History of BirdLife Overberg

This summary was provided by Anton Odendal.

We have been involved in bird club activities for many years. In the days of the Southern African Ornithological Society (during the 1980’s) I organised weekend outings at the Pretoria Bird Club. Later, and after the creation of BirdLife South Africa in the 1990’s we created BirdLife Northern Natal in Newcastle. We moved to Onrus in 2002 on a permanent basis and were very surprised that there was no bird club affiliated to Birdlife South Africa in the Overberg region. This was when BirdLife Overberg was formed with the help and support of a small circle of friends assisting on the committee. 

BirdLife Overberg’s basic aims as formulated when the club was formed originally read as follows: 

  • To allow people in the Overberg with an interest in birds to become involved in bird-watching by participating in the typical activities associated with BirdLife South Africa and its international partners
  • To place strong emphasis on educational programs in order to get participants involved in the meaningful conservation of birds and their habitats
  • To market the Overberg as a top birding destination, thus contributing to the region’s already impressive tourism infrastructure. 

We started offering monthly talks, Saturday morning outings and weekend outings to a growing number of members. We also quickly realised that several conservation issues needed to be addressed. In the first year of the club’s existence we, with the support of BirdLife South Africa, successfully applied to BirdLife International for the registration of the Overstrand region as an Important Bird Area, now referred to as the Cape Whale Coast Bird and Biodiversity Area. A bird checklist for the Overberg region was also published. We review some of the club’s activities over the years: 

Monthly Talks

Monthly talks were initially presented at the Wine Village and we express our sincere appreciation to Paul du Toit for having supported us in this regard. Catering was started at this early stage with snacks and wine being offered. We later moved to the Fernkloof Nature Reserve hall and more recently to the Community Hall at Mollergren Park. Top quality talks and presentations by well-known birders, researchers and academics have always been the order of the day. Several members also started presenting these talks at monthly meetings and now regularly present such talks to other bird clubs, cultural and conservation agencies. During the dark days of the Covid Pandemic many lectures, quizzes, courses and photographic displays were presented online, keeping our activities moving forward. 

Catering at these events before the pandemic had always been very popular and contributed hugely to the unique sociable character so typical of our club. A healthy profit was generated through the catering, covering our costs for the evening and contributing to our conservation fund. The continuation of catering at monthly meetings is currently being investigated.

Morning Outings

The Overberg region offers many top bird-watching destinations with the result that it was relatively easy to organise interesting monthly outings on Saturday mornings. These events rapidly became hugely popular, with non-members joining us – just as had happened with monthly talks these events soon led to increasing numbers of birders joining the club. Top destinations soon became regular features for these outings and here Rooiels, Harold Porter Botanical Gardens, Rooisand, Fernkloof and De Mond Nature Reserves serve as examples. Visits to towns such as Stanford, Greyton and Napier and slow birding tours along the Karwyderskraal and Swartrivier roads and the Danger Point peninsula also proved to be very popular. These morning outings further included collaboration with the Tygerberg Bird Club in doing CWAC counts along the Botvlei. This eventually led to similar counts along all of our region’s estuaries – see comments elsewhere. Morning outings remain one of the cornerstones of BirdLife Overberg activities.

Weekend Outings

Weekend outings started with close friends spending several weekends at ‘Die Spookhuis’ in the De Hoop Nature Reserve, Grootvadersbosch Nature Reserve and Velddrif along the Cape West Coast. The small circle of friends gradually became bigger through members getting friends to join and come along. The weekend outings started attracting larger groups of participants to top birding destinations such as the Tsitsikamma, Karoo and Tankwa National Parks, Algeria in the Cederberg Wilderness, Nature’s Valley, Ebb and Flow at Wilderness and Duinepos at the West Coast National Park. A tour of the northern sections of the Kruger National Park is however regarded as the highlight by most of the participants. Mention should also be made of participation in SANPARKS Honorary Rangers birding weekends such as several West Coast National Park Wader Bashes and the Tankwa Karoo Birding Bonanzas. In later years and subsequent to the Covid19 pandemic smaller, private tours were also enjoyed at Kostaplenti at Nature’s Valley and Barry House at Riverton Stud near Robertson. The hope is expressed that these weekend outings and tours will again be undertaken shortly.

Education

We have always supported BirdLife South Africa’s annual Bird of the Year campaigns. Many schools were involved in this process, talks were presented to a variety of organisations and talks and articles were aimed at local and regional media outlets.  

Two day ‘ Flight for Beginners’ and later ‘Flight for Birders’ courses were presented locally, as well as in other provinces largely aimed at getting more people involved in bird-watching and joining local bird clubs and BirdLife South Africa. In recent years more specialised courses and workshops such as on raptors and LBJs were developed. These courses and workshop are now also being presented online. 

The club also regularly presented two day specialist bird identification and conservation courses and workshops as fundraising efforts. Top speakers and conservationists were brought to Hermanus and these events were hugely successful, well attended and usually sell-outs. We made substantial profits out of all of these. Examples included: Geoff Lockwood presented an introductory course on bird identification, Dr Gerhard Verdoorn twice presented his famous raptor identification workshop, as did Ulrich Oberprieler. André Botha presented a vulture identification and conservation workshop and Rick Nuttall presented a workshop on waxbills and other seedeaters. Dr David Allan also delighted members and other participants with his Little Brown Jobs identification workshop. Hope fully these wonderful events will be continued soon.

Conservation

On the conservation front three major innovations, besides the registration of the Overstrand region as an IBA should be noted: We were founding members of the Western Cape Birding Forum after having been involved in similar agencies in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Anton and Carin managed the administration of the Forum for a period. BirdLife Overberg’s CleanMarine campaign contributed to the conservation of our coastal birds in many ways and the revival of the campaign is currently being investigated. Members have also participated in regional and national conservation projects such as BIRP, CAR and CWAC. Carin is currently coordinating regular quarterly CWAC counts along all the Overberg estuaries. We further continue to comment on a variety of development proposals and environmental impact assessments within the Overberg region.

Fundrasing

Various conservation agencies and their efforts were also supported through several fundraising initiatives by members of BirdLife Overberg. These initiatives included the mentioned presentation of specialist courses and workshops, charity dinners and auctions, raffles, charity golf days and our popular XMAS IN JULY charity dinners. The latter two projects were seen as the flagships of our fundraising efforts prior and up to the Covid19 pandemic. Agencies that have benefitted from our fundraising efforts over the years included BirdLife South Africa, CapeNature, SANCCOB, the Cape Leopard Trust,  the Dyer Island Conservation Trust and its African Penguin and Seabirds Sanctuary (APSS), The Nature’s Valley Trust, the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust and the Kogelberg Conservancy. 

Marketing the Overberg

We initially published articles on the birding delights of the Overberg in magazines and newspapers. Perhaps the greatest achievement at that early stage was that the club hosted the Birdlife South Africa Annual General Meeting here in Hermanus in 2008. Birders, club committee members from across the country and BLSA executives descended on our town. Needless to say, many of these visitors added several of our regional endemic species, including our own Cape Rockjumper, to their life lists. This event played an important role in establishing the Overberg region as a top birding destination. Birding brochures were developed for several district municipalities including the Overberg in collaboration with Cape Town Routes Unlimited. A dedicated website was developed and maintained over many years to market the Western Cape Province as a top birding destination. Detailed birdfinder web pages were added later and the descriptions of the Overberg destinations are now being featured on our club website. The development of bird checklists for privately owned tourism destinations, nature reserves and guest farms have been undertaken over the years and are ongoing. Club members and collaborators further started recording monthly lists of bird species found in the Overberg region since the start of the Covid19 pandemic. This project is creating fascinating results with nearly 400 species having been recorded. These findings are disseminated through various channels and hold great promise for the future marketing of the Overberg region as a top birding destination.

And such is the life and times of Birdlife Overberg. A remarkable achievement and a huge success story evolving over 22 years. A sound base was cemented taking Birdlife Overberg into an ever soaring flight into the future.

Ultimately we need to honour and celebrate the lives of some dedicated members of BirdLife Overberg and dear friends who are no longer with us. They are fondly remembered.

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