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PLETTENBERG BAY: Remembering the 2017 fires - While hundreds of Plettenberg Bay and Knysna residents lost their homes during the June 2017 fires, the smaller creatures in these communities also lost not only their homes but also their source of food.

Thousands of birds were left destitute along the Garden Route, so to speak, but thanks to the generosity of locals and a few businesses, these fire victims are starting to bounce back.

And by helping the flying residents of these two coastal holiday towns, many lives had also been touched.

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In total, the fires wiped out about 18 000ha of forest and fynbos and therefore Plett resident Rozanne Fleet decided to spearhead an initiative to lend a helping hand to the birds.

Influx of birds
“I noticed a huge influx of birds in my parent’s garden, fighting over the feeders and consuming far more food than usual. I thought that we could encourage people to feed the hungry birds that had obviously moved into the unburnt areas and were now competing for food. But in the wake of such a disaster, where people had lost everything, how do you ask them to go and buy something as seemingly trivial as a bird feeder?” Fleet says.

She started off by contacting as many companies as possible, but the response was “rather dismal” until one individual, Elaine Reed from Birding and Wildlife Products in Pretoria, decided to help.

“She initially said that she had 85 feeders… As the enormity of the disaster sank in, Elaine’s generosity grew and I think she ended up sending us well over 400 feeders, 100 nectar bottles, nesting boxes and a mountain of suet. This later inspired donations from other amazing individuals which allowed us to purchase more feeders and additional food.”

Overwhelming response
Thanks to Spartan Trucks the donations were brought to the Garden Route. “We then appealed to people on Facebook to become ‘feeder guardians’ and remain committed to keeping the feeders stocked and birds fed, using The Computer Shop Plett and Knysna as distribution points. 

"The response was quite overwhelming with so many people wanting to help our littlest fire victims. People who had lost everything came to collect feeders knowing that the birds had lost their homes too.”

Fleet adds that for about four months they fed “unimaginable” numbers of birds – at times up to 15 litres of nectar a day per garden. “Our guardians were all inundated with hungry birds and we were battling to keep up, so we also facilitated additional donations of fruit, sugar, seed, mealworms and even nesting bags of feathers to help the birds as breeding season arrived.”

Healing while feeding
With the giving, Fleet says, came immeasurable joy. “The most wonderful part was the amount of joy that the birds were bringing people during a dark and difficult time. They gave people a reason to get up in the morning and realise that there is in fact life after the fires… We received messages from people saying that they’d been battling with depression after the fires and the birds had brought them back to life.”

She says they suddenly had a community filled with compassion and besotted with birds. “People had so many questions wanting to know more about them and how to best take care of them. I had no previous knowledge of birds and thankfully Dr Mark Brown from Nature’s Valley Trust, a well-respected ornithologist, was willing to assist. He has been unbelievably supportive and a huge help, offering valuable knowledge and advice whenever we needed it.”

Back to nature
Fleet says that after a few months and some good rain, nature started to recover. By mid-spring they started noticing regrowth and spring flowers started to bloom. The demand for food started to decrease as the birds returned to nature.

Brown noticed the awareness that the initiative’s Facebook page had been generating and decided to join as admin as the page transitioned from Garden Route Bird Relief to a more long-term page for birds.

The page now offers a fresh approach to birds and gives advice and knowledge – backed up by science and research.

“We aim to make people more aware of the birds that share the beautiful Garden Route with us, highlight how to responsibly feed and enjoy them in our gardens, as well as raise awareness about the need to conserve and look after our birds and the environment in which they live.”

Find out more
For more information follow the initiative on Facebook at GardenRouteBirds.

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