Breaking Through The Ranks

Women in birding

In southern Africa, birding has historically been dominated by men and a glance at the Top 50 listers in the subregion quickly confirms this. In the USA, there are many women birders, but there too they seem to be poorly represented in the top rankings. Locally, however, a sea change is occurring. Recent years have seen increasing numbers of female birders of all ages participating at big twitches and attending bird fairs. There are also plenty of women who bird simply for the sheer enjoyment of it, where the appreciation of birds and all things birding is more important than garnering another tick. A growing number of women with excellent birding skills are rising through the local listing ranks. Martin Benadie spoke to a few of those who are close to reaching the benchmark of 900 species seen in the subregion. Their achievements will hopefully inspire more women to become front-runners in this field, whether in management positions in birding organisations, in research and conservation or as list leaders.

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How did you develop your field skills?

Helen Biram (HB) Your skills are tested regularly as birding is never dull. Learning about birds is ongoing, every day! Birds appear where they were not previously recorded or expected to be seen and they also challenge your identification skills with their various plumages. With birding you learn to expect the unexpected.

Lizet Grobbelaar (LG) While still at school I visited the Kruger National Park regularly. I was always so frustrated when my parents couldn’t identify the brown raptors we encountered that I decided to learn them myself. At the age of 12 I got my first field guide and I also bought a tape collection of bird calls. I would sit in my room for hours, memorising the calls and paging through my guide, learning to identify the birds I still needed to see.

Margie Hawthorne (MHaw) In the 1960s my husband and I were part of a group that visited the Kruger National Park every year. Our main focus was mammals and we were a bit scornful of the one couple who wanted to stop and watch birds. This all changed when I got my first view of a Lilac-breasted Roller. It was a defining moment as from then on birds became of prime interest to us. Our field skills were developed initially through a neighbour, Peter Oosthuizen. An accomplished birder, Peter introduced us to Warwick Tarboton and Geoff Lockwood, both of whom taught us a great deal. Subsequent field excursions with the likes of Derek Solomon, Peter Ginn, Ian Sinclair, Robin Guy, Carl Vernon and the late Phil Hockey took us further along the learning curve. In Kimberley, we were fortunate enough to benefit from contact with the late Richard Liversidge and with Mark Anderson.