Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

I was out to Dikgale Village with Prof. Derek Engelbrecht last week¹. I was monitoring a population of rare Euphorbias, while he was seeing if he could trap and ring some birds. He was lucky and got a couple of Shorttoed Rock Thrushes, Monticola brevipes! We know that they're around, having seen and heard them before. These thrushes are rare in Limpopo Province. Their main haunts are in Namibia, the Northern Cape, western Free State, and southeastern Botswana. The species is restricted to southern Africa. There are a few spots in Limpopo where they've been seen, but so far I think it's only Derek who managed to catch and ring any of them here.

Derek uses a sophisticated trap. He baits it with a tasty mealworm, then sets up a little loudspeaker close by through which he plays the birds' calls. They come to investigate; if they're observant, they'll see the mealworm and decide to make a meal of it while figuring things out. The trap is sprung, and they're caught! Derek removes them from the trap and puts them in a cloth bag until it's time for measuring. The measurements are of just about every bodypart: head, bill, wing, tail, leg, foot, claw. He weighs them too. This supplies very valuable scientific data. We still don't know very much about the living things surrounding us, including the limits of their sizes and weights.

The male is the one with the all-grey head and back; the female is the brownish one. As you see here, the male is bigger than the female. In our region, this species can only be confused with the Cape Rock Thrush, the male of which has a brown back and a darker grey head. Rock thrushes are found in Africa, Madagascar and Eurasia, with many species quite handsomely coloured. They mostly occur in rocky terrain, but not always. Though called thrushes, they actually are presently thought to belong to the flycatcher family. The shorttoed rock thrush prefers dry, stony, landscape with small trees or shrubs.

Willem

22.04.24 Front Page

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