Our Five cent bird, our National bird! |
Written by SJ du Toit | |
The Overberg is now generally regarded as the last stronghold of our national bird, the blue crane, whose true habitat is the short grasslands in the northern and eastern parts of the RSA The elegance and dignified beauty of the blue crane has thrilled man for many centuries. Their trumpet call and their exquisite mating dance are among the wonders of nature. The blue crane pair mate for life and raise one or two chicks per year. However, survival rates are not very high. A pair of cranes has been coming to our farm near Stanford to make their nest at the “Sekretaarsbos”, usually raising only one chick. Year after year, we have had the pleasure of witnessing their mating dance next to the big farm dam. Before 1980 these birds were not so plentiful in the Overberg, but thanks to the continued efforts of landowners, farm workers and conservation organisations the number of blue cranes in the Overberg has increased dramatically. The Overberg Blue Crane Group, under the chairmanship of Wicus Leewner exert themselves for conservation in our region. Countless educational projects and workshops have been presented in co-operation with Cape Nature Conservation, and these are now bearing fruit. Wicus Leeuwner once remarked: “It says much about a community when a species that has been classified as highly endangered on the international red data list can be induced to increase its numbers within a man-made habitat such as the Overberg grain fields.” |