The Vaal Bird Club was formed in 1991 as the Vaal Birding Society, and in 2012 changed its name to the Vaal Bird Club.

Shonie Raijmakers, Brent and Cynthia Peacock, and Joggie Pieterse had the vision to start a bird club in Vanderbijlpark and Kobie Raijmakers was involved from the first meeting.

Alison Lydon joined during that same year. Shonie, Kobie, and Alison have now been made honorary members as they have stayed active members since 1991.

The club caters for birders in the Vaal Triangle, and by June 2020 had 66 paid-up members.

Before the lockdown in 2020, meetings were held once a month in Vanderbijlpark with bird talks illustrated by photos.

In 2022 we plan to start with Zoom club meetings. Birding outings are held once a month on a Saturday.

We visit venues such as the Vredefort Dome, Boschenvaal, Ecopark, Suikerbosrand, Marievale, Koppies Dam, and Klipriviersberg.

Weekend outings away are also organised by the club. Wakkerstroom is a favourite venue and the last very successful outing, a week before the Lockdown, was to the Thwane Bush Camp in the Vredefort Dome.

Kobie and Shonie Raijmakers are bird ringers who are regarded as being amongst the best in South Africa, they started ringing in 1984 and are still as committed as when they started.

Since September 2012 the club has been doing water bird (CWAC) counts on the Vaal River twice a year.

This is generously sponsored by Stonehaven on Vaal. We started CWAC counts at Panfontein last year.

The club maintains bird lists for the birding venues visited and a number of the members are active Birdlassers.

The club is an affiliate member of Birdlife South Africa.