Kathleen Ross (right) and husband Dirk van Zijl celebrate on the stern of the MSC Musica on the Flock to Marion 2025 voyage, selfie image

Dr Kathleen Ross is a Specialist Geriatrician based in Cape Town, South Africa.  A keen birder, she took part in the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage on the MSC Musica in January this year with her husband, Dr Dirk van Zijl, a Specialist Anaesthesiologist.  While aboard they sponsored seven hectares between them, as recorded on the Honour Roll of the Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project.  She writes to MFM News: “My husband and I love being part of the bigger picture.  We love birding and were really touched by the Southern Ocean seabirds we saw; it was a privilege to see them in their home environment.  I am proud that the MFM Project is a South African initiative supported by an amazing organisation such as BirdLife South Africa.”

Salvin’s Prion Pachyptila salvini, linocut and acrylic by Kathleen Ross, after a photograph by Dirk van Zijl in the southern Indian Ocean

Kathleen is also an enthusiastic amateur artist.  Inspired by photographs taken aboard the MSC Musica by Dirk, she produced two linocuts of a Salvin’s Prion and of a Pintado Petrel that were offered for sale in a biennial Community Art Exhibition during 25-26 July 2025.  Both species breed on Marion Island in small numbers, where they are at risk to the island’s mice.  The exhibition was organised by her art teacher Peter Hyslop and was held in the St Thomas Anglican Church in Cape Town’s southern suburb of Rondebosch.  Advertised in support of the MFM Project, Kathleen sold her Salvin’s Prion artwork, donating a sum of R637 to help eradicate Marion Island’s albatross-killing mice (after 15% of the sale went to the church to help cover its expenses and upkeep).

Inspiration for the artworks: a Pintado Petrel and a Salvin’s Prion fly together in the southern Indian Ocean, January 2025, photograph by Dirk van Zijl

Kathleen has kindly donated her unsold artwork of a Pintado Petrel to the MFM Project.  On Saturday 6 September, the Project will display the picture on its stand at the annual BirdLife South Africa Bird Fair in the Water Sisulu National Botanical Garden in Pretoria, Gauteng Province.  With a reserve price set as equivalent to sponsoring a single hectare at R1000, it will form part of an online auction being run by BirdLife South Africa. The auction will go live on 1 September and will close at 18h00 on the day of the fair.  Have a look and put in your bid!

Pintado Petrel Daption capense, linocut and acrylic by Kathleen Ross, after a photograph by Dirk van Zijl in the southern Indian Ocean

Kathleen, a BirdLife South Africa Conservation League Donor, writes that her loves are birding, wildlife, the great outdoors, her family and being a South African.  She adds she wants to help to make the change that will save the birds of Marion Island.  The MFM Project team can only agree; having supporters like Kathleen Ross is what keeps us going as we work towards a mouse-free Marion Island.

John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 27 August 2025

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Eight Wandering Albatrosses gather off Marion Island, January 2025, photograph by Laurie Smaglick Johnson

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.