09 October 2013 – John Graham Primary School and Princessvlei Scout group requested Shaun Overmeyer to give them a talk about birds of Princessvlei after hearing about the previous presentation at the Jolly Carp hall in September 2013.
Anne Gray (CBC) contacted me to find out if I would be willing to do a talk at John Graham Primary School. The Science Club teacher Ebrahim Abrahams was told about the talk I presented at Princessvlei a few weeks prior and made contact with CBC to have a bird talk to the Science Club at his school in Plumstead.
I went along on the afternoon of 09 October 2013 and was met by Mr. Abrahams who is very enthusiastic about environmental issues and has a particular interest in having the children learn about birds. There were about 20 children who sat in on the talk. It as very well received and the interaction with them was good.
Anne Gray arranged a for birding material donations from BirdLife South Africa which included the Tarboton fold out guides, laminated Rondevlei Bird ID pamphlets and a brand new copy of the Roberts 6 to be handed to them.
They were really excited about this and could not stop thanking me for the donation. I am sure that it will be put to good use.
I got a telephone call from Mr. Abrahams 2 weeks later to tell me that during the school vacation he is going to help some of the children who have expressed an interest in setting up a MyBirdPatch at the school. He also asked if I would mind giving three of the girls some help as they want to prepare a presentation of their own for the school assembly.
Mr. Abrahams also asked that I present a talk to the Scouts at Princessvlei on the coming weekend.
I went along to Princessvlei where the Scout outing was being held. Mr Abrahams arranged that a bird identification challenge be part of the day’s events. The presentation was delivered to approximately 50 Scouts. The conditions were testing, so the PowerPoint had to be brief. I purchased 15 Bird ID sheets from Rondevlei and handed them out to the Scouts. I worked through some of the ID challenges of the birds they were likely to find at Princessvlei. Again the children were enthusiastic and some surprised me by taking copious notes whilst I was doing the presentation.
A big thank you goes to Mr. Ebrahim Abrahams for his leadership and encouragement to these young people and I look forward to working with him in future.