On 30 December 2016 southern Africa lost not only its most experienced seabirder, but also a true gentleman.
Barrie Rose was born into a family of herpetologists; his grandfather, Walter Rose, discovered several new species of frogs and was honoured by having Breviceps rosei (sand rain frog), Heleophryne rosei (Table Mountain ghost frog) and Capensibufo rosei (Rose’s mountain toadlet) named after him. Barrie grew up catching and keeping snakes and other reptiles, but his first love was fishing. An accomplished sports fisherman, he joined the Sea Fisheries Research Institute as a research technician in 1968, which enabled him to marry his professional and personal interests.
In 1978, Barrie was offered the chance to go to Marion Island to collect penguins. Standing on the helideck of the SA Agulhas, he met birder Ian Sinclair who asked Barrie if he knew his birds.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
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
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
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.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
