September and October have been two of the busiest months I’ve ever experienced, and it had nothing to do with a hectic sea-going schedule! In fact I haven’t even been able to get to sea since the end of August, much to my own distress. Back in May I agreed to help organize the Save Our Seabirds (SOS) week. The SOS ‘week’ has since been upgraded to a ‘Festival’ and so plans have grown and grown! The planning and organising was some of the most intense and stressful, yet very exciting hype that I’ve been involved in.
Additionally, my colleague, Bronwyn and I had agreed to help put together a National Education Programme to run across the country in conjunction with Marine and Coastal Managements National Marine Month.
We had to put a broad ranging lesson together, and as Bronwyn had to go to sea I had the very daunting task of coming up with the lesson by myself! Initially I had no idea where to start but I chatted to my sister, who is a school teacher, and she helped me get my thoughts into a lesson plan, phew! So the National Seabird Conservation Education Programme was born.
Once it was complete I showed it to my colleagues who added some great finishing touches and it was then ready to go. Most of the Institutions who received a copy of the lesson have so far been very happy with it, and now I am just waiting to hear from them at the end of the month exactly how it all went. Shoooo! Once the National Seabird Conservation Programme was complete there were many other outings, evenings and birding trips to plan. I was also given the task of organizing two very interesting birding trips to Robben Island (a first of their kind!).
After much stress and duress all was prepared and with some smooth sailing we were off to Robben Island. Both groups were very fortunate to see the two very special birds on the Island; the chukar partridge and the feral peacocks/ peafowls. The SOS Festival is now over and it was a huge success! All who were involved and participated have given wonderful reports. I leave for sea again on Tuesday, for a change and a break from the city life, but I’m already starting to think about the SOS Festival next year which promises to be even bigger and better…!