Ken Borland

 

The Vaal River area is famous for its many wedding venues but the variety of habitats makes for good birding and some secretive species are hiding out along the banks and in the general area known as the Vredefort Dome.

Amongst the birds passing through are the nomadic widowfinches – little seed-eating birds also known as Indigobirds that spend the winter in large flocks.

But come summer and the males wander far and wide and are conspicuous in their almost-glossy blue-black plumage as they sing from elevated call-sites. They move all over the eastern half of Southern Africa and the Highveld, and the Vaal River region is just the sort of area in which they would pop up.

And so it was in early February that I saw both Black Widowfinch, along the Venterskroon Road, and Steelblue Widowfinch at Vaal de Sioleh, one of the wedding venues that offers good birding along the river.

The riverine vegetation holds plenty of Redeyed Dove and Southern Masked Weaver, while Natal Francolin skulk around the thicker undergrowth and Redbilled Woodhoopoes pass noisily through. Bokmakierie also occasionally flies through in a burst of colour.

The river itself hosts African Darter, Reed Cormorant, Whitebreasted Cormorant, Cattle Egret, Yellowbilled Duck, Giant Kingfisher, Whitethroated Swallow, Southern Red Bishop, Greater Striped Swallow, Blackheaded Heron, Great White Egret and Egyptian Goose.

There is still a lot of natural bush along the Venterskroon Road and, coupled with all the rocky outcrops, this leads to good species diversity. Swainson’s Francolin, Whitebrowed Sparrow Weaver, Spotted Flycatcher, Redbilled Quelea, Redeyed and Blackeyed Bulbuls, Rufousnaped Lark, Sacred Ibis, Cinnamonbreasted Rock Bunting, Whitewinged Widow, Blackthroated Canary, Chestnutvented Tit Babbler and Amur Falcon were all seen from the road, while a Longcrested Eagle, imperiously perched on a telephone pole surveying all below him, was an interesting visitor from it’s moister preferred habitat.

The most interesting sighting of the day, however, was the Scimitar Oryx, an antelope that is extinct in the wild (since 2000). Endemic to North Africa, it is now part of an extensive global breeding program and I was fortunate enough to see half-a-dozen of them on a farm adjoining the Venterskroon Road.

They are adapted to extreme heat and semi-desert conditions, and can go long periods without water (their kidneys prevent water loss through urination), so 29° and thorn scrub must have felt quite luxurious for them. Interestingly, there is speculation that the legend of the unicorn comes from seeing a Scimitar Oryx with one horn …

 

Sightings list

Redeyed Dove

Helmeted Guineafowl

African Darter

Reed Cormorant

Redbilled Woodhoopoe

House Sparrow

Crowned Plover

Springbok

Southern Masked Weaver

Whitebreasted Cormorant

Cattle Egret

Natal Francolin

Swainson’s Francolin

Laughing Dove

Common Myna

Glossy Starling

Fiscal Shrike

Whitebrowed Sparrow Weaver

Black Widowfinch

Spotted Flycatcher

Redbilled Quelea

Redeyed Bulbul

Rufousnaped Lark

Sacred Ibis

Cinnamonbreasted Rock Bunting

Ground Squirrel

Whitewinged Widow

Blackthroated Canary

Scimitar Oryx

Chestnutvented Tit Babbler

Amur Falcon

Blackeyed Bulbul

Stonechat

European Swallow

Warthog

Longcrested Eagle

Hadeda Ibis

Cape White-Eye

Yellowbilled Duck

Giant Kingfisher

Whitethroated Swallow

Southern Red Bishop

Greater Striped Swallow

Steelblue Widowfinch

Blackheaded Heron

Little Swift

Bokmakierie

Great White Egret

Egyptian Goose

Blacksmith Plover

 

 

Just four months ago, the Blue Bulls Rugby Union was in a sorry state with Frans Ludeke about to be axed as coach, the SuperRugby side ending a miserable campaign with a humiliating loss at home to the Cheetahs, and the players, management and administrators all pulling in different directions.

The atmosphere at Loftus Versfeld was so bad and so stuck in its ways that I called them dinosaurs in this same column.

But since then, there has been rapid evolution and their fortunes have soared with new coach Nollis Marais taking them to a home semi-final in the Currie Cup, playing a fresh, invigorating brand of rugby that has brought the crowds back to Loftus Versfeld, and giving much of the young talent that was being unused and growing frustrated the chance to shine.

Marais has already received his reward in that he has been confirmed as the SuperRugby coach and he has been given a four-year contract, an incredible sign of faith from a Bulls board that has never been known for its willingness to take a chance.

But CEO Barend van Graan said the sight of families returning in droves to Loftus Versfeld made it an easy decision.

“We can see how the tide has turned the last few weeks and attendances have been double what they were compared to last year, nearly the same as for SuperRugby games. Not many applicants reached the standards we require and it was not a difficult decision, Nollis had the inside track because of what has happened in the Currie Cup.

“Our expectations are high, if not I’m sure we would have only given him a one or two-year contract. But we have a lot of confidence in Nollis and he now has the opportunity to build for the next four years. He’s already brought through a number of young, excellent players,” Van Graan said.

While Marais has thoroughly updated the Bulls’ style of play, credit must also go to Van Graan and his board for realising that they need to adapt as well. The CEO said the BBRU would need to adjust their strategies.

“There are decreasing White numbers in our area, the whole demographic of Pretoria is changing dramatically. There are eight PSL teams in Gauteng, plus one each in North-West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, so this is a soccer region. The average crowd for a PSL game is 5000.

“Twenty-eight percent of the Blue Bulls’ support comes from the Eastern Cape and 98% of that is Black, most of whom don’t have pay-TV at home. So we have to revise our strategy and penetrate new markets. In the last five years, we have seen a decline of more than 70% on the number of tickets sold at the ground. People just buy tickets on the internet now and they’re no longer buying season tickets,” Van Graan pointed out.

The Bulls have earned a reputation for being aggressive recruiters of junior players, but their showcase teams have also suffered due to a revolving door of players leaving or losing their contracts.

“Since 2011, we have lost 57 players, a lot of them to the Euro, Yen and British Pound. But things are cyclical in a team sport, you have to let guys go, but perhaps we released too many players, in hindsight. The last six or seven SA U21 captains have come from here, but our Currie Cup side will be even younger next year so we need to be smart in our recruiting. We need to fast-track talent, but only five percent of the schools in our region play rugby,” Van Graan said.

Marais has given the Bulls a new lease of life on the field and credit should also be given to Van Graan and the board for identifying the new direction the BBRU has to take. If they continue along this path, there’s no reason why the Bulls shouldn’t in time become the most powerful union in the country again.

 

 

 

Nollis Marais was confirmed as the Bulls’ SuperRugby coach for the next four years over the weekend and he said he will continue with the enterprising new style of rugby he has introduced in the Currie Cup and which has taken the Blue Bulls to the brink of a home semi-final.

“Of course we will need to be more accurate in SuperRugby, but we’ll have more time to prepare than we did for the Currie Cup. We will change one or two things in the three months we have pre-season and there’s still a lot of improvement needed,” Marais said.

“It’s a huge surprise to be appointed because I only applied on the second-last day, but I’d like to thank my captain [Lappies Labuschagne] and the support of the fans and players because their backing is what got me appointed. I know there will be a lot of challenges and we have a lot to improve on for SuperRugby,” the 43-year-old said.

Bulls CEO Barend van Graan described Marais as “fearless” and a “straightshooter” who has “turned the tide at Loftus Versfeld”.

“He knows the players and understands them and they have adapted very well to his coaching style. The board and I have got a lot of faith in Nollis and that’s why we have given him a four-year contract. It gives him the opportunity to build,” Van Graan said.

Even though the Blue Bulls will go into the final round of league play in the Currie Cup with a firm hold on second place, four points ahead of Western Province, after their 48-27 win over the Eastern Province Kings at Loftus Versfeld, the match showed the improvement that is still needed by the young side if they are to be a force in Super Rugby.

The Kings went into half-time with a 20-17 lead having dominated the gain-line and been slick with ball-in-hand as they probed both the near and wide channels. The Bulls managed to up the intensity to produce an impressive second-half display, but the ability to play an 80-minute game still eludes them.

“The first half was a bit lacklustre, we made mistakes and they capitalised, and we only started to get momentum in the second half. The pattern needs to suit the players and we needed to play less expansively because we lost Deon Stegmann before the game and Jacques du Plessis had to move from lock to flank, when we wanted to play a quick game. We had to stick to playing the ball closer and not going wide and the best thing was the improvement in the driving maul. We put them under pressure with it in the second half and it paid off for us,” Marais said.

 

It has been a summer season dominated by English golfers but it could change at the Africa Open that starts at East London Golf Club on Thursday with the South African contingent eager to maintain their stranglehold on the title.

The Africa Open started in 2008 and it has had a South African winner on every occasion – Shaun Norris, Retief Goosen, Louis Oosthuizen (twice), Charl Schwartzel, Darren Fichardt and Thomas Aiken – and, with locals winning just two of the last six co-sanctioned Sunshine Tour/European Tour events, it is a record they are eager to maintain in the Eastern Cape.

It has been Andy Sullivan who has struck the biggest blows to South African dominance at home as the Englishman has claimed back-to-back titles at the SA and Joburg Opens, and he is one of the favourites at East London Golf Club.

Sullivan is the highest-ranked golfer in the field at 58^th in the world and victory in the Africa Open would lift him into the top-50, ahead of the cut-off for Masters qualification on April 2.

Full preview – http://citizen.co.za/338039/africa-open-a-preview/