First, the timeline. Our story starts 15 years ago, according to the relevant camera metadata. On 13 February 2005 Peter Stacey photographed a pratincole at the Wavecrest Hotel and Spa between Kei Mouth and Mazeppa Bay in the Eastern Cape. The bird was resting on rocks along the southern bank of the Ngqusi River mouth. The sighting leftPeter puzzled, but the case went cold.
Amazingly, on a return visit, Peter again found a pratincole – ostensibly his pratincole – at the same spot. In birder slang, ‘nailed to the perch’. He managed to take a series of photographs, dated 15 January 2007. The initial consensus was that the bird was a Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola or perhaps a vagrant Rock Pratincole G. nuchalis, but something did not sit right. The mystery deepened.
Fast forward 13 years to my jaw dropping comically upon opening Peter’s email. Now, let’s review the evidence…
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September - October 2020 من African Birdlife.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September - October 2020 من African Birdlife.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
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CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
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WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
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a star is born
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