The Bateleurs and Lighthawk held a workshop at the 8th World Wilderness Congress in Anchorage on the 3rd of October 2005.  Sven Kreher and Col. Bill de Pinho attended this workshop, as did Paul Dutton, a founder Bateleur pilot.  In a very brief reportback Sven said that, although Lighthawk and The Bateleurs have the same ideals and aspirations, the two organisations actually operate very differently.  So there was much to consider and many lessons to be shared.  They discussed missions, criteria for missions, legalities, funding and so on.  But also, how our flying for the environment could help or try to save wilderness areas throughout the world.  In that regard, it would be marvellous if they have succeeded in encouraging delegates from other countries to start similar organisations to fly for the environment and their wilderness areas.

Dedicated Lighthawk pilots, Michael McBride and Kirk Johnson, volunteered daily flights to delegates so that they could see and get a feel of the Alaskan environment.  They were kept busy throughout Congress! 

The Congress itself was a resounding, productive and spirited success.   Our patron, Dr Ian Player, gave the most inspired and inspiring talk at the opening plenary session.  More on this, with photographs, later.

We flew for The Cape Leopard Trust and are extremely proud to report that this was a collaborative mission with Sanparks who allowed The Bateleurs to use its aircraft, and their chief pilot in the Western Cape, Giel de Kock, (the Namaqua Coastal Park Planning and Development Co-ordinator), who has long been a friend of The Bateleurs, and has now joined us as a volunteer pilot.

We are helping The Cape Leopard Trust to locate and monitor “Houdini”, who is the first leopard to be caught and collared in the Cederberg.  Quinton Martin had a few early attempts at capturing Houdini, who seemed to just disappear from the cage every time they thought they had him.  But now that his collar is on, The Cape Leopard Trust, with help from The Bateleurs, will be able to follow his movements.   The first monitoring mission was a fantastic success, with Houdini being located within half an hour.  Quinton was ecstatic! 

Please look for more pictures on this mission in the Picture Gallery.

The Bateleurs will help The Cape Leopard Trust with its ongoing monitoring.  We have already recruited and wish to welcome aboard Johan Ferreira, who lives in the Cederberg and who is happy to help with future leopard monitoring missions and, hopefully, other Bateleur missions that may come to his area.

If you would like to know more about The Cape Leopard Trust, its website address is  www.capeleopard.org.za.   The Africa Geographic also features a one-pager on The Cape Leopard Trust in every issue.

We also flew Euronatur - who came out with Ulf Doerner and German TV and media – using three aircraft, from Margate to Port St Johns and back, to see for themselves the area of the Wild Coast over which there is so much controversy.  Pilots Harry Antel, Paul Dutton and Adrian High really did us proud, the international delegation came out fully in support of the Wild Coast Campaign, and 50/50 got some beautiful air-to-air shots for its programme which was aired at the end of August.  We hope many of you saw the programme as it gave The Bateleurs quite a lot of exposure.

Val Payn who is the Communications Co-ordinator of the Save the Wild Coast Campaign (SWC)  was one of the passengers on this mission.  Val writes -:

“These are impressions captured when I had the privilege to fly down The Wild Coast with EURONATUR President Claus- Peter Hutter and filmmaker Don Guy, piloted by Adrian High - courtesy of the Bateleurs.
        Many arguments wage, some saying that a Toll road and mining are needed for poverty relief, others feel that the unique environment should be protected and that eco–sensitive means of development will bring greater long term prosperity to all.  Let us hope the greatness of humanity prevails in this debate, and that wise decisions are made, and not decisions based on short-term profit or vested interests.”

Please click here to read Val’s entire report.

There is nothing I can add to Stefan Cramer’s brilliant report on conflicting water use in Letaba Valley, except to thank him for requesting flight assistance for exactly the kind of mission The Bateleurs should be flying.  His report is without doubt the most comprehensive we have ever received.  For this mission we have wonderful photographs, taken by Stefan, who also gave us a PowerPoint presentation containing very explicit photographs of the habitat destruction uncovered during this mission.

In his request, Stefan said he wanted to take on this mission three tribal chiefs, a community leader, and two representatives of the media – this we did thanks to Eddie Keizan. 

As a preamble to his report he wrote, “ … a big thanks to the marvellous people of The Bateleurs.  Thanks of course, in particular, to volunteer pilot Eddie Keizan, who made this flight truly an eye-opening and enjoyable experience.
 It was simply fascinating to see what you can do in the air.  Within the short time-span of approximately 20-30 minutes we could cover an entire ecosystem, from the water-hungry bluegum forest plantations of the Soutpansberge, through the equally water-wasting fruit farms in Letaba Valley with high evaporation losses from (illegal?) water impoundments, down into the scorched and degraded farms in the Giyani vicinity, where hardly any of the abundant water in this little catchment area still arrives.
 We didn’t cover the Kruger Park further downstream, which has its own share of water scarcity due to wasteful water consumption upstream.  The message is quite clear.  The struggle is on for water in South Africa, and must be seen as an integral part of any land reform.
 The three accompanying chiefs could see their territory for the first time from a bird’s eye view.  They could see in a very short time the dramatic degradation due to the unsustainable lad use patterns in their areas.  In the debriefing they were impressed with this holistic view of their constituencies.    They mentioned in particular that the new laws give them much better opportunities to influence land and water use in their constituencies and that they would strive to lobby and argue for a more sustainable land use.  We need to brief them again in more detail.  But the doors are now wide open for a meaningful dialogue with traditional leaders in the area.  We will engage them in the near future as we are making these findings available to the land, agriculture and water officials of the Limpopo Provincial Government.”

Eddie Keizan, who flew Stefan, Erica, three tribal chiefs, a community leader and a media representative, in his wonderful Cessna Caravan ZS-TSW, sent us a short note describing his observations during the survey flight over the Makhado/Giyani/Thohoyandou area of Limpopo Province:

        “I must point out that my observations are made without any special knowledge of training in the subject of Water Resource Management.
 It seems strange to me that, in an area so devoid of vegetation and agricultural activity, there exist these vast dams with huge surface areas, in what must be one of the hottest areas of South Africa, with no apparent benefit that I could see from the air other than unsuccessfully attempting to supply the rural populations with drinking water – an objective that is not being met as their taps have been dry for months!  The evaporative losses in the summer months must be enormous and these dams are on rivers that all flow through the Kruger.  We are always reading about the upstream dams that are depriving the Kruger of its natural water flow – wow, seeing it in living Technicolour is quite disturbing!”

Once again, The Bateleurs are very happy to have been able to support a Pelican Count in KwaZulu Natal.  Thanks to our willing pilots, Donovan Barton-Hobbs, Paul Dutton and Chris Rattray, the Third of these missions was successfully accomplished, with Meyrick Bowker submitting the following report:

        “Thanks again to The Bateleurs for their support of this project.
 These counts are an attempt to count all the pelicans in KZN on one day to give an idea of their status in the province.
 Chris Rattray willingly stepped in to fill the gap left by James Hopwood who was not available for this count.  Otherwise the team remained the same, with Paul Dutton flying “Spirit of Adventure” and Donovan Barton-Hobbs in his microlight.  Greg Nanni in the KZN Wildlife plane was there to help out again, as he and Ricky Taylor were due to do their regular half-yearly count of all birds on Lake St Lucia.
 Paul flew up to Monzi from La Mercy, looking for pelicans in the estuaries along the way, while Greg headed out from Pietermaritzburg, checking the inland water bodies en route to Monzi.  After a short rendezvous at Monzi where Chris is based, the northern section of the count got underway.  Greg flew the entire Lake St Lucia, while Paul covered the Mkhuze River floodplain from its entry into the Lake, up to the pans in and around the Mkhuze Game Reserve.  Chris flew north to the Pongolapoort Dam, and then followed the Pongola River, hopping from pan to pan produced by the river, as it meanders way across the Makhatini flats eventually reaching the Ndumu Game Reserve on the Mozambique border.  From there he headed east to the Kosi Lakes and then southwards over Lake Sibaya, Banghazi and the Eastern shores back to Monzi.
 While this was on the go in the north, Donovan was busy around the Empangeni and Richards Bay areas, covering the many wet areas in that region.
 The Zululand and Durban Bird Clubs also do ground counts in the Richards Bay and Durban areas on this day.
 On the Lakes the pelicans can be seen easily, especially the Great White Pelican which always behave socially and are found in large groups of up to several thousand.  The Pink-backed Pelicans, of which there probably only about 400 in South Africa, are more solitary, and can also roost in trees, and as a result are harder to find and count.
 The count produced figures of about 4,500 Great White Pelicans and 150 Pink-backed Pelican.  Figures are estimates at this stage.  The digital pictures taken on the day still have to be enlarged and the number of birds counted to give more accurate estimations.
 Lake St. Lucia is still providing the best foraging for pelicans, and huge groups of birds have been photographed feeding there.  The Pongola floodplain has been seriously over-utilised, and does not seem to have the same potential as it had before.  Lake Sibaya and the Kosi Lakes are too clear and in parts too deep to suit pelicans and these birds are very seldom seen there.
 The Pink-backed Pelicans which breed in summer, had a particularly successful season this year at their nesting site in the Mkhuze Game Reserve.  The Great White Pelicans however are winter, ground nesters.  The areas where they normally nest in the Lake system are no longer safe from predators as the Lake level has been low for so long now, and they have made no attempt this year to breed.
 These birds, so awkward on the ground, are a delight to watch when they are either soaring or just gliding effortlessly over the surface of the Lake in their ‘V’ formation.  I am sure it must make even you pilots and aviators a little green with envy.
 Thanks again to all who were involved.  An exercise like this would not be possible without your support.”