Speakers

Mike Graham:
Born in the UK in 1946, he worked at BP for 36 years within their oil tanker division, 17 years at sea up to ship’s master and 19 years in shore operations in the UK and Scotland. He took early retirement in 1999 at the age of 52 and moved to Hermanus from Cambridge, England in March 2006. In April 2006 he joined BLO (Birdlife Overberg) after attending a Flight for Beginners course run by Anton Odendal and is currently Treasurer of BLO. Since becoming a bird watcher he has travelled to many destinations in SA, Botswana and Namibia in search of the “specials”. His current bird list is at 535. He is also a keen bird photographer and uses a Canon 350 and 400, coupled with a 100mm-400mm lens or a 600mm lens coupled with a 1.4 converter. He also uses Swarovski 10x42 binoculars and a Swarovski 60x scope.

Kate Robinson:
Kate has just started her MSc as part of the Animal Demography Unit in the Zoology Department of UCT.  She is currently deploying GPS loggers on Robben Island as part of a team researching the foraging behaviour of Cape Penguins.
After graduating with a BSc in Biology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Kate worked for Bird Studies Canada doing bird studies in remote areas.  She then worked for Environment Canada, Canada Wildlife Services, as a wildlife technician coordinating shorebird surveys and nest record schemes in the Maritime provinces.
Kate will talk about wader species that migrate to and from the northern and southern hemispheres in both east and west.  There are several common species such as Common Whimbred and Ruddy Turnstone that accomplish these amazing journeys in both the Americas and across Europe and Africa.

Tony Tree:
While wader ringing at Cape Recife back in my varsity days I started catching considerable numbers of terns and so started my study of this group. After retirement I joined a couple of wader and tern expeditions to Australia and developed my penchant further for this group. In 1998 I obtained permission to work on the Roseate Tern on Bird Island and since then have spent much of my time on this group and have published scientific papers on both the Roseate and Antarctic terns. Much time has been spent in pursuing this group in E and W Cape and Namibia.

Dave de Beer:
Photographer,nature lover,birds on the wing anywhere and
everywhere,breaching whales and mating lions.I just love showing and
sharing my photos and adventure stories.Enjoy and be inspired.

Les Underhill : http://www.adu.org.za/

Peter Chadwick : www.peterchadwick.co.za

Brummer Olivier : www.strandveld-discovery.com

Doug Newman :  www.simplybirding.co.za