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Smithfield is for the Birds

by Carmel Rickard -

Birding history is being made in South Africa at the moment – and now in Aliwal North as well. A major project is underway, officially entitled the South African Bird Atlasing Project No 2 (SaBap, for short). The last time birders made an “atlas” of South Africa was 15 or 16 years ago, when everyone was involved in an official record trying to trace where which birds occur in this country.

Now, they are repeating the exercise, and because it is such a mammoth task, they have set aside five years for the job. The purpose is to see whether birds are changing their distribution patterns (if so, it could be caused by changes to their habitat or by climate change) and the way they move around. Of course it will also provide a chance to re-do areas that might not have been properly atlased the first time. Altogether, the project should provide a more complete and up to date picture of where what birds are to be found.

The most important element of the project is the involvement of what people call “citizen scientists” – people like you and me who have other jobs and earn our living in many different ways, but who are interested in nature and in birds particularly. Without these “citizen scientists”, the atlas project could not hope to be successful.

It’s a massive task – the whole of South Africa is divided into quarter quadrants that measure roughly 30 square kilometres. Within each of these are nine pentads that cover about six square kilometres each. If the organisers could get their best wish, each one of these pentads would be properly “covered” by a knowledgeable birder, following the special rules laid down for the project, for example, the minimum number of hours to be spent in each area in order to qualify for a proper atlasing session.

Of the 1 863 pentads, just 121 have been covered so far, a full year into the project – that’s 6.5 percent of the total. With only four years left, there’s still a great deal of work to do.

Smithfield is at least on the map and has been partly covered, thanks to the birding weekend we had last November. Some of the birders who participated in the event sent completed cards to the atlas organisers and so we have proper representation (though of course it would be wonderful if we had more people atlasing this area in order to cover the ground more than once).

But the point I want to make is that we have a real role model just down the N6 from us. Arnold van der Westhuizen of Aliwal North has been working very hard on all his local pentads and he has covered them all – single-handedly. He has done all his nine pentads at least twice; the only person in South Africa to have achieved this feat.

Professor Les Underhill, vice-president of the International Ornithological Committee, has sent out an email to South Africa’s birding community which starts, “Arnold van der Westhuizen has struck gold in Aliwal North.”

He says this is the third quarter quadrant with gold status (after Wakkerstroom and Somerset West), but that this one is extra-unusual: “Arnold’s achievement is special for two reasons — all 27 checklists were made by him, so it is a solo gold award. Secondly, the number of species on the 27 checklists is 172, only four species short of what was reached on 68 checklists for (the first bird atlas project).”

Our congratulations to Arnold who is a great friend to birding enthusiasts in Smithfield, always ready to lend his expertise and to rush over, check some special find we have made and share in our excitement.

The Alternative Smithfield News.