Author, photographer, guide, naturalist, teacher, Peter Steyn is a humble yet immense presence in southern African birding, from his school days at Diocesan College to his years at Falcon College, Zimbabwe, and on to his long association with the Cape Bird Club (CBC). The instinct to share and educate has never diminished for Peter. After a presentation on birds and photography at a local school, the teacher in charge wrote, ‘Steyn had the matrics amazed at his quoting from Hamlet to answer questions.’
Birders today have a wide variety of resources available to them and I often get the sense that I am walking a well-trodden path, putting my eye to a scope set up for me and ticking a bird well laid out in the published guides, with additional flight shots and arrows pointing to key identification features. Peter is one of those whose photographs helped to populate that guide and whose constant observational studies dating back to the journal Bokmakierie in 1951 flesh out the descriptions of nesting habits, prey and general behaviour. Peter’s work is characterised by monk-like patience, sharp observation, and careful notetaking.
You have had a profound influence on ornithology through not only your own observations and books but also through your mentorship and encouragement of others who are now established, ornithologists. At what point did you find your own interest in birds developing into guiding, teaching and mentorship? Is there a particular experience or trip where you saw your own passions influencing the work and ideas of others?
Denne historien er fra July/August 2021-utgaven av African Birdlife.
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Denne historien er fra July/August 2021-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.
