BIRDS

BIRDING THROUGH THE YEARS

- FAANSIE PEACOCK

An essential birding skill is the ability to climb a farm fence – with permission of course. Get your friend to pull open two strands, make your back horizontal, watch your clothes on the sharp bits, and you’re through. On a few occasions – where I was being chased or chasing something – I’ve even leapt straight over with a running start. But this morning I found myself pausing to consider the best strategy. I’ll admit it took a bit longer: My knees groaned in agony and something clicked in my spine…

Getting older is an unavoidable fact of life. But growing up is optional. As I strolled through the grass, my jeans getting wetter with every step, I reflected on three decades of birding.

When I was a fledgling birder in the late 1980s, there was a magical number: 800. If you’d seen 800 different species, you were immortalised in birding lore. Only a handful of folks ever reached that milestone and I knew all their names, because seeing 800 birds south of the Zambezi meant travelling countless kilometres, close calls with dangerous wildlife, a few bouts of malaria and perhaps an arrest or two.

Now, the number is 900. How did the threshold jump by 100, you ask, especially since birds are generally becoming rarer?