MID-JANUARY to MID-MARCH 2024
HEADLINE NEWS
The best record for the review period was only the second confirmed Band-rumped Storm Petrel for southern Africa. Unfortunately it was totally untwitchable for birders, as it was seen about 197 nautical miles west of Cape Town by observers returning from Tristan da Cunha. The only previous confirmed record was a single bird photographed on Halifax Island just offshore of Luderitz in October 2009.
The runner-up for best bird, going purely on the number of previous records in the subregion, was southern Africa's 23rd Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Found on a farm near Monzi, St Lucia, it remained in the area for a few weeks. Our first record was in Richard’s Bay in December 1977, followed by ones in Swakopmund in February 1984, Walvis Bay in November 1984, Barberspan Nature Reserve in January 1986, the Berg River estuary in September 1993, the Umvoti River estuary in March 1995, and a dead bird at Durban Airport in December 2000. A famously twitchable Buff-breasted Sandpiper entertained birders at Marievale Bird Sanctuary in January 2001, while others were at Barberspan Nature Reserve in February 2001, Krugersdrift Dam in the Free State in February 2008, at Muzi Pan and near St Francis Bay in December 2010, at Kei River mouth in April 2011, Mile 4 Salt Works in Swakopmund in April 2012, Waterfall Estate in Midrand in September 2012, Mile 4 Salt Works again in January 2013 and at Rakops River Lodge in Botswana in March 2019. Two birds turned up together at Voelvlei, near Mossel Bay, in December 2020 and a bird at Mpempe Pan in March 2021 possibly returned in December 2021. The most recent records were a bird near Sojwe in Botswana in December 2022 and one again at Voelvlei, near Mossel Bay, in December 2023.
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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.
