Sunday, September 13, 2009

Keeping an Eye on My Patch of Earth

"Wetlands are intrinsically valuable ecosystems that provide many important services to the environment and society. Amongst other functions, they play a critical role in flood attenuation, groundwater recharge and amelioration of water quality and often also have societal and economic value. The contribution of South African wetlands to biodiversity has been internationally recognized through their designation as Ramsar sites (Ramsar, Iran,1971)".

I live with my family on the edge of Rietvlei, a wetlands area in Cape Town, South Africa. Rietvlei is also a bird sanctuary and is home to an amazing variety of birds, some (flamingos) who visit for a few months at a time during their breeding season. I've lived on Rietvlei for eight years now. In a way, I'm it's part-time custodian, like every other land owner along Rietvlei. The same applies to your part of the world. This is our legacy.

My plan with this section of the blog is to keep a layman's account of the impact of global warming on Rietvlei and it's surrounds. In the last 5 years there's been noticable changes in our area in terms of climate and bird-life. If you have a blog that keeps track of climate change on your patch of earth then please share your website/blog details with me.


On a more brighter side, my wife took the above picture earlier today. It shows an orange bishop (bottom) and what looks like a yellowish-green weaver on our birdfeeder in the yard?

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