Celebrate the Secretary bird

Use your quill and spread the word….

celebrate the Secretary bird!

 

7 September 2011

National Secretary Day

Secretary birds are classified as Globally Vulnerable on the International Red Data List.  These charismatic, long-legged birds are disappearing fast from the grasslands of Southern Africa.  A number of factors threaten their future survival: collisions with power lines, loss of habitat and grassland degradation due to agricultural and forestry development.
To find out more about how you can help, please see www.birdlife.org.za.

Stop Rhino Poaching

In the July edition of Africa Geographic, Ian Michler exposed the poaching crisis devastating South Africa’s rhino population. 279 rhinos have been killed in 2011 alone.  That’s approximately one rhino every 20 hours. What is the government doing?  Environment minister, Edna Molewa, says they’re considering a moratorium on the trade of rhino horn, but “definitely not be before 2012”.

How many rhinos need to be killed before we recognise that this is an international crisis requiring our urgent attention?

We need to know who is using rhino horn and why.  If South East Asian countries use powdered horn for traditional medicine, then there must be widespread education programmes to debunk these myths.  The South African government, large conservation agencies and rhino owners, should pressure the UN and EU to get countries that provide markets for rhino horn committed to solutions.  We can debate the merits of legalising trade and dehorning rhino for another decade.

But by then, there won’t be rhinos to save.

Please support a ban on the trade of rhino horn. Visit www.stoprhinopoaching.com to sign the petition.

Our Local Lad

“For the first time a leopard has been captured in the Hemel and Aarde Valley”
CAPE TIMES, 14 June2011

Cape Leopard 

Pastel by Angela Key
 

It’s a wildlife artists dream… a leopard in our own back yard!

I’ve lost count of the hours I’ve spent tracking leopard spoor in the sand, studying pugs for signs of erosion; indents left by rain drops or tiny trails left by termites and ants can tell a lot about how recently a leopard was there.  Even with modern technology like GPS collars, it’s not easy monitoring leopards.

A Namibian biologist tells of how on 1200 occasions he walked right up to leopards he located with radio collars.  Of those 1200 occasions, he actually SAW the leopard only twice!  They just move off.  You hear signals bleeping all around, but the leopard slinks down on its belly and snakes off.

Our Cape Leopard is even more elusive.  As their habitat diminishes and landowners continue to use indiscriminate predator controls, these leopards could soon face the same fate as the long-extinct Cape Lion.  So you can imagine my excitement when this magnificent specimen was spotted right here on a farm in the Hemel and Aarde Valley.  Since capturing the leopard and fitting it with a GPS collar, the Landmark Foundation has been monitoring its movements in the mountains.  One-hundred infrared cameras have been strategically located from Cape Infanta and Bot River Lagoon to the Riviersonderend and Langeberg Mountains.  To date, 23 leopards have been tagged in the Foundation’s Leopard and Predator Project.  The GPS data obtained will give researchers an insight into population density and behavioural dynamics to ensure the survival of this threatened species.

 

Visit the Missions House Gallery in Onrus River for a glimpse of this magnificent Cape leopard.

Or you could take a hike in the Hemel and Aarde and hold thumbs!!!

Testimonial

"The biggest thank you for such a special and spectacular picture, something so unique and phenomenal..... we will always treasure it.”

Sarah and David McKenzie, CNN News Correspondent, Kenya

Splash Gold

The magnificent gelding from Dean Kannemeyer’s stable with Jockey Karl Neisius scores his fifth win in the PSL Soccer 4 Handicap at Durbanville on Saturday 5 March.



Pastel on Royal Sovereign Pastel Board

Original Size: 50 x 65 cm

Framed: 86 x 100 cm (approximate)

Splash Gold is my first foray into the world of Equestrian Fine Art, but the painting has been so well received that I’m setting my sights on the Sport of Kings - Polo.

So much so that at 6am this morning, I was out scouring the beach below Brekvis Bay for feathers...... I’ve got exactly 1 week to create a ‘fascinator’.  Forget the wide-brimmed straw hats of the Met, this is an altogether more elegant affair.... a single Sacred Ibis plume tucked into a tailored black silk number, pinned to a perfectly coiffed chignon.  Your otherwise bundu-bashing barefoot artist ’en grande tenue’.

A week today, Saturday April 17^th, Cape Town’s celebrities and  fashionistas converge at Val de Vie Wine Estate near Paarl for the international Polo Masters.  And ‘moi’ won’t be rubbing shoulders with Ryk Neethling on the Petanque court or leisurely quaffing champagne on the pavilion (although I won’t say no to a taste of Raats’s Rhone-inspired Mouvedre!). No. You’ll find me on the playing fields, furiously sketching horses... watching carefully as players wield their mallets to score a goal.  I’m learning from the master – Degas - and getting inspired..... watch this space.