The BirdLife South Africa Owl Awards ceremony originated from our
need to acknowledge the companies and individuals who donate their time
and money to the organisation that make it possible to continue all our
conservation programmes and projects. The first Owl Award ceremony took
place in 1999.
BirdLife South Africa is making an enormous contribution to the conservation of our country's birds and their habitats. These contributions are achieved through the collaborative efforts of BirdLife South Africa's staff, volunteers, members and donors. During BirdLife South Africa's annual Owl Award function, the contribution of some of the people and companies who are helping "give conservation wings" are acknowledged through the presentation of prestigious awards and certificates. Congratulations to this year's very deserving recipients.
BirdLife South Africa Owl Awards - 2010
There are 12 owl species in South Africa, and each year BirdLife South Africa presents Owl Awards to 12 individuals or companies, who during the preceding year, assist BirdLife South Africa in achieving its goal of conserving birds and their habitats.
Norman Elwell
A staunch BirdLife South Africa supporter, Norman Elwell has been involved with BirdLife South Africa for many decades, including as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Wits Bird Club. His last official responsibility was his Chairmanship of the Lakes Bird Club from 1993-2005. It is however largely for Norman's African Black-Oystercatcher breeding surveys for which he received an Owl Award. These surveys started in 1995 and ended in 2008, when he handed over the ropes to other volunteers (quite understandable as Norman is 91 years old). The surveys were initially conducted along Sedgefield's beaches, but then expanded to other areas (such as the Knysna Lagoon and Brenton-On-Sea). During the last breeding season, 18 members of the Lakes Bird Club conducted the oystercatcher surveys. Detailed information is collected, included and exact locality of nest sites, number of eggs and chicks, number of fledglings, and the measurements of the unfledged birds are taken before they are ringed and released. Our knowledge and the conservation of the African Black-Oystercatcher has benefited from Norman's dedicated contributions.
Glenn Ramke
Glenn Ramke has been integrally involved in crane research and monitoring in the Wakkerstroom area for 16 years. After moving to this quaint grassland town, her friend and mentor Warwick Tarboton asked her to "keep an eye on the cranes" and this was the start of Glenn's "love affair with cranes". Glenn is a knowledgeable naturalist and uses this knowledge to inform farmers about a range of environmental issues, from predator control to alien plants. Glenn has also conducted detailed monitoring at the area's Southern Bald Ibis colonies, a bird species she's particularly fond of. She has also been involved in guide training, and has been a wonderful and supportive mentor of her friend, Samson Phakathi.
Caxton Press
The Caxton Press, and especially Gordon Utian and Bruce Sturgeon, gave the 2009 Sappi BirdLife South Africa Birding Big Day extensive publicity in its community newspapers in Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg. This resulted in a promotional centre "shop window" folder of four pages as well as a 15 x 3 advert with a combined reach of approximately 4.8 million readers. This was done at no cost to BirdLife South Africa, and the publicity contributed significantly to the marketing of this important annual bird-watching event.
The Gardener/Die Tuinier
In order to promote the Sappi BirdLife South Africa Birding Big Day, and especially the new Garden Bird Category, The Gardener/Die Tuinier created a two page advertorial about this important bird-watching event in 63 000 copies of the magazine. BirdLife South Africa is particularly grateful to Kevin Beaumont for this generous sponsorship.
Award received by Celia Bayley from Sappi.
Simon Gear
Simon Gear studied geography and English at the University of the Witwatersrand, and then did an honours degree in climatology. Today he is probably South Africa's most well known climatologist, especially as one of the SABC's weather presenters. He is also the environmental and science correspondent for Primedia Broadcasting and more recently as one of the presenters on 50/50. Simon is a writer and he writes monthly columns for several magazines. His excellent book, Going Green, which is currently being reprinted, contains useful environmental advice for day-to-day living. Simon is an avid supporter of BirdLife South Africa, and he has, for example, promoted the organisation at the Sasol Birds and Birding Fair and via his Green Tip on Radio 702.
Award received by Ntombi Stungu from BirdLife South Africa.
David Chamberlain
David Chamberlain's passion is conservation and education. He's also a man who enjoys life to the fullest, believes in surrounding himself with positive people, and puts 100% into all he does. He also loves singing, and often breaks out into song after a meeting, at a function or on a pelagic bird-watching trip! David's main passion and interest however is birds, and he travels regularly to remote parts of Africa, the East and the Americas to watch birds. In order to support bird-watching and bird conservation, he has been contributing financially to a number of causes. He has sponsored the publication of three bird books: "Chamberlain Guide to the Birds of Gauteng", "Birds south of the Sahara", and "Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands". He has also contributed significant funds to bird conservation, and especially to BirdLife South Africa. David is certainly someone who puts his money where his mouth is, and he's helping to "Give Conservation Wings".
Gisela Ortner
BirdLife South Africa has many supporters, with Gisela Ortner being one of its most dedicated members. She's an active member of the Wits Bird Club and has served on its committee for many years, and was on the organising committee of the 2010 BirdLife South Africa AGM. One of Gisela's main contributions has however been fundraising, and especially for BirdLife South Africa's Wakkerstroom Centre, for prizes for BirdLife South Africa's membership recruitment campaign, and for the organisation's administration. She's recently recruited Conservation League and Corporate Members and spreads the BirdLife South Africa message at every opportunity. Gisela is an avid bird-watcher, and a dedicated participant in BirdLife South Africa's events, including the annual Sappi BirdLife South Africa Birding Big Day.
Ernst Retief
Ernst Retief has been an avid BirdLife South Africa supporter for many years, mainly in various capacities as a member of BirdLife Northern Gauteng's committee. During the past three years, he has been actively involved in the SABAP2 project, not only as an atlaser, but as an active advocate of the project, and as a member of the SABAP2 Steering Committee. He is a very knowledgeable bird-watcher, and his intimate knowledge of birding in Gauteng served as the basis for the texts he contributed to the Gauteng Birding Route. More recently, Ernst became involved as volunteer in BirdLife South Africa's Important Bird Area Programme, and he has contributed to the prioritisation process, the setting up of webpages to make information about the IBA Programme accessible to bird-watchers and conservationists, and through the drafting of funding applications.
Tom Tweedy
Tom Tweedy, the Public Relations Officer at De Beers, facilitated the donation of a substantial amount of De Beer's furniture for the BirdLife South Africa head office. The donated furniture included office desks and chairs, book shelves, a set of chairs for the board room, a smaller board room table (for the Executive Director's office) and room dividers. The donation enabled BirdLife South Africa to replace some of our broken and old furniture, and smarten up our offices (giving them a much more professional image). Some of the older furniture has now been transferred to the Wakkerstroom Centre and other donated to needy schools in Gauteng. Such donations are much-appreciated, as they enable BirdLife South Africa to rather channel its finances into conservation work.
Plastics Federation of South Africa
The Plastics Federation of South Africa has a programme of raising awareness about and trying to reduce the incidence of plastic pollution. Douw Steyn facilitated the donation of R100 000.00 to the Seabird Division, to initiate its Marine Important Bird Areas Programme. The money is being used to support a post-doctoral researcher at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town. This donation will make South Africa the first country in Africa to have initiated a Marine IBA Programme. Through this generous sponsorship, the Seabird Division has been able to attract a highly skilled researcher to the post. BirdLife South Africa looks forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the Plastics Federation of South Africa in other bird conservation projects
FirstRand Foundation
The FirstRand Foundation is one of the biggest corporate givers in South Africa, and a leader in CSI in the financial services sector. Established in 1998 as a stand-alone legal entity, the Foundation has invested more than R640 million in corporate social investment projects, enriching and uplifting the lives of many thousands of people in need across South Africa. The FirstRand Foundation has been a partner of BirdLife South Africa's Guide Training Programme since 2008. This generous support has enabled BirdLife South Africa to train, mentor and create opportunities for community bird guides in the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. The training of bird guides not only provides opportunities for those trained, but has extremely important conservation and awareness outcomes in the communities that the guides live in. The FirstRand Foundation is continuing with its support of the programme into 2010 and the ongoing mentoring of guides.
Award received by Martin Taylor from BirdLife South Africa.
Corne Molenaar
Corne Molenaar has been responsible for the creation and management of the birding routes website www.birdingroutes.co.za since 2008. This website encompasses all of BirdLife South Africa's birding routes and contains more than 500 pages of birding information designed to assist travelling birders with regards to where go, what to see, where to stay and who to go with. Over the past two years Corne has put in countless hours in the updating and management of the website and has provided BirdLife South Africa with exceptional service and support. The website is an invaluable resource for both local and international birders.
BirdLife South Africa Eagle-Owl Awards (2010)
Each year, BirdLife South Africa presents two Eagle-Owl Awards to individuals or companies, one for significant contributions to its goals and objectives and the other for significant contributions to bird conservation in our country
Jan Fourie
Jan Fourie is a passionate bird-watcher, bird conservationist and bird photographer. During the past decade and a half he has been actively involved in many aspects of BirdLife South Africa's work, including as Honorary President of President Ridge Bird Club and as Chairman of BirdLife South Africa. Through his senior positions at Sasol, he was able to source funding for the construction of a bird hide at President Ridge Bird Sanctuary, this printing of bird field guides, the SASOL e-bird guide, and a number of vulture research, monitoring and conservation projects. He promoted BirdLife South Africa at every opportunity, and especially during radio interviews.
Award received by Pam Barrett from BirdLife South Africa.
Samantha Petersen
Samantha Petersen's dedication and tireless efforts to protect and conserve seabirds stretch back for almost a decade. She cut her teeth in seabird conservation as a veterinary nurse assisting with cleaning and rehabilitating penguins in the 2001 Treasure oil spill. Samantha had a baptism of fire in research when she took over critical seabird monitoring programmes, under difficult circumstances, at Marion Island in 2001. At the same time she completed the second year of a BSc degree via correspondence. Her efforts were rewarded when she returned to South Africa, as she started the Honours year in 2003, she also started with BirdLife South Africa part-time. Shortly hereafter she was asked to take over full-time, while doing her honours, and she remained at the helm of the Seabird Programme until 2007. During this period she also registered for her doctoral degree at UCT. Samantha moved to WWF-SA in 2007, a loss to BirdLife South Africa but a significant gain to WWF-SA. However, her passion for seabird conservation remained undiminished and she continued to play a very important guiding role for the fledgling Albatross Task Force. Her position at WWF-SA gave her significant leeway to remain actively engaged in seabird conservation and Samatha was instrumental in driving the mitigation permit regulations forward with Marine and Coastal Management. This action ensured that the Albatross Task Force was able to claim the achievement of an 85% reduction in seabird bycatch - a situation which Samantha gracefully accepted but for which she deserved a large degree of credit. In 2008 Samantha completed her PhD, looking at (inter alia) seabird bycatch patterns and mitigation measures. The thesis is of direct relevance to the Albatross Task Force work. It was published as a report by WWF-SA and individual chapters are being published in peer-reviewed international journals. She also won an international award, the UNEP/Convention on Migratory Species PhD competition.
Award received by Ross Wanless from BirdLife South Africa.
BirdLife South Africa Staff Award (joint award in 2010)
Nikki McCartney
Nikki McCartney is a special staff member who makes outstanding contributions to BirdLife South Africa's aims and objectives. Although her official responsibility has been the Mpumalanga Birding Route, she has latterly taken on the role of servicing Birder-friendly Establishments and liaising with South Africa's Bird Tour Operators. During the past year Nikki promoted Mpumalanga as a birding destination, put together self-drive itineraries, assisted visiting birders, organised and promoted bird events and coordinated bird guide mentoring and development in the province. Nikki has been extremely active in the mentoring of bird guides, especially Chester Makutu, Hannah Chiloane and Enos Zulu. She's also involved in several bird monitoring, research and conservation projects in Mpumalanga, including Blue Swallows, Bat Hawks and Crowned Eagles. She developed an excellent relationship with NABU, the BirdLife partner in Germany, and this resulted in excellent support for BirdLife South Africa's Wakkerstroom Centre. During the past few months she's assisted with the setting up of the Free State Birding Route, and taken over the editing of BirdLife South Africa's e-newsletter and the content management of BirdLife South Africa's website. Nikki works long hours, is regularly away from home and is an exceptionally dedicated BirdLife South Africa staff member.
Bronwyn Maree
First and foremost, Bronwyn is a highly dedicated and valuable member of the Seabird Division. She recently demonstrated her commitment to the Albatross Task Force when a fishing company pursued her in an aggressive employment head-hunt and she turned down three offers. Bronwyn is in charge of working with the trawl fishery in South Africa. Over the past two years she has built very strong relationships with the companies and vessels which have lead to her achieving her goals of sea time and being able to begin experimental work onboard the vessels with ease. In 2009 Bronwyn conducted work to improve the efficacy of the tori lines. She organised everything without oversight, including vessel time and getting one of the fishing companies to build the experimental devices. She concluded the research successfully and submitted the final project ahead of schedule. This was incredibly important work for both BirdLife South Africa and BirdLife International as it was taken forward and presented at the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) in February 2010. She was also able to get a better idea of the compliance levels within the fishery and possible reasoning for non-compliance and has subsequently produced an internal report in order to address this gap in knowledge. In 2009, the Seabird Division ran the first ever Save Our Seabirds Festival. Bronwyn, with the assistance from the rest of the Seabird Division, worked extremely hard on this project, while still maintaining a high standard of work in day-to-day activities. She managed to find sponsorship, organise events and outings and produced a final product of very high standard. Bronwyn is a major force behind the success of the Seabird Division and BirdLife South Africa as a whole, and her dedication and commitment to her work deserve the recognition of the staff award.
Click here for more information on BirdLife South Africa's Gill Memorial Medal
