Brief update on BirdLife South Africa’s work during the past week

13  - 19 February 2012

SECRETARYBIRD RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION
BirdLife South Africa will soon be undertaking a project to track the movements of Secretarybirds in the Grassland Biome. As we wanted to be certain that we correctly fitted the harness and satellite tracking devices, Ernst Retief  tested equipment on a captive Secretarybird during the past two weeks. Assistance was kindly provided by Kerri Wolter and Walter Neser from Vulpro.

BIRDLIFE SOUTH AFRICA CHECKLIST
Hanneline Smit and Mark Anderson met with Dr Chris Lotz to discuss the launch of the BirdLife South Africa Checklist 2012 at the BirdLife South Africa AGM (Flock 2012). The list is currently being printed (with funding from Zeiss), after compilation by Chris and Africa Geographic Publishers. It will be included with the April/May 2012 issue of Africa Birds & Birding.

BIRD OF THE YEAR 2012
The draft African Fish-eagle posters have been produced, and will be printed (with funding from Sasol and BirdLife South Africa) and copies will be included with the April/May 2012 issue of Africa Birds & Birding.

RENEWABLE ENERGY AND BIRDS
On Friday, Hanneline Smit attended a one day Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) “Renewable Energy Guidelines” workshop in Pretoria. The meeting was attended by DEA officials, energy industry representatives and other stakeholders.  At this meeting Hanneline introduced the “Best Practice Monitoring Guidelines” and ”Avian Wind Sensitivity Map” to the meeting delegates.

MULTI-STAKEHOLDER MEETING FOR UNCSD RIO+20 CONFERENCE
Carolyn Ah Shene-Verdoorn participated in a Department of Environmental Affairs meeting at SANBI in Pretoria on Tuesday. This was one of many stakeholder meetings that will be held to prepare South Africa’s position for the Rio  +20 Conference that takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012.

MAPUNGUBWE/VELE COLLIERY
Carolyn Ah Shene-Verdoorn participated in the weekly Vele teleconference where coalition members and the legal team discuss progress on issues relating to this colliery.

IBA PROGRAMME: NATIONAL
Daniel Marnewick and his team submitted a funding proposal for a national review of the IBA network to the JRS Biodiversity Foundation. Mark Anderson and Daniel continued to meet with business-minded people this week to find ways of covering the IBA Programme core costs.

REGIONAL CONSERVATION: WESTERN CAPE
In the Western Cape, Dale Wright attended his first meeting of the C.A.P.E. implementation committee. C.A.P.E.’s (Cape Action Plan for the Environment) goal is to conserve the region’s biodiversity by a range of stakeholders. The group consists of government environmental agencies and conservation NGOs. Collaborating with the different members of this group will be important for implementing conservation action at the Western Cape IBAs. Dale also attended the launch of WRAP (Weaver Research Africa Project), which is an extension of the Animal Demography Unit’s PHOWN (Photos of Weaver Nests) project that plans to expand this project into Africa by linking with other institutions and citizen scientists across the continent. This week Dr Alan Lee completed his first survey route through the Fynbos on his mammoth cycling research trip across the Western Cape. Interested parties can follow Alan’s progress on his Facebook page “Birds and climate change” and also on his blog.

REGIONAL CONSERVATION: MPUMALANGA/FREE STATE
Charmaine Uys attended the Steenkampsberg Environmental Initiative quarterly meeting in Middelpunt. She met with the reserve manager and senior field ranger of Verloren Valei Nature Reserve for an IBA assessment of the reserve, which is a Ramsar site in the heart of the Steenkampsberg IBA. Seeing Yellow-breasted Pipits and many other ‘specials’ was good reinforcement for why this reserve is so critical for bird conservation. Charmaine also had long, productive discussions with the Endangered Wildlife Trust around the future roles of both NGOs in the Biodiversity Stewardship programme in the region. Charmaine ended the week in Lydenburg at the Mpumalanga Wetland Forum quarterly meeting, held at Gustav Klingbiel Nature Reserve.

REGIONAL CONSERVATION: GAUTENG/ NORTH WEST
Ernst Retief has almost completed the IBA assessments for the Magaliesberg and Witwatersberg IBA. He also started work on the assessment for the Blesbokspruit IBA. The Blesbokspruit IBA has  numerous threats (including a rising water level, deteriorating water quality, reed encroachment, illegal roads and pipelines) and careful thought will be given as to how to address these threats.

IBA WEB PAGES
Ernst Retief has been working on the IBA webpages. BirdLife South Africa’s regional conservation managers will soon be populating the pages with information about the country’s IBAs. The Google Earth map of the IBA boundaries can be viewed here.

CATA TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
Final arrangements have been made for the ecotourism and bird guide training courses to be held next week. This will form the last training, as part of  the project’s main goal of capacitating the Cata community to manage their eco-tourism products. A meeting was held on Friday with the tourism stakeholders and the Cata community structures to discuss ways that tourism can be better organised in the community. Nick Theron has also been working with the design team to develop the brochures for the Cata trails.

WAKKERSTROOM CENTRE
Most of this week was spent scheduling excursions for schools involved in the Vodacom Natured Based Programme. Kristi Garland and André Steenkamp will be starting some of the Site Support Group meetings next week, and this will involve assisting schools with the development of their projects (which will address environmental issues at their school or in the local community).  They also spent time advertising the upcoming Music Festival (3-4 March) and the flea market that will be held during the Wakkerstroom Birding Weekend (9-11 March) to celebrate the Mpumalanga Wetland Forum’s tenth anniversary.

SEABIRD DIVISION
Christina Moseley continued providing support to the countries drafting the national reports for the Nairobi Convention project. She also worked on an African Penguin population model, looking how many penguins would need to be moved in order to start up a new penguin colony on the south coast and if this would be feasible. She will present these results at the upcoming Frontiers in South African Ornithology conference in March. Tshikana Rasehlomi left for Richard's Bay and succeeded in getting on board and conducting the first few experimentas on the tuna longliner, testing BirdLife's new albatross bycatch reduction technology - the hook pod. Bronwyn Maree was on leave this week. Ross Wanless assisted Tim Reid in getting marine IBAs for Cape Gannets ready and circulated. The marine IBA team is now looking at what needs to be done to get the sites agreed upon and listed in the BirdLife database - at which point we'll have the first marine IBAs for Africa designated! Ross also travelled to Durban to work with Martin Taylor on seabird assessments for the Red Data Book, and to present a talk at the BirdLife Port Natal AGM.

LEGACY PROGRAMME
As part of BirdLife South Africa’s Legacy Programme, Mark Anderson and Pam Barrett visited Riverside Manor on Thursday, and Mark Anderson presented a talk and slide show about BirdLife South Africa.

“IN THE PINK” EVENING
BirdLife South Africa hosted some of its donors, and Charles Greig Jewellers and the Everard Read Gallery hosted some their important friends and clients, at an elegant "In the Pink" evening at CIRCA on Jellicoe (Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg). The guests were dressed in pink, and it was an evening to celebrate Valentine’s Day and pink birds. Jeremy Houghton's beautiful flamingo art was on display (with 50% of the proceeds of sales going to flamingo conservation, and a significant amount of money was raised). Pink drinks and pink canapes were served. There was a lucky draw for magnificent prizes, including a R33,000 Frederique Constant watch. A beautiful model modelled some of Marianne Fassler's elegant designs. Charles Greig Jewellers' pink jewellery and Frederique Constant pink watches were on display. Mark Anderson spoke about the plight of flamingos, and asked for support for BirdLife South Africa's important work. It was a very special evening, and more people are now flying alongside BirdLife South Africa as we "give (flamingo) conservation wings".

FLUFFTAIL FESTIVAL
A planning meeting for the 2013 Flufftail Festival was held on Wednesday, and a number of volunteers (including people with experience in arranging events) attended the meeting.

MEETINGS WITH DONORS
Vernon Head visited Johannesburg on Tuesday and Wednesday, and he and Mark Anderson attended meetings with BirdLife South Africa donors (including Richard Hughes and Alex Barrell), and Hanneline Smit and Mark Anderson met with Investec on Thursday.

RECYCLING PROGRAMME AT BIRDLIFE SOUTH AFRICA HEAD OFFICE
Mark Anderson and Kim Fourie met with staff from Nampak on Friday to discuss the recycling programme which will be implemented at BirdLife South Africa’s head office.

RADIO INTERVIEWS
Ernst Retief was interviewed by RSG on Friday (about Amur Falcons and migratory birds) and Mark Anderson was interviewed by Talk Radio 702/Cape Talk Radio on Sunday (on grassland bird conservation).

Another very busy week!

6 - 12 February 2012.  Read more