Almost as soon as he got into my beleaguered Suzuki Jimny in Ladybrand, David was fastidious about pointing out all the many potholes. After a few hours I indicated that the reason he was with me was to spot birds, not potholes. Reluctantly he agreed to scan out the window and of course within 30 seconds I hit a pothole, shaking the Jimny so badly that I checked the mirrors to see if the wheels were still on. David’s eyes were firmly glued on the road for the rest of the trip!
That evening at our accommodation, when he described my poor driving skills to the rest of the team, someone asked, ‘Is that true?’ ‘Well,’ I responded, ‘I don’t remember David having that much grey hair before we arrived in Lesotho.’ Such light-hearted exchanges were a key feature of our time together, with David’s face often erupting into a broad smile, a counterpoint to the bespectacled and serious professor face that also defines his persona.
David is a legend in the world of grassland birds and although we’d worked in parallel after he’d been recruited into the South African Names for South African Birds and the Regional Red Listing projects, we’d not yet spent any time together. He had been signed up to ensure that Lesotho was adequately represented in the species accounts for the new Red Data Book, partly because the National University of Lesotho in Roma had shown no interest in being involved, and bird conservation is all about enthusiasm.
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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.
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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.
