BirdLife South Africa held its annual Owl Awards in Cape Town on Thursday, 17 September, the first time the ceremony has been hosted in the Mother City. With an office in Cape Town and a substantial conservation footprint and birding community across the Western Cape, it was time to bring this celebration here! 

This is a significant year for BirdLife South Africa, marking 30 years since the Southern African Ornithological Society joined the BirdLife Partnership, the global network of organisations working to conserve birds, their habitats and biodiversity, becoming BirdLife South Africa. That step broadened the organisation’s focus from studying and researching birds to actively conserving them and the habitats they depend on. Three decades on, our conservation work and our influence have both grown considerably, and none of it has been achieved alone. Partners, donors, supporters, staff, volunteers and collaborators have all made it possible, and the Owl Awards exist to recognise those who have gone well beyond what was asked of them. 

Selecting recipients is never straightforward. The Owl Awards Committee considers nominations from across the country each year, and narrowing the field to 12 is a difficult task. 

With an address by and assistance from our Chairperson, Yvonne Pennington, Hanneline Smit-Robinson, Head of Conservation, announced the Owl Award recipients; Zoë Lunau-Jones, herself an Owlet Award recipient in 2024, announced the Owlet Award; and Anton Wolfaardt, Mouse-Free Marion Project Manager, announced the Eagle-Owl Awards. 

Owl Awards 

• David Weaver, for his sustained work on South Africa’s grasslands and his exceptional contribution to the conservation of the Critically Endangered Botha’s Lark, including rediscovering a population during the 2025 Botha’s Lark Atlas Bash after more than six years without any records. 

• Freya Brett, who has served on the Somerset West Bird Club committee since 1998 and has given decades to environmental education in the Helderberg, including the Eco-Schools Programme and WESSA. 

• Themba Mthembu, one of our most accomplished Accredited (Community) Bird Guides, whose guiding in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park region and mentorship of guides across northern KwaZulu-Natal have shaped careers and communities alike. 

• S.H. Gumede Primary School, which joined our Environmental Education Programme in 2025 and has already become an ambassador for conservation within the Nibela community. 

• Cliff Dorse, Head of Biodiversity Management for the City of Cape Town, for his work securing protected areas, three decades of pelagic guiding and his contributions to the Southern African Bird Atlas Project. 

• Dr Andrew Skowno, who led the National Biodiversity Assessment at SANBI and chaired the committee that completed South Africa’s terrestrial Key Biodiversity Area network in 2024. 

• Jane Trembath, Chairperson of the Korsman Conservancy since 2014, for her leadership at Korsman Bird Sanctuary in Benoni. 

• Denise Landau, for her work on the Mouse-Free Marion Project’s Fundraising Committee, including the fiscal sponsorship arrangement that has channelled more than US$1.3 million into the project. 

• FreeMe Wildlife, received by CEO Wade Whitehead, for a decade of bird rescue, rehabilitation and research, including the coordinated rescue of more than 2 000 Amur Falcons in 2019. 

Owlet Award 

• Mya Zeelie, the seven-year-old star of “Mya in Wild Land”, whose curiosity and storytelling, accompanied by her parents Chanyn-Lee and Conrad Zeelie, have encouraged thousands of children and adults to get outdoors. 

Eagle-Owl Awards 

• Professor Lorien Pichegru, for her research on African Penguin foraging ecology and her leadership in marine conservation governance. 

• Pippa Parker, for four decades in natural history publishing, latterly as Publisher of Struik Nature, and for her long support of BirdLife South Africa. 

Our congratulations and thanks to all 12 recipients. 

Read the 2026 Award recipients’ citations to learn more about their remarkable contributions to conservation.

Not pictured: Andrew Skowno, Denise Landau, and Freya Brett.