Wattled Crane and Bearded Vulture

Cape Vulture

One day my dad took me up to the top of a neighboring farm, where there is a very large man-made lake and vast marshlands. There I became privy to one of the biggest, at the time unrecorded, flocks of breeding Wattled Crane, an endangered species. Well I remember days of trudging through the marshland in my gumboots and drizzling rain or mist following the cranes. It became an obsession and every time I went to the farm, I would spend most of my days with the cranes, counting eggs in the nests, monitoring the chicks and fledglings and witnessing the growth of the population of this flock of birds. Memory eludes me now but at the time of my interest in these regal birds, there were supposedly only about 100 left in Southern Africa and here I was in amongst 40 – 50 of them. It was during these mountain excursions of mine that I came across another bird on the endangered list, the Bearded Vulture. 

The first time I saw one, the only identification I could think of was a Condor, because in the misty conditions and from a distance I would have sworn that this enormous black bird stood at least 4ft high. From reading Louis Lamour and Zane Grey Westerns, I believed the Condor to be the biggest and most feared bird in the whole world. Hello, I was only 18 at the time. Imagine my consternation when I arrived back at the farmhouse and consulted my treasured book, only to discover that there is no such bird in Southern Africa. I tried to describe the bird to a number of locals but to no avail (I was trying to learn Zulu at the time), until I met Gerard who could spoke reasonably good English and he told me that it was a "Seoli" and with the help of my trusty book I found it. What I saw in the book did not even closely resemble the bird I saw in the grey misty light.  I did, however, consequently see the bird on a number of occasions, both flying and on the ground which confirmed the identification. Later I started identifying Cape Vulture, Tawny Eagle, Yellow-billed Kite and other raptors around the farm.

African Harrier Hawk

My interest in birds was now growing at an alarming rate but I was still ignoring the Cisticolas, Larks, Pipits and other small birds. It would be years before I started recognizing the importance of the whole spectrum of the bird genus. By now, thanks to the lake and marshes I was noticing the ducks, waders, grebes and herons in the area. Looking back, I regret that I never noted my discoveries. The necessity of making notes only manifested itself many years later. I believe that, although my interest in birds was not documented in the beginning, I nonetheless, gained immense pleasure and knowledge from those years.