GREYTON NATURE RESERVE - MYBIRDPATCH

Hello all. I have submitted the Greyton Nature Reserve as a public MyBirdPatch,  drawn the map in for anyone to see, and a quick first list submitted. Go to http://mybirdpatch.adu.org.za. Stuart

July bird outing

There was a surprisingly good turnout for the July trip considering the choice of destination - Caledon sewage works, where permission and access had been previously arranged. The intrepid birders made their way down past the oxidation pans and ending up at the clean water dam to the north of the site. Mother Nature smiled on us and kept the wind in the right direction. We saw the expected array of ducks, teals, and herons with a few waders. Much better birding can be expected in the Summer so a return trip will be arranged.  There was much discussion about the erection of a hide at the bottom dam. This has been proposed to the municipality in the past and representation made by BirdLife Overberg, but to no avail. Avitourism is the fastest growing sector of the tourism industry, and a bird hide here would undoubtedly enhance local tourism.  There is easy and reasonably concealed access, with adequate parking. It need not be a complex or expensive structure, preferably made from alien woods as at Rooisands - any volunteers? The morning was rewarded for the newly-named Greyton Gastrobirders with a delicious lunch at Driefontein. 

Check out our new animated weather window - click on it to go to full screen then click on days and use the arrows to move through time.

Guidelines for bird monitoring at wind farms

MEDIA RELEASE

Guidelines for bird monitoring at wind farms
Johannesburg, 11 July 2011: BirdLife South Africa (BLSA), the largest bird conservation NGO in South
Africa, fully supports the responsible development of a renewable energy industry in South Africa.
Wind energy, although good for the environment, is not necessarily always good for birds. The most
important impacts of wind energy facilities (WEFs) on birds are displacement of sensitive species
from development areas, and mortality of susceptible species primarily through collisions with the
wind turbines. The nature and extent of these impacts is highly dependent on both site- and speciesspecific
factors and, as there is no detailed understanding of the possible effects of wind energy
developments on South African birds, conservationists are currently making use of the experiences
learnt from Europe and North America.

For all new wind energy facility developments, Environmental Impact Assessments are conducted,
and these include detailed bird impact assessments. The current bird assessments however do not
necessarily provide sufficient information for a decision to be made on the potential impact on birds.
BirdLife South Africa and its partner, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), have therefore produced
and released the “Best Practice Guidelines for Avian Monitoring and Impact Mitigation” to bring the
assessment in line with internationally accepted best practice.

BirdLife South Africa is confident that this proposed advanced monitoring will allow for informed
decisions, and allow wind farms to be developed at sites where impacts on birds are unlikely.
BirdLife South Africa encourages the wind energy industry to show that it respects not only the
carbon and economic benefits of wind farms, but also South Africa’s biodiversity. Globally, the
placement of renewable energy facilities are treated as important and BirdLife South Africa urges
the Department of Environmental Affairs and the financial sector to consider renewable applications
in South Africa no differently.

“The environmental community must work with the renewable energy industry in effectively
managing the environmental and social impacts of energy options to help it understand, avoid and
manage risks,” says Juan Marco Alvarez, Director of the IUCN Economy and Environmental
Governance Group. “We must ensure that renewable energy is developed in the right places,
meaning not just technically and financially, but also environmentally and socially.”
BirdLife South Africa and the EWT are proactively approaching the interaction between birds and
bats and wind energy through the development of the monitoring guidelines, an Avian Wind
Sensitivity Map and a “South African Good Practice Guidelines for Surveying Bats in Wind Farm
developments”.

“The avifaunal impact assessment must allow for the collection of adequate relevant field data to
support precautionary and strategic decision making,” says Dr Hanneline Smit, BirdLife South Africa’s
Conservation Manager. “This would translate into a baseline survey through pre-construction
monitoring over a minimum of 12 months, which is in line with international best practice,” adds Dr
Andrew Jenkins, representative of the Birds and Wind Energy Specialist Group (BAWESG).
Further, according to Jon Smallie from the Wildlife Energy Programme (WEP) of the EWT, site
alternatives must be considered as part of the pre-feasibility study, or desktop scoping process, for
all projects, particularly given that correct WEF positioning is widely agreed to be the primary means
of mitigating wind farm impacts on birds.

Smit and Smallie recently returned from a Wind Energy and Wildlife Impact Conference in
Trondheim, Norway. The conference dealt with the global and case-specific wind turbine/farm
impacts on birds and bats. Ernst Retief, BirdLife South Africa Gauteng Regional Conservation
Manager, presented the Avian Wind Sensitivity Map, developed by BirdLife South Africa and the
EWT, at the conference to showcase South Africa’s advanced approach of mitigation to minimise the
impact on our country’s birds. Attendance at the conference has strengthened BirdLife South
Africa’s approach to conform to international best practice and guide the wind industry in the
proposed development of wind energy facilities in South Africa.

The Landmark Foundation

ACT NOW: STOP LEGISLATION THAT WILL LEAD TO THE SLAUGHTER OF BIODIVERSITY ON SOUTH AFRICAN FARMS

Thousands of animals die each year in gin traps and other predator eradication practices on South African farms.The commonly used methods (e.g. gin traps, killer traps, dog hunting and poisons) are ethically unacceptable and ecologically damaging. New legislation proposes to keep them legal and even rename gin traps as "soft traps".

More than 80% of South African land is under commercial agriculture. This legislation (The Norms and Standards for the Management of Damage Causing Animals) affects the management of all wildlife on agricultural land. 
 

SIGN THE PETITION

Hamerkom sighting

On Saturday morning I saw a hamerkop fly into the Gobos River at the jeep
track crossing for the Maermanskloof /Boesmanskloof Trails. I've never seen
one around here before so wondered if it was unusual - although their
designated area is pretty much country wide.
Jan Burtt

Position statement on Avifaunal and Bat Impact Assessment for Wind Energy Facilities in South Africa

Position statement on Avifaunal and Bat Impact Assessment for Wind
Energy Facilities in South Africa

Endangered Wildlife Trust & BirdLife South Africa

March 2011

To read this new and important statement please go to: Statement Link

NEW BIRDLIFE OVERBERG HONORARY MEMBERSHIPS

On Monday 12 July Trevor Hardaker entertained members of Birdlife Overberg with a beautifully illustrated talk on their trip to Argentina and the Antarctic peninsula. This was our traditional winter soup and sherry evening. Our thanks go to Trevor and the ladies who prepared the meal for a very entertaining and enjoyable evening.
The BLO committee decided to bestow honorary club and BLSA membership on four individuals who have made enormous contributions to the conservation of birds and their habitats over the last six months. These are:
ANGELA KEY:
Local artist Angela Key donated a fantastic painting of an African Penguin called “Surf Report” that we are currently raffling to raise funds for the development of educational programmes for this endangered bird. This painting added real spice to BLO's first golf day on 10 June and details of the painting and the raffle could be found elsewhere on this website. Angela has contributed to several similar fund raising efforts in the past and to crown it all she has also sold the most raffle tickets up till now. The organizations that will benefit from this effort are BLSA's Seabirds Division, the Dyer Island Conservation Trust and SANCCOB.
GLENDA POPE
Glenda is the owner the Mission House Art Gallery in Onrus and has framed Angela's painting mentioned above free of charge. Besides this she has started participating in the raffle aggressively and it is fairly difficult to leave the gallery without buying a raffle ticket. These are the types of contributions to the conservation of species that often go unnoticed.
DR. STUART SHEARER
Stuart is a BLO member who resides in Greyton and has in recent months become heavily involved in commenting on EIA processes related to the alarming number of applications for the development of wind farms in South Africa in general and our region in particular. He has assembled a team of experts to assist him in this regard and their work now represents the “state of the art” on how such comments should be done. An example of one of these comments could be found under the Conservation section of this website and is dated 14 July.
LEE WEPENER
Lee has been a loyal member of BLO for many years and has recently brought her considerable graphic design skills on board. She has designed a series of colorful posters of common birds in specific Overberg habitats such as mountains, fynbos, the wheatfields and coastal areas. These posters have been very well received at our golf day, expos and exhibits and are assisting us tremendously to broaden our membership base.
The committee members of Birdlife Overberg hereby express their sincere appreciation to Angie, Glenda, Stuart and Lee for the considerable contribution that they have made to our club activities. It is hoped that this small gesture of bestowing honorary club and BirdLife South Africa membership to them will lead to a long association with BirdLife activities.

Anton with Angie Key, Trevor Hardaker, Lee Wepener, Glenda Pope and Dr. Stuart Shearer

CWAC count on the Botriver estuary - 10 July 2010

Dear all,

 

Mariana Delport and her team have been doing the CWAC on the Bot for more than a decade and have built up a substantial body of information regarding the water birds of the area.  There is now a need to do these counts more regularly and I would like to invite you all to become involved in this exciting project.  The regular winter count will be done on Saturday the 10th of July and the team leaders of the various sections will be on hand to teach all newcomers on how it should be done.  On some of the sections you will have to walk a rather lengthy distance and others are not as streneous.  Kindly let me know by return e-mail

• If you want to participate on 10 July
• If you want to participate on a more regular basis (if available)
• Whether you would want to hike the longer or shorter distances

Kindly let me know by 18h00 on Monday 5 July so that the teams could be put together.

Your help with this will be appreciated.

Regards.

Anton

 

If interested, please contact Anton Odendal at birding@overberg.co.za

Baby Bird Rescue

 

From: john king [mailto:the.lord.pickleby@iafrica.com]
Sent: 07 June 2010 14:36
To: Ria Wills
Subject: baby bird

 

Hi Ria

Hope you can make a reasonable story out of the facts about the baby bird.

He was found by passersby outside the Lord Pickleby one evening and decided they would put

Him in the flowerpot on the verge.  It was cold and rainy and late so I decided he deserved  a better

Chance and brought him in – a sorry little sight and quite weak. Found a box and  kept him warm

Sharon from High Hopes rushed down with seeds which we ground up  with glucose – probably

All the wrong food but thankfully was alive next morning. Thought we was not a seed eater

And fed him many earthworms which he happily gobbled up..

 

We kept him in his box for a few days  then decided he was strong and perky and needed

Some sunshine – covered his box with a grid and put  him on a table in the back garden.

We had heard that if he had been handled only for a short time he would be rejected by his mother but to our

Amazement there she was sitting on the box  - we opened  the top a little and she was back straight away

And fed him all day – we brought him in at night for a few nights and then put the  opened box in the

Shrubs.   From then on  for a few days she moved him further and further into the main garden and we

eventually lost sight of him.  Just hope all went well and he survived his ordeal.

 

Managed to identify  the mom on the box as an Olive Thrush

Sending you the three pics I showed you just hope someone will derive as much pleasure as we did

in seeing  how  cute he was

 

Thanks for your interest

Regards Joan..