Early in 2021, my wife Jeanie and I were invited to join a group of friends on the Pondo Trail, a slackpacking adventure from Port Edward on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, across the Mtamvuma River and into the northern part of the Eastern Cape, finishing at a small camp just north of Port St Johns. As unlikely as it seemed in the middle of a Covid wave that we’d be able to travel a year ahead, we still agreed to join the group, hoping that by February 2022 we would all be vaccinated, or immune, or both.
I did ask Jeanie for a moment of pause before we committed, while I quickly assessed the birding potential of five days away, as I always do. Leave taken from work and time away from home must always deliver some good birds. It’s one of the rules of the universe. Fortunately, that coastline represents a largely underbirded area of South Africa and while it’s mostly unknown, I surmised that the subtropical bush of southern KwaZuluNatal and the scarp forests and hilly grassland of the Eastern Cape would be excellent for birding.
Esta historia es de la edición January/February 2023 de African Birdlife.
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Esta historia es de la edición January/February 2023 de African Birdlife.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
water & WINGS
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.
prey for penguins
To stem the African Penguin's slide to extinction, government support for optimal no-take zones around South Africa's penguin colonies is critical.
agrochemicals and birds
By the year 2050, it is estimated that 171 million more hectares of agricultural land will be needed to feed a global population of 10 billion people.
arrivals and departures
The Mouse-Free Marion Project is committed to ensuring that breeding seabirds can return to a predator-free Marion Island.
MIDRAND marvel
Gauteng birders don't need to travel far to get their feathery fix. Midway between Johannesburg and Pretoria, Glen Austin Pan has become a favourite patch for this returnee expat.
a journey through the mysteries of moult
As a bird researcher in South Africa’s botanically diverse fynbos biome, I have come to regard bird ringing as part of my journey to understanding moult.
