full frame, was a bird. Which bird? I had no idea. But I had a photo of it.