by KBergReserve

Talk Report – Aug 2018

Thunberg and Sparrman: Eighteenth Century Botanical Explorers to the Cape - By Andrea Benn (22 July 2018) On the evening of 22 July 2018, John Rourke took a group of interested members through a talk he had previously offered at the UCT Summer School on two 'apostles' of Carl Linnaeus, the famed Professor of Medicine and Botany at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, in the early 1800s. Linnaeus himself never travelled outside of Europe and thus relied on his 'apostles' to discover thousands of species of plant across the globe. Two of these explorers were Carl Peter…
read more
by KBergReserve

Talk Report – July 2018

1. Sky Islands: An illustrated talk - By David Gwynne-Evans (19 May 2018) When first hearing of the title of David’s talk one might imagine planets or constellations, but no, this talk was about Mountain Peaks that emerge through the clouds forming islands in the sky. A beautiful example is Tretchikoff’s  painting, “Valley of a Thousand Hills”, depicting mountain peaks peeking through the cloud mass. David, who admitted to a fear of heights, has climbed into the island archipelagos  of Kenya, Tanzania, the Drakensberg, the Canary and Cape Verde islands. He has plans to visit…
read more
by KBergReserve

Talk Report – May 2018

Planting a seed: Life as an environmental educator – By Sheraine van Wyk, Whale Coast Conservation Manager (21 April 2018) After her talk and applause there was quiet as we digested all that Sheraine and her team do. Then followed  questions, and many of them. Sheraine leads a small team within the Whale Coast Conservation (WCC) NGO (see  http://whalecoastconservation.org.za/). Small in funding and numbers, it was an eye-opener to discover what this NGO does at schools and home schools with the help of adult volunteers.  Their motto, ‘Respect and Protect’, operates in four areas: Advocacy…
read more
by KBergReserve

Talk Report – April2018

Namibia - Prime birding in magnificent and varied habitats – By Otto Schmidt (17 May 2018) From Vioolsdrif one crosses the Orange River. Canoeists paddle serenely past on a gently flowing river as one enters Namibia.  It’s a good place to visit as it’s not too far and the Namibian dollar is the same as our Rand.  It’s a land of such varied landscape, 67% the size of South Africa but with 87% of the bird species. Otto and his wife Sandy have visited Namibia several times – a favourite destination.  The Reserves have become…
read more
by KBergReserve

TALK REPORT  

South Africa at the 2017 RHS Chelsea Flower Show David Davidson 16 September 2017 By Andrea Benn Despite protest marches, road blockages, forecasts of inclement weather and a possibility that we may have to cancel the talk, David’s presentation attracted a good crowd. His stories about Chelsea 2017 were informative, his photos were inspiring, and the humour he brings into his Chelsea experiences had us laughing on several occasions. He has the ability to make the two-week long Chelsea experience come alive. During the pre show setting up week a tiny aperture in the stretched…
read more
by KBergReserve

TALK REPORT

Ants of Southern Africa - Andrea Benn Referring several times to his new book” Ants of Southern Africa – The Ant Book for all”, Peter Slingsby introduced his presentation by answering the question “Why ants?”! Peter, a naturalist at heart, with interests in plants, animals and even the tiny creatures, found that there was no book recently published on the subject. From early years he had kept his own Ant menagerie under the stairs at home. At 15 he was given a small book ‘The Study of Ants’ by Dr S H Skaife who had…
read more
by KBergReserve

TALK REPORT: APRIL 2017

-Andrea Benn Co-existing with wildfire - A presentation by Ryan Heydenrych and Dean Harrison, Directors of Vulcan Wildfire Management: Saturday 22 April 2017 This talk was an excellent, informative presentation. The day after the talk I did a walk around Betty`s Bay with this question in my mind, ‘Were we ready for a wildfire this summer?’ Within 100 metres of our home were three properties heavily infested with large alien invasive species! Since the last fire we have tried as far as possible to reduce the fuel load on our property, but there is more…
read more
by KBergReserve

SEPTEMBER TALK REPORT

- Andrea Benn Saturday 17 September: Dr Peter Ryan, ornithologist, on “Oceans of plastic - impacts, sources and solutions to plastic pollution in marine ecosystems”. Plastic, plastic, plastic! Why do we use it? Because it’s versatile (soft plastic bags to hard kitchenware), cheap, lightweight, and has a very long lifespan. Have you ever thought that the plastic that was first produced is still around? Peter Ryan, our guest speaker for the September talk at Harold Porter Gardens, is based at the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute at UCT. With several publications to his name, his original interest…
read more
by KBergReserve

AUGUST TALK REPORT

- Andrea Benn Saturday 20 August: Dr Chris Whitehouse – A complete guide to pokers It was on a Scottish Island that Chris as a young boy began his interest in plants. This led him to South Africa where he is now a world authority on Kniphofias or Red Hot Pokers. Incidentally, his wife Anna has a PhD in elephant studies. They enjoy walking in the Klein River mountains. Of the asphodelaceae/liliaceae family the genus kniphofia has about 70 species from mountainous or upland areas in southern and tropical Africa. The flowers are attractive to…
read more