My interest in Natural History began at about the age of eleven at the Western Province Preparatory School and progressed from butterflies to snakes and eventually birds. The inception of my birding career was in October 1949 on the Cape Flats (an area now under housing) when I found the nest of an African Waterhen (Moorhen) with  a clutch of eight eggs. I removed on, blew out the contents and stored it in cotton wool in a cigar box.

Starting out as an egg collector was common for small boys in those days, and there can be no doubt that my youthful oological pursuits taught me to observe birds carefully. I was not really  a true egg collector as I took only one egg of each species from a nest, not the entire clutch. On each new egg I would inscribe a reference number in Indian ink and then write meticulous notes describing the nest, clutch, size, egg dimensions and colour, date locality etc. For some obscure reason I chose to record these notes in three colours of ink red, blue and green so that the result was somewhat kaleidoscopic.

These days egg collecting is generally condemned even illegal, but there can be no doubt that tit served to sharpen ones field skills and in view of the high natural predication did little actual harm . In my case, although I continued to collect for many years, photography gradually replaced the egg cabinet. However I still have my notes and in almost all case4s can recall the heart stopping moment when I found the first nest of a particular species.

Readers will wonder at the use of African Waterhen for Moorhen. In those days many of the names in the few bird books that were available were quite different from those in use today.. I began with Leonard Gill's First Guide to South African Birds first published in 1936, but my copy was a 1945 3rd edition. What a gem this little book was, and there were few birds that I was not able to identify from the plates drawn by the author and his sister. It is fitting that the Gill medal awarded for ornithological achievement was named in his honour.

It was only in 1950 that I acquired my first Roberts (a 1948 6th impression). What a treasured acquisition this was and to my mind the original plates by Norman Lighton remain unsurpassed. Granted there were deficiencies  in the coverage of the seabirds, birds of prey and waders, but that early copy served me well.

Some of the names in these early books may strike us as quaint today. Bush Owl (Wood Owl), Cape Coly (Whitebacked Mousebird), Grass Warblers instead of Cisticolas and even the anglicised Bacbakiri for Bokmakierie. To this day I sometimes evince puzzled looks when I inadvertently use one of these archaic names.

Initially I learnt my birds by myself, but in 1950 two events brought a new perspective to my interests. At the age of 13, I began my secondary school career at Bishops where there was a thriving Bird Club, as well as a Photographic Society and I learnt many of my early skills from my peers. The Bird Club had regular outings and members were expected  to present an account of their observations on birds at the evening meetings when we could not find an outside speaker.

The second influence on my birding career was joining the Cape Bird Club as a junior member. Unfortunately I missed being a founder member by a mere two years, but I was privileged to know some of the finest birders in the country at that time. I attended all the evening meetings I could ( in an old zoology block directly across the road from where we presently meet) as well as the outings.

The prominent members of the early Cape Bird Club that I recall were Gerry and Marietta Broekhuysen, Richard Liversidge, Jack and Marjorie Winterbottom, Bertus and Bunty Rowan (daughter of the eminent naturalist S.H Skaife), Stan Clarke, Rudolf Schmidt (who edited the CBC Newsletter from 1958 - 1976), the sisters Joan and Clare Robinson, Fred and Jane Sawkins and the Somerset West contingent of Jack MacLeod, Colingy Murray, Morris Hallack, John and Elsie Martin who regularly came in for meetings.

The Rowans had a special aura about them as they had spent some years on Tristan da Cunha. At one meeting Bunty gave an account of the birds of the islands. I sat enraptured, little thinking that 30 years later I too would visit Tristan and spend some time amongst the albatrosses petrels and penguins on nearby Gough Island. Bunty was the first editor of the CBC newsletter (the forerunner of Promerops) but later she also had distinguished spells on a national level as editor of Bokmakierie and Ostrich.

Those evening meetings were varied and interesting and Gerry Broekhuysen's cine films were a special treat for members. His enthusiasm  was infectious and he probably did more then anyone else to attract members to the Club.

CBC outings went to a variety of localities and even included week end camps at Langebaan to catch and ring waders. A favourite venue was Aldermans Vlei at Faure and in those days Black Korhaans were common there - unthinkable now.

One incident at Aldermans remains vivid. A Cape Robin flew from a bush and I went over and pulled back the foliage to inspect the nest which contained two fresh eggs. Jack MacLeod told me off in no uncertain  terms and averred that my disturbance would cause a certain desertion. In the afternoon we passed that way again and he looked into the nest to confirm my folly, only to find that the robin had laid a third egg! You were lucky was his gruff rejoined but once you knew him he was by no means as awesome as he seemed. Undoubtedly together with the Martins he possessed an uncanny skill for locating nests that was virtually intuitive.

Transport to outings was never a problem for me thanks to the kindness of the Broekhuysens and the Winterbottoms. Gerry was alarming to travel with at times. His early vehicle was a box like black Vauxhall with a sun roof and he had the unnerving habit of popping his head through this opening as he sped across a bridge, while calling out two Whiterumped Swifts, four Greater Stripped Swallows for me to record in his notebook. He was a dedcated keeper of records, especially on migratory species.

But when it came to keeping notes he was eclipsed by Jack Winterbottom  who was always writing something down , interspersed with efforts to light his intractable pipe. Years later in 1960 it was fitting that he became the first Director of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornothology and a little while later Bunty Rowan was appointed as the first Scientific Officer.

During my formative bird watching years I was encouraged by Gerry (whom we called Dr B). My friends and I developed a skill for finding Cape Sugarbirds nests in the thick cover on the slopes below Nursery Buttress at Kirstenbosch. On the way home we would stop to report each new nest (sometimes several in a weekend) and he would arrange a time to come and inspect them  or ask us to measure the nest and eggs dimensions for him and keep a record in progress. We extended this to finding Orangebreasted Sunbirds nests as he was also doing research on this species. We were gratified when our youthful contributions were eventually incorporated into two major momnographs that he published on these species. 

The Cape Sugarbird  was the first species I can claim to have photographed successfully, and the next was the Orangebreasted Sunbird so that I began with two Cape endemics and they retain a special place in my affections to this day. Those early pictures were of course in black and white as colour film was a rarity a and too expensive for schoolboys pocket money anyway. All the developing and printing  of the negatives was done by myself in the dark  room  at Bishops. 

An incident involving Dr B comes to mind. A Spotted Eagle Owl nested on the ledge above the entrance to the Maths block at UCT and one evening while leaning out of the window above the nest to take photographs he inadvertently dropped a flash bulb onto the ledge. Not wanting to disturb the owl he left it there and in the morning it had disappeared. Subsequently when the owl stood up, it was discovered that she had pulled the bulb beneath  her and was incubating it with her eggs. Dr B was ecstatic because Professor Niko Tinbergens behavioural studies at Oxford were current then and he pointed out that the owl was unable to resist the innate urge to brood a round object! Incidentally I also photographed the owl  but in daylight using Kodachrome film I had acquired. It says much for this film that after 46 years the colours have remained as vivid and as unaltered as the day it came back from processing.

Another character who joined the Club during those early years was Archie Brown. He worked at the sewerage works at Athlone (near the Power station cooling towers on the N2) and he arranged permits for us to have access to the ponds.

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It was a paradise for various duck species, Ethiopian Snipes and Blackwinged Stilts. One year we estimated that there were 700 - 800 stilts on the pond and they were breeding everywhere, We found 26 nests with ease one morning and in an hour  3 of us measured 50 eggs.

African Marsh Harriers still occurred then and one pair nested there in a reed bed. Late one evening we saw one of the harriers kill an adult Cape Teal. These afternoon expeditions to the ponds after school always left me somewhat niffy and my mother would always order me to have a bath before I was allowed to have my supper.Sadly that rich birding mecca has long since disappeared under housing, and concentrations of stilts such as we saw belong to a departed era.

Archie Brown was an accomplished nest finder and one of his favourite haunts was in the area of the present sewerage works at Strandfontein. There were very few ponds in those days but plenty of seasonally inundated vleis with restios and a favourite one was called Tamatievlei. African Marsh Harriers bred in the area and each year we would locate several nests but today probably only a couple of pairs still occur. Later Archies twin brother Alf, came onto the scene and proved to every bit as accomplished as his brother at finding nests.

The warden a Rondevlei during the early years was Ernst Middlemiss who tended not to get involved in club affairs. He was a somewhat crusty character with his own firm views but he was always kind to me and I spent many hours at Rondevlei with him. Ernest was editor of Bokmakierie at the time a job he undertook for many years, and in 1954 he selected a picture of mine of a Whitefronted Plover for the front cover. Nothing gave me a mere schoolboy more encouragement than this honour and although Was to achieve a further 36 covers in the ensuing years, that first one remains special in my memory. he continued to encourage my photographic efforts and published many of my pictures often inviting me to rondevlei to take particular photographs for him to use in the magazine.

However despite the thrill of that first cover it was not my earliest contribution. In Bokmakierie vol 3(2) in April 1951 he published Turtle Dove uses Egrets nest by P.B.Steyn Junior member CBC. It was I suppose comparable to the mustard seed of the parable.

Another landmark publication for me was my first Ostrich contribution in vol 23 in 1952. This was the first published description of an African Great (Alpine) Swift nest in Africa and it was Gerry, editor at the time who encouraged me to submit it and who added an interesting footnote. Both these editors did more to encourage my youthful writings than they ever knew.

An early milestone was meeting Nico Myburgh
who farmed Klawervlei at Faure a popular venue for CBC
outings. I soon took to visiting Nico on a regular basis and it was the beginnings of a lifelong friendship. Although he started some years after the established names at the time he soon became one of the foremost bird photographers in Southern Africa and his slide shows have entertained generations of CBC members.

Two highlights stand out in those early years before he sold the farm. The first was a hide at a Secretary Birds nest where I spent long hours watching the comings and goings of the parents. These observations were subsequently published in African Wild Life in 1961. the other was our record of the first breeding of Whiskered Terns in the south western Cape. We watched the small colony that bred on Klawervlei and the record was published in Bokmakaierie in 1960. 

Looking back down the vista of the years one perceives many changes in the avifauna of our area as well as many highlights. During the 1950's my friend Joe Brooks a I regularly visited Mr Martin Melcks farm Kersefontein  on the Berg River to monitor the Yellowbilled Kites that bred there and to ring their chicks. We usually recorded up to six occupied nests, occupied in the trees within a kilometre radius of the farm house. Today the kites no longer breed there. Conversely in 1957 I photographed nesting African Spoonbills at Kersefontein  t he year after this first breeding nucleus was discovered in the south western  Cape. Today  they breed in our area on a wide spread basis.

During the years 1955 – 1961 my friends and I visited the Potberg Cape Vultures at Bredasdorp to keep a record of their numbers and managed to ring a few chicks on the sheer cliffs. It is gratifying that they are still there albeit precariously.

African Fish Eagles bred in the trees on the Strandfontein side of Zeekoevlei  and we kept a record of their productivity from 1953 - 1961. Today sadly they have gone, but the we found breeding in the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve still nest there.

We found a buzzard nest with 3 eggs in a giant stone pine in Constantia in 1960. It was considered indeterminate because Forrest Buzzards were not known to occur this far south in those days but subsequently this first breeding record for the Cape Peninsula has been vindicated.

In 1954 the Black Eagles at Westlake chose a new site on an accessible ledge (if your were good) and we cycled out each weekend to keep a record of the eaglets growth. In those days the Ou Kaapse Weg did not exist  and was merely a foresters track. The beach from the Sunrise Circle parking area to the Zeekoevlei outlet was a remote stretch in the 1950's. In one afternoon I found 5 Whitefronted Plover nests with eggs, something that would no longer be possible with the pressure of all the people on the beach. 

In the early 1950's Blacksmith Plovers were a rarity, now they are common. The same scenario in recent years is taking place with Hadeda Ibises, but I still have to pinch myself to be able to believe they are really here every time I hear that distinctive call.

In 1961 a new ornithological chapter opened in my life when I emigrated to what was then Southern Rhodesia to take up a teaching post. We would usually visit the Cape once a year so I was abler t o keep my ties with the CBC and I also read each issue of the Properops avidly.

In 1977 we returned to the Cape, and I was able to join in the activities of a thriving Club with a membership that would have astounded many  of those early members who are no longer with us, but who left a legacy that lives on as a memorial to them.

(Photographs by Peter Steyn, Richard Liversidge the photo of The Athlone Sewerage Works, 1949)