A life through binoculars

If the name Hugh Chittenden sounds familiar, it's probably because you see it every time you use your Roberts Bird Guide he's one of the co-authors. He lives in Mtunzini on the KZN coast and birding is as much part of his day as a cup of coffee.

- TOAST COETZER

Two dark birds fly with heavy wing flaps from the almost waist-high grass. “There go two of them. There!” Hugh Chittenden says, dropping his binoculars and pointing to where the birds have now alighted in a small tree.

It’s a muggy, overcast morning in February and we’re in a marshy grassland in uMlalazi Nature Reserve adjacent to the town of Mtunzini. The birds are black coucals. They might be widespread in wetlands in other African countries, but they’re one of the rarest birds to see in South Africa thanks to their specialised habitat needs. This piece of otherwise nondescript veld is one of their strongholds, and Hugh has observed them here for many seasons.

Once I’ve carefully stalked nearer to get a close-up photo, we slowly make our way back to Hugh’s white Hilux double-cab. The bakkie is rigged for birding: Through the middle of the cabin, from Hugh’s left elbow towards the back rest of the rear seat, he has installed a home-made camera holder made from blue irrigation pipe cut in half to accommodate his Canon D-SLR and 500mm lens.

We soon stop again where a few ruffs are busily feeding in knee-deep water. (Knee-deep is about 4cm if you’re a ruff!) “These are some of South Africa’s longest-flying migrant birds,” Hugh says. “From here, they fly up the east coast of Africa then veer to the east, around the Himalayas to northern China…”

His train of thought is interrupted as he grabs his camera and gets out of the vehicle to photograph the ruffs. Both our cameras click away.