Reconnect with Nature

Aasvogelkrans is great for birders with 116 species documented on the farm to date by the owners. However, we have an exciting new addition to our checklist: Birdlife South Africa have combined landowner and citizen science data with the South African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2) and eBird (through Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library) to produce a checklist of 219 species!

There are lots of birding sites on our farm. We have several pairs of Verreaux (Black) Eagles and other raptors on the cliffs. We have larks and pipits in the grasslands, four different species of kingfishers, egrets, ducks and coots on the dams, and a resident Spotted Eagle-Owl. Kristin Davis has birded since 1995 and seen over 450 birds in South Africa. She curates the farm bird list and uses iNaturalist and eBird to report birds and other species.

Aasvogelkrans is a Karoo Vulture Safe Zone and is part of the Great Karoo Wilderness, an initiative of private landowners and conservation organisations for sustainable management of the Karoo landscape.

We are members of Birdlife South Africa and listed with their GoBirding site. See here the Central Karoo/Nieu Bethesda webpage. Birdlife lists Verreaux’s Eagle, Blue and Northern Black Korhaans, Ludwigs’s and Kori Bustards as key species for the area. The area also has several threatened and endemic species. Birdlife’s checklist of 280 birds for the larger area can be downloaded here.