Chair’s Chirps BirdLife Sani

I am delighted to share some exciting news with you all - our club BirdLife Sisonke has undergone a name and Logo change! We are now known as BirdLife Sani, a name that more accurately reflects our focus on birds and conservation in the Sani Pass region. This change was approved at our recent committee meeting and sent out to our members to vote on with the change being well received. We are thrilled to move forward under this new banner.

We are also proud to report that our membership continues to grow steadily, and we now have 56 members. This is a testament to the hard work of our committee and the dedication of our members to promoting birding and conservation in our area.

I am also pleased to announce that we recently made a donation to BirdLife South Africa for the placement of Dalu as an environmental monitor and bird guide at Ntsikeni Vlei. Dalu was appointed on 1 December 2022 and will play a crucial role in preserving the vlei and its inhabitants, including the critically endangered white-winged flufftail.

This donation was made possible through the generous support of our members and a contribution from BirdLife eThekwini KZN. We are thrilled to have secured Dalu an initial 12-month contract and look forward to seeing the impact of his work on the conservation of Ntsikeni Vlei.

We look forward to continuing our efforts to promote birding and conservation in the Sani Pass region and beyond. Thank you for your continued support of BirdLife Sani.

Tony Coetzer Chairman, BirdLife Sani

BirdLife KZN Midlands

Welcome to the new editorial team for KZN Birds and many thanks to Crystelle Wilson who ran the magazine for the last 14 years. As one of our members we will find her something else to do now that she has lots of spare time!

Sadly, our former membership Secretary and Honorary Life Member who retired in 2022, Pam Nicol, passed away on 1 February this year at the age of 92. She will be greatly missed.

We held our AGM on 18th February 2023 and Mike Spain completed his 4 year term as Honorary President and Drummond Densham was elected to the post. Thanks to Mike for his term and a welcome to Drummond, who does much for the club, to his new role

We held a course on basic Raptor Identification, presented by Tammy Caine from FreeMe Wildlife with the proceeds of R 4 800 in aid of Free Me this course clearly demonstrated the need for such types of education as the many of attendees were non-members or newer birders. Consequently, we will be arranging for more courses later this year.

Midlands club is in effect now a member of the Karloof Conservation Centre- this entitles members to visit the hides at Gartmore as often as they like for a R 10 donation instead of the usual R 40. We plan to work with the Conservation Center to encourage people to join the club

Sean Glynn Chairperson BirdLife KZN Midlands