Page 28 - Fourways Gardens December20

Lifestyle

Four years later, another former director publisher, Pippa Parker, produced Sasol revolutionary new facet to bird books –
of the Museum, Austin Roberts, produced Birds of Southern Africa. It had a handy, audible bird calls. Beneath its distribution
Birds of Southern Africa. It was (and still is) plasticised cover for use in the field and maps there is now a barcode which, when
published by the John Voelcker Bird Book Parker corralled three of the country’s scanned by one’s cell phone, reproduces
Trust Fund and it became the standard top professional birders, Ian Sinclair, Phil the bird’s call.
reference for many years. It was a huge Hockey and Warwick Tarboton, to handle
improvement on Gill’s and it introduced the text while Peter Hayman and Norman This is the largest Sasol of all – The Larger
distribution maps, one for each species. Arlott did the illustrations. It was flagged Illustrated Guide to Birds of Southern
as ‘The region’s most comprehensively Africa. It has larger images and updated
But Roberts, even through the 70s and illustrated guide’. distribution maps.
80s, still had all the illustrations bunched
up at the beginning of the book so that, Sasol was a big hit and over the next The book’s text has been compiled by an
once you found the picture, you now had 27 years, three more editions appeared, impressive team: Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey,
to go to another part of the book to find partly made necessary because South Warwick Tarboton, Niall Perrins, Dominic
the details. African bird names were changed to Rollinson and Peter Ryan. The meticulous
comply with international naming illustrations are again by Norman Arlott
Roberts’ popularity took a knock policies – our dikkops, for instance, and Peter Hayman but with additions by
when, in 1983, Macmillan published a became thick-knees – but also because Alan Harris and Faansie Peacock.
guidebook by a former commercial artist of changes in the distribution of many
and amateur birder, Kenneth Newman. species. This new edition has 10% more
Newman’s Birds of Southern Africa entered pages, including an initial 21 pages of
the scene as a proclaimed ‘field guide’ As birding became more and more general information, while the rest of
and, for the first time, included our entire popular in the 21st century, the average its 500 pages illustrates almost 1 000
region from Antarctica to the Zambezi. birder was now using the car as a base species of Southern African birds. These
Newman’s illustrations were big and bold on birding expeditions. The weight of include a handful of species which the
and, importantly, depicted each species bird books was no longer that important. average birder is unlikely to see because
opposite its text. Just as well, for now we have the bulkiest they have seldom strayed into our region.
field book of all – the fifth edition of Sasol. Even the peacock features, for it has
Then came ‘Sasol’ when Struik Nature’s It’s a 1,2kg blockbuster and introduces a become feral in parts.

First Field Guide Take the fan-shaped oyster
to Mushrooms of mushroom which has a ‘delicious
Southern Africa delicate flavour’ and can be added
raw to salads or to soups and stews.
What sounds best of all, is to “toss
Here’s a colourful and very unusual pieces in seasoned flour then dip
little stocking-filler for Christmas. them in beaten egg, sprinkle with
It’s a delightfully innovative hand- bread crumbs and deep fry until
sized book (57 glossy pages) whose light brown”.
title hides its major attraction.
There could be a cluster of them
Despite the abundance of wild living off a rotting tree stump near
mushrooms in South Africa, most you . . .
people I know are too scared to
pick them and cook them but they And how about ‘pine ring
might change their minds after mushrooms’ that grow among the
thumbing through this little book. roots of pine trees and are easy
to identify “and pleasant when
It recalled for me a dish I had in a crumbed and fried with onion or
local restaurant and have sought added to scrambled egg.”
ever since – in vain. Now I know
how, not only to make it, but to find The book makes it very clear how
the mushrooms – for nothing. to recognise edible and inedible
mushrooms as well as poisonous
Bearing in mind that a quarter of ones.
South African households regularly
cook wild mushrooms, maybe it’s To think, all this time, all these free
time we tuned in. meals I’ve been missing!

Fourways Gardens • 26 • December 2020