‘The Bird Calendar’ as it is affectionately known throughout our country and much further afield too may have become just another victim of modern technology.
The proliferation of smart phones, watches and other wonder toys that include time and date info, combined with financial considerations brought about by the effects of Covid-19 may have deprived a great many birders of their beloved desk calendar now that AECI Limited has made the decision to suspend production of its legendary Bird Calendar, at least for 2021.
Highly prized and long regarded as a desirable collector’s item, the calendar became synonymous with the AECI name during its 80-year lifetime. Due to reduced print runs in the 21st century it has become something of a rara avis among ornithologists and others who simply “like the birds”.
But how many enthusiasts know that ‘The Bird Calendar’ was first produced in tandem with Roberts’ Birds of South Africa (using the original illustrations by Norman C K Lighton) and first saw the light of day six months before the first edition of that august tome?
AECI’s involvement goes back to 1935 when one of the company’s directors, Mr John Voelcker, an avid naturalist, started the South African Bird Book Fund after having identified the need for a comprehensive handbook on the country’s avifauna. The startup of the fund was given a sound financial footing when Mr Voelcker leaned on friends, associates and colleagues in the mining industry to assist the project. Dr Austin Roberts of the Transvaal...
