Knowledgeable birder, Duncan McKenzie, visits Marloth Park
Well-known birder, Duncan Mckenzie, introduced birding as a hugely popular, important and growing international hobby to curious Marloth Park attendees at Giraffe Pub and Grill on April 9.
Duncan McKenzie is a consulting terrestrial ecologist based in Mbombela and has been involved in biodiversity assessments for various developments for the last 15 years in multiple countries.
Using relevant photographs, he, as a representative of Birdlife SA, introduced the beauty of birding to 80 attendees at the Marloth Park Honorary Rangers fundraising event.
The interest of birding brings tourists to birding-rich environments like the Lowveld’s Kruger Park and Marloth Park.
“It was one of our monthly educational fundraisers. We are an organisation of volunteers and must raise all our own funding for our conservation-related projects, such as alien clearing, veld rehabilitation and our restore our veld by-law campaign that aims to get property owners to know and understand the conservation-related by-laws of Marloth Park,” said Judy Norton from the fundraising team.
McKenzie previously worked as a regional coordinator for the Mondi Wetlands Project and has lectured on many aspects of conservation across South Africa.
He is currently the Mpumalanga regional coordinator for the South African Bird Atlas Project, the Mpumalanga regional reviewer for eBird, has formerly served on the KZN Bird Rarities Committee, is lead author of The Birds of Mbombela, and is lead author on the Wildflowers of the Kruger National Park and the Roberts Birds of the Kruger National Park projects.
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McKenzie is a certificated natural scientist and is also on the committee of BirdLife Lowveld. According to Honorary Ranger’s fundraiser’s Rose Muldoon, great feedback about the event was given by the attendees.
Marloth Park Honorary Rangers is an active group of volunteers that falls under Nkomazi Municipality, but has a special mission to preserve the flora and fauna of Marloth Park.
