Radio presenting is for the birds

If you’re a smoker and wish to kick the habit, go and photograph birds. Gagasi FM radio presenter Gabriel Sithole has discovered he smokes less while doing so.

|||

Durban - If you’re a smoker and wish to kick the habit, go and photograph birds. Gagasi FM radio presenter Gabriel Sithole has discovered he smokes less while doing so.

“It’s the only time I cannot afford to light up because I won’t concentrate as well. And I want to take the pictures, so I smoke less.”

Sithole also finds cigarettes and cameras compete for his hands. He has to hold either one or the other.

He hopes to eventually quit.

Sithole is also hoping that sometime he’ll be able to call himself a professional and sell a bird photo or two.

“But right now a proper bird photographer would probably give me the mark of a half out of 10.”

Sithole’s marks should go up soon, given that he spends so much of his free time trying to get the perfect picture, along with analysing the mind game feathered creatures like a fish eagle at the Bluff Nature Reserve play with him.

“He flies beautifully low over the water but the only problem is he is always in the shade.”

Then, Sithole’s keeping a low profile to ensure that the raptor performs his glorious flight is a challenge in itself.

“Because his vision is so good he’ll pick up that you’re scratching your nose from 500 to 600 metres away.

“So far my best shot I have of him has the sun shining through his feathers.”

Sithole said every time he leaves the hide he’s motivated to “come back and shoot him” the next day.

“He’s the greatest escape artist. I could call him Houdini.”

Cormorants are Sithole’s current favourite, especially when they pose, spreading out their wing feathers to dry them in the sun.

“And they let you come close. They’ll give you the time of day to take the best shot ever.”

He believes the pelicans at Blue Lagoon are bi-polar.

“As big as they are, even when swimming, they’ll look at you and swim away. Then the moment you put your camera away, they’ll fly above you.”

Sithole’s love of birds emanates from his love of all wildlife and his love of travel.

He has lived in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg and always looks out for what the cities offer.

In Durban, especially, birds offer colour to the city.

“The smaller birds are, of course, more challenging to photograph.”

“Growing up in Greytown we saw any bird of prey as “uheshane” and thought it was a hawk or an eagle.”

Now, armed with more knowledge of his feathered friends, Sithole wonders how often he and his childhood friends may have actually seen a hawk, possibly with a story behind it.

“It could have been on its migration, to Tanzania.”

So much to learn, so little time to smoke.

Independent on Saturday