| There are many different habitats along the Nyalazi river bank and immediate
surrounds, and each type of habitat will need to have a hide suitable for that
habitat. This will not be accomplished over night, however a few Hides in prime
locations which are booked out on a regular basis will inject interest of bird watchers
and the local population alike.
Each hide will need to have some kind of register where visitors will be
expected to leave some comment and list the birds they actually recognized. This
register will be used to build up a data base of birds within the region which
will be
available on the internet
.
Visitors who have digital cameras will be
encouraged to down load their pictures and write them to CD at the Mtubatuba
Elephant Coast Info Center, or any other info center within the area, where all bookings will
be processed and managed. This will give us the opportunity to create a
large pool of pictures which we will be able to use in our marketing and
advertising campaigns.
|
Bird hides are quite easily established almost anywhere, especially if they
are built to accommodate only one person at a time. The hides we envisage will
be a little more sophisticated and will cater for up to six persons at a time.
The maximum number of birders will however be limited to four persons at a time,
with the other two spaces being reserved for a guide and a local resident who may
be able to pass along some indigenous knowledge about the birds feeding habits, courtship
rituals, territorial behavior or other behavior. The reasoning behind such small
numbers is that larger groups tend to be more noisy and less controllable, and
besides birding is supposed to be intimate and relaxed.
If any kind of meals or drinks are to be supplied at these hides they will be
expected to have ablution facilities in
the close proximity. These ablution facilities will need to be relatively up
market, as the majority of the expected clients, or visitors to our hides
will come from the middle to upper segment of the world population. |
