SARBN: Cape Bird Club / City of Cape Town Big Year challenge in 2023

[Trevor Hardaker]

Calling all Cape Town-based birders and whomever else may be interested…

 

2023 sees the Cape Bird Club turning 75 years old and, as part of their milestone celebration, and in collaboration with the City of Cape Town, a Big Year challenge will be launched for hopefully as many local birders as possible to take part in.

 

For those of you that don’t know, a Big Year is basically an excuse to go out birding as often as you can and see as many species as you can within a calendar year (from 1 January to 31 December). The really nice thing about this one is that it is limited to the municipal boundaries of the City of Cape Town, so is not a massive area that one has to cover at all. For most Cape birders, it would be the area that they normally go out birding in anyway.

 

It’s a first of its kind challenge within the municipal boundaries of a big city in South Africa, so should be really fun to take part in. It is aimed at all levels of birders, whether you are an old hand with many years of experience or a complete newbie who has just started out on your birding journey. Particularly for the newer birders, it should be a lot of fun learning about where all you can go birding and just how many species you can find within your own home town – you couldn’t ask for a better learning experience for local birding! And, while there is bound to be some competition for most species recorded amongst the craziest of the lot, the most important thing will be for everyone to just take part and learn from the experience… and have loads of fun while doing so!

 

I have attached a more detailed explanation from the Cape Bird Club which sets out all the relevant information and explains how you can register to take part and really hope that MANY of you will consider this. Even if you are not based within the city, but do plan on visiting regularly, why not register anyway and take part, even if it is not full time.

 

We are now down to less than 36 hours to go before this exciting challenge starts, so get registered, get yourself set up and let’s see you out in the field ticking those Cape Town birds off as 2023 gets underway…J

 

Please feel free to share this with any and all of your Cape Town birding friends in case they would like to join the challenge as well.

 

I look forward to seeing many of you out in the field next year around Cape Town and, hopefully, we can even share some exciting sightings together!

 

Kind regards

Trevor