Graeme Leslie proudly holds his club’s 26-ha Certificate of Appreciation

MFM News recently contacted Chris Macdonald, Chair of the Dolphin Coast Bird Club, to find out what motivated his club to sponsor 26 hectares for the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project, as reflected on the project website’s Honour Roll.  Their total sponsorship to date is made up of 6 ha in 2023, followed by 10 ha donated this year. That 10 ha was matched during the project’s World Albatross Day “Double your Donation” campaign in July.  The club, based along the north coastline of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), is affiliated to BirdLife South Africa; its online presence is hosted on the website of Birdlife eThekwini KZN.  The club’s newsletter’s most recent issue, for June 2025, carries a special report by BirdLife South Africa Golden Bird Patron Brian Roberts on the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage and the MFM Project.

Chris replies that the Dolphin Coast Bird Club was inaugurated in April 2000 by a group of local birders lead by Howard Balcomb with Bing and Heather Comrie, Clive and Margie Green, Campbell and Anne Smith, Beryl Brown and Shelley Hedges along with a few others. Shelley is still a very active member.  “We have about 60 family members who represent over 100 birders.  It was done this way to make the birding family inclusive.”

He continues “The club has an impressive 488 bird species list all recorded by members in KZN.  It has always encouraged the engagement of speakers to enhance members’ knowledge of birds and their environments.  We have joined forces with the Simbithi Eco-estate and Country Club and its environmental group in Ballito to present our talks in a professional manner.  This has allowed the club to access an income stream which is used to support BirdLife South Africa, including its MFM Project.  We allocate the funds from member suggestions at our AGM.  About three years ago Dael Stoyakovic suggested the Mouse-Free Marion Project.  And we now support them each year.”

Chris Macdonald, Chair of the Dolphin Coast Bird Club

Chris Macdonald notes that part of the club’s rationale has been the depletion of seabirds on the KZN north coast over the time that the club has been in existence.  “At the turn of the century, CWAC (Coordinated Waterbird Counts) surveys at the Umvoti River mouth would record up to 50 species including thousands of roosting terns.  This is no longer the case.  The decline is reflected at other CWAC sites such as Durban Harbour.”

The logo of the Dolphin Coast Bird Club is illustrated with a Green Coucal or Green Malkoha Ceuthmochares australis, an Afrotropical species whose range extends into KwaZulu-Natal

The Dolphin Coast Bird Club is one of the “top five” South African-based bird clubs that have sponsored the most hectares toward the MFM Project, totalling 202 ha between them, as reflected on the MFM Project Honour Roll.  Most, but not all, bird clubs in the country have made sponsorships, several more than once.  The MFM Project looks forward to receiving more sponsorships from the nation’s bird clubs, motivated by their members who have both a love of, and a concern for, the threatened seabirds of Marion Island.

With thanks to Graeme Leslie, Treasurer, Chris Macdonald, Chair and Bruce Stephenson, Newsletter Editor, Dolphin Coast Bird Club.

Reference:

Roberts, B. 2025.  Special Report.  Flock to Marion: a voyage for seabird conservation.  Dolphin Coast Bird Club Newsletter 4 pp.

John Cooper. News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 30 September 2025

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Grey-headed Albatross on Marion Island, Prismacolor pencil by Joyce Hartmann, of Artists and Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the MFM Project, after a photograph by Kim Stevens

The Mouse-Free Marion 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.