First, the timeline. Our story starts 15 years ago, according to the relevant camera metadata. On 13 February 2005 Peter Stacey photographed a pratincole at the Wavecrest Hotel and Spa between Kei Mouth and Mazeppa Bay in the Eastern Cape. The bird was resting on rocks along the southern bank of the Ngqusi River mouth. The sighting leftPeter puzzled, but the case went cold.
Amazingly, on a return visit, Peter again found a pratincole – ostensibly his pratincole – at the same spot. In birder slang, ‘nailed to the perch’. He managed to take a series of photographs, dated 15 January 2007. The initial consensus was that the bird was a Collared Pratincole Glareola pratincola or perhaps a vagrant Rock Pratincole G. nuchalis, but something did not sit right. The mystery deepened.
Fast forward 13 years to my jaw dropping comically upon opening Peter’s email. Now, let’s review the evidence…
Denne historien er fra September - October 2020-utgaven av African Birdlife.
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Denne historien er fra September - October 2020-utgaven av African Birdlife.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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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.
