Animals-and-Pets
African Birdlife
And Breathe... Rocherpan Nature Reserve
After the pandemic’s catastrophic impact on travel and finances, everyone has been constrained to look closer to home for their much-needed breakaways. Fortunately for South Africa’s birders, there are several local spots that are easily accessible, affordable and well worth a visit. One such oasis is Rocherpan Nature Reserve on the Cape’s West Coast. Managed by CapeNature, the reserve is 25 kilometres north of Velddrif and just two hours’ drive from Cape Town.
4 min |
January - February 2021
African Birdlife
rare DEDICATION
Cape Town-based Trevor Hardaker is one of South Africa’s most active birders. He runs a highly regarded rare bird alert system and is a regular contributor to African Birdlife, compiling the rarities report for each issue. When we chatted to Trevor, it became clear that his birding transcends being a hobby and is more of a lifestyle.
10 min |
January - February 2021
African Birdlife
garden BIRDS
THE LONG & THE SHORT OF IT Abnormal weaver nest attachments
9 min |
January - February 2021
African Birdlife
sightings IN THE SUBREGION - Mid-September to mid-November 2020
As spring became early summer, local birders were finally given plenty to keep them entertained. It was a welcome relief, as most had endured a serious lack of birding during lockdown and as many people headed out into the field again, a number of reports of good birds began to filter through.
4 min |
January - February 2021
African Birdlife
old baldy
Mite infestation in birds
2 min |
January - February 2021
African Birdlife
ON THE menu
ON THE menu
2 min |
January - February 2021
African Birdlife
Tree Of Life
There are not many benefits to sitting 1500 kilometres away from the Cape when seemingly everyone on your social media platforms is watching the best wild flower season in a decade and you are not able to be there to witness this splendour of spring flowers and their pollinators.
4 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
Sightings In The Subregion- Mid -July To Mid September 2020
Mid -July to mid-September 2020 . Midwinter to early spring was uncharacteristically quiet in terms of rarities being reported. This was probably more a reflection of the lack of birder coverage as a result of the various lockdown measures for the Covid-19 pandemic than that there weren’t any good birds around to be found.
2 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
Look Beyond
The power of photography
6 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
Better & Better
Zeiss SF 10x32 binoculars
10 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
A Black & White Answer
Bird fatalities at wind farms
3 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
The Strangeness Of Ostriches
Strangeness and the Common Os-trich Struthio camelus go back all the way to the big bird’s beginnings some 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs shrank and miraculously metamorphosed into birds.
7 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
Colourful, Charismatic & Competitive
Rose-ringed Parakeets in South Africa
8 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
The Battle For Survival
Numbers of the Southern Ground-Hornbill have de-creased throughout its range.
3 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
Water WINGS
Gauteng-based Karen Seidel began photography as a hobby some 10 years ago and soon realised that her passion lay in capturing images of wildlife and nature.
2 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
Peak VIEWING
Birding Amboseli, Kenya
4 min |
November - December 2020
African Birdlife
Zululand Zenith
It was the penultimate day of five weeks of the strict lockdown in South Africa.
10 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
Littorally Speaking
The Shorebirds Of Hermanus
8 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
Master Blaster
48 hours in the Vumba
8 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
A World Leader In Key Biodiversity Areas
South Africa’s large number of sites qualifying as global Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) highlights the country’s incredible biodiversity wealth. BirdLife South Africa, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and the WWF Nedbank Green Trust have partnered in the KBA process.
5 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
Sightings In The Subregion
In general, late autumn to midwinter is one of the quieter times for rarities and this year it was exacerbated by the Covid-19 lockdown. Fortunately, later in the review period some of the restrictions were relaxed slightly and people could move a bit further afield and also more often, giving the opportunity for a few good birds to be found and reported.
3 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
Vultures & The Economics Of Disease
Humans, livestock and wildlife have co-existed for thousands of years, but exponential human population growth, a surge in international travel, increased human encroachment into wildlife habitat and an escalation of organic waste provide the ideal circumstances for the emergence and adaptations of a variety of infectious diseases.
4 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
Better Late Than Never
First record of Madagascar Pratincole in South Africa
5 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
Adapting To The New Normal
In an article in the July/August 2020 issue of African Birdlife, I tried to piece together the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on birds from anecdotal reports across the country. One of the more effective ways to confirm that behavioural changes were linked to the lockdown was to monitor what happened as it eased. In the case of Muizenberg beach, outside Cape Town, the signal was clear.
3 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
Best Of Birding In Ethiopia
Ethiopia ranks among the most ecologically diverse countries in Africa.
10 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
twitter FEED
Every evening my mum takes our dogs, Pipa and Molly, for a walk.
4 min |
September - October 2020
African Birdlife
Discover Birding
So you want to be a birder?
7 min |
July - August 2020
African Birdlife
Rate Of Return
Fynbos is a fire climax community, which means that it requires fire to persist. The dominance of fynbos in the south-western tip of Africa is intimately linked to the occurrence of fires.
4 min |
July - August 2020
African Birdlife
Space Invaders
Accipiter tussle on the Cape Peninsula
3 min |
July - August 2020
African Birdlife
Wild Ride: Atlasing in the Mara region
It’s 05h30 and my heart is racing, my ears alert. I’ve just tried to escape a charging elephant bull on foot. While I hunker down in the bushes, listening for cracking branches or a low rumble emanating from the dense shrubs around me, I hear a Rufous-naped Lark, Tropical Boubou and a distant Schalow’s Turaco. A cacophony of 60 low-flying Grey Crowned Cranes distracts me momentarily from my potentially precarious situation. If it’s the last photograph I take, it might be worth it. When the cranes have passed I hear the roar of lions, but they are a way off. The stomach rumbling of the elephant sounds a safe distance away, so I return through the undergrowth to my companions, who are hidden at a water- hole observation point. Having witnessed the chase, it won’t be Green Sandpiper and the domestic squabbles of Egyptian Geese that they remember from this day.
5 min |