For many of our citizen scientists, the month of July has meant early wake-ups, cold winter mornings and plenty of kilometres along South Africa’s back roads. Whether counting birds from a vehicle along a Coordinated Avifaunal Roadcounts (CAR) route or scanning wetlands during a Coordinated Waterbird Counts (CWAC) census, hundreds of participants once again gave up their time to help us keep track of some of the country’s most important bird populations.
To everyone who took part in the Winter 2026 CAR and CWAC, thank you!
Winter fieldwork is not glamorous. Some teams headed out into decidedly chilly conditions, while others spent their days navigating dusty farm roads, stopping repeatedly to scan distant fields or carefully working their way through flocks of waterbirds. We hope that, despite the cold fingers and dusty vehicles, the birds played their part and provided a few memorable sightings along the way.
This winter’s CAR weekend of 24–26 July coincided with the national Crane Census. Across the country, observers were therefore keeping a particularly close eye out for South Africa’s three crane species. The information collected during these coordinated counts will contribute to a better understanding of crane numbers and their distribution across South Africa, adding another important layer of information to our long-term monitoring efforts.
That is ultimately what makes these citizen science projects so valuable. A single morning’s count may seem like a small contribution, but when observations from hundreds of routes, wetlands and observers are combined – and repeated season after season and year after year – they build datasets capable of revealing changes that would otherwise be extremely difficult to detect.
The counting may be finished for now, but there is still more to come. We are working towards publishing the next CAR and CWAC newsletter within the next month or so, bringing together results, stories and highlights from the winter counts.
And that is where we need your help once again. If something interesting, amusing or unexpected happened during your count, we would like to hear about it. We would also welcome photographs from your survey – of the birds you encountered, the landscapes you travelled through, your survey team in action, or simply a moment that captures what a morning of citizen science in the field is all about.
The Summer 2027 CAR survey will take place over the last weekend of January, and the CWAC census throughout January and February of the new year, so mark your calendars now!
Thank you again to everyone who counted, drove, navigated, identified, photographed, recorded and submitted data this winter. These projects continue because of the people willing to get out there and do the counting.
