local bird club

The present Phalaborwa Bird Club has been active for over 10 years and has, at the moment, over 50 members for 2010. The existing committee recognise that many of our members are not avid birders and therefore we try to cater for a broader spectrum of meetings and activities. We are fortunate that we have access to both Palabora Mining Company and FOSKOR mines where we perform regular CWAC counts and regular bird surveys as part of the mines' environmental policies.

During 2009 Phalaborwa Bird Club hosted the BirdLife South Africa AGM from March 19 to 21. Considering the country's economic woes and Phalaborwa's geographic location, the event was well attended with a good selection of birding activities available to visitors. During the AGM the Grietjie Vulture Restaurant, situated 20 km out of Phalaborwa was officially opened by Mark Anderson, Director of BirdLife South Africa.

The Club remains active within the greater community supplying new frames and bird posters to Bateleur Camp in the Kruger National Park to replace the ones destroyed in the fire, as well as maintaining posters and information at other bird hides in the area.

As the Phalaborwa Bird Club we are fortunate to have the ‘lapa', situated in the Kruger National Park, as our venue for our monthly meetings and ‘bring and braai'.

For meetings during 2009 we had several exciting speakers;

James Clarke of National Newspaper Fame
Duncan Butchard who gave an illustrated introduction to birding in the Brazilian Pantanal
Faansie Peacock presented his talk on Pipits
Etienne Marais and his illustrated talk on bird migration
Derek Engelbrecht from Polokwane with a talk on Larks presenting his research on the subject with great illustrations

Other activities during the year were visits to the Manutsa Vulture colony, PMC Pompey farm and weekend trips to Lekgalameetse Nature Reserve, the Wolkberg and Punda Maria in the Kruger National Park. The Club also has two members who continue with bird ringing.

For further information on Phalaborwa Bird Club, including birding trip reports by our members, visit our website www.phalaborwa.birdclub.co.za