Bhejane Nature Training: Birding Field Trip with Paul Jossop
Our students recently enjoyed a highly educational birding day out in the St Lucia section of the Isimangaliso Wetland Park, where they recorded numerous species in a variety of habitats.
Highly diverse, St Lucia offers some of the best sightings of birds in coastal, estuary, grassland and forest habitats, making it ideal for training purposes.
Paul Jossop was a Bhejane Nature Training student some 13 years ago, and was on the first advanced course we ever ran.
Now a renowned birding guide who works all over South Africa and further into Africa, Paul helps us out with training and lectures.
During the birding field trip to St Lucia, Paul showed the students how to use spotting sights to catch the various birds in their different habitats, and they were rewarded with some incredible sightings, including African Finfoot and Green Twinspots.
With the abundance of wildlife in South Africa, our birdlife is often overlooked, including by prospective nature guides.
But a knowledge of birds, their habitats and their behaviour is crucial for guides, as birding tours have, in recent years, become very popular.
There has been a surge of birders since the Covid-related lockdown when people had time on their hands to sit in their gardens – they started noticing and taking an interest in birds, and now they want industry professionals to teach them more.
At Bhejane we have always gone above and beyond, and offered fully-comprehensive nature guiding courses that train guides up to be knowledgeable about our whole ecosystem.
We keep to our mandate of providing only the best training for guides coming through our ranks, by making sure birding is covered in both our long and short courses. Students on the Bhejane Advanced Nature Guiding and Wildlife Conservation Course spend time each year, exploring some of Southern Africa’s most exciting birding hotspots.
The Regional Birding Specialist Course is a specialist short course that can be done on its own or completed as one of the modules on the longer career courses.
Posted on: 3 March, 2023 by the Bhejane Tribe