Kelp Gull by Marinda Bruwer

SWBC AGM 2025

We held our AGM on 13 February.

Somerset West Bird Club annual report

Chair: Willene van der Merwe

2024 was another great year for our club, what with interesting speakers, exciting outings, new members and new challenges.

I would like to change the format of the Chairperson’s report. Instead of listening to my monotonous voice, I thought you might like to hear and see the people on the committee who work hard behind the scenes to organise all the things you just arrive to enjoy.

Thanking those I did not ask to write something:

Maresa Volsteedt: who is our secretary, and who does a marvellous job of keeping the committee on the straight and narrow, who arranges all our meetings here in the hall and carts around all the sound equipment.

Bernice Green: our indomitable tea hostess and helpers. What would a meeting be without tea or coffee and delicious eats?

Marinda Bruwer: although not an active committee member in 2024, she added great value to our committee meetings, from checking facts and dates to reminding us of things that otherwise have slipped our minds. She has also been a great help with setting up the quiz night, and could easily be the next chairperson.

Bas Kothuis: he is our calendar man, and organiser of speakers. We are so glad that he is well again.

Riël Tredoux:  He organises outings for our monthly trips to birding destinations close by.

Marian Herholdt:

Batis Editor / Website Report

In 2024 as in previous years we produced four editions of the Batis and we would like to thank all the members who contributed with articles, feedback and photos. We encourage everyone to send in stories, ideas and suggestions to the email address batis.editor@gmail.com. The Batis is the club magazine and we love to feature your contributions. Let us know if you have travelled somewhere interesting or spotted a news article others might have missed.

For those that take printed copies, we will continue to bring them to club meetings quarterly (February, May, August, November) and then take any not collected to the Hospice Shop in Main Road Somerset West after the meeting (usually taken on the following Saturday). They are kept in a box under the counter there. We do not want to spend funds on printing copies that are not required, so we have gone through a process to audit those that have not been collected for some time, and stopped printing those copies.

In 2024 we also launched our new Website which we hope you have all had a look at. The site address has not changed (www.somersetwestbirdclub.co.za). We must give a vote of thanks to Cheryl King for starting this journey to bring our website up to date with accurate information and contact details, and a modern look and feel. We hope that as well as being a source of information for existing members, it will encourage new members by demonstrating that we are an active and welcoming community.

Finally, we have revamped the club’s Notice Boards at Helderberg Nature Reserve and we are keeping them up to date quarterly with information taken from the Batis. This is another way that we hope to attract new members.

Anna-Marie Krynauw:

During 2024 we sold raffle tickets for the amount of R2215.00. It is a good way to generate funds for the club as people often tell me afterwards “Just missed by one number!”

Members have a chance to win a bottle of wine when they buy a raffle ticket. Many people enjoy buying more than one ticket. Paying R5 to attend a meeting with a good speaker and mingle with people who share the same interest is a bonus for many people.

At home I cash up and the tickets have to correspond with the money. I then pay it over to the Treasurer.

I enjoy speaking to all attending – some new – some for many years! For some people it’s the highlight of the month because as you grow older your circle of friends gets smaller and smaller!

Freya Brett:

Eco Schools

2024 has been a very successful year for the Eco Schools. As the coordinator I supported the schools with my exciting and constructive eco-projects.

These were:

• Addressing alternative transport means to lessen carbon emissions. (one learner came to school on horseback!) More learners and parents are cycling now, keeping it up for more than just a day.
• Acquiring new propagation skills when developing vegetable gardens
• Expanding Fynbos and Biodiversity gardens as outdoor classrooms: the resident owl at Beaumont now has a permanent home.
• At the end of each year the schools provide evidence of the eco programme of the year, which is assessed by me, and on the strength of the evidence certificates are awarded at a prestigious ceremony. My schools have sustained their Eco flag for more than 15 years – kudos to these schools. They are an example to others.

Finally Sakkie Krynauw presented the financial report.

BirdLasser and other Birding Apps

Charles Britz spoke to us about using birding apps – which provides vital data to many oragnisations. Full write up on this in the next Batis