EAGLE-OWL AWARDS
Geoff Lockwood
As manager of the Delta Environmental Centre in Johannesburg for many years, Geoff has developed numerous skills relating to nature conservation and environmental education, with a strong focus on birds and their behaviour. His involvement with breeding owls at the centre has been the subject of many presentations, helping to create awareness of the need to protect raptors in urban areas. Participation in a study of African Grass Owls in a residential development near Irene led to a stint as co-chair of a working group for this Vulnerable species, in which Geoff made a significant contribution to plans for its conservation. A popular guide and speaker, he is active in several bird clubs and has been involved in the West Rand Honorary Rangers’ annual birding weekends in the Kruger National Park since their inception.
Mabula Ground Hornbill Project
The Mabula Project is celebrating 21 years of conserving the Southern Ground-Hornbill. Since 1999, when the first group of these charismatic birds was released into the Mabula Private Game Reserve in Limpopo, the project has devised protocols for rearing second hatched chicks and releasing them into the wild under the mentorship of adult birds in ‘bush schools’. Offspring from these groups in due course disperse naturally and form pairs. Another major part of the project’s work is the provision of artificial nesting sites to replace natural ones that are being lost. Under the respected leadership of Lucy Kemp, the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project is widely recognised for its stellar research and reintroduction initiatives.
OWL AWARDS
Dullstroom Trout Farm
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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.
