Above picture: Ngaretta Boshoff holds her painting of an Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross by Kitty Harvill, the MFM Project’s Artist-in-Residence aboard the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage
Ngaretta Boshoff lives in Fourways, Johannesburg. South Africa where she is Head of a Music Department. While aboard BirdLife South Africa’s Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage to Marion Island in January she most generously sponsored the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project with 100 hectares towards ridding the island of its introduced House Mice. Her donation has now been listed in the prestigious “Wandering Albatross Club” category on the MFM Project’s Honour Roll, along with 21 other members.
MFM News got in touch with Ngaretta to learn a little about herself and why she decided to make her sponsorship. She writes “I grew up on a game ranch in Doma, Zimbabwe and have always had a passion for the bush and its wildlife. The very first book that I bought with my pocket money was a copy of Roberts’ Birds of South Africa (now in its seventh edition) at the age of eight years old! It is only in the last few years that I have picked up my childhood interests to learn more about wildlife conservation, the climate crisis and sustainability. Knowing what is happening in the world has sparked a passion to avail myself wherever and whenever possible to help our oceans and their seabirds”.
“Yellow-nosed Delight”, acrylics by Kitty Harvill; after a photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson
Before joining the Flock 2025 voyage, Ngaretta Boshoff attended BirdLife South Africa’s “Flock to Wilderness” AGM in 2023. She adds “listening to the lectures on the wildlife of Marion Island at the AGM and aboard Flock 2025 truly touched my heart. I believe that to save the world we must obtain a balance between the human footprint and the rest of nature.” A sentiment to which the Mouse-Free Marion Project can only agree. The project takes pleasure in marking Ngaretta sponsoring the largest number of hectares on one of the Flock 2025 voyage days by presenting her with an original albatross painting by Kitty Harvill as a mark of our gratitude. On receipt of her painting, she has written to MFM News: “It’s beautiful and I am excited to get it framed. My thanks also to Kitty for donating her awesome artwork.”
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project. 01 July 2025
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An Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross chick close to fledging on its nest on South Africa’s Prince Edward Island; photograph by Bruce Dyer
The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate. For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.
