PASHions
PASHions will highlight what ASH Clinical News
readers do creatively outside of practice. If you
have a creative skill in the arts you’d like to
share with ACN, we invite you to submit your
work. Whether it’s photography, essays, poetry,
or paintings, we want to provide an outlet for
creative pursuits. Please send your submission to
[email protected].
In this issue, Jacques Malherbe, MD, talks about
bird-watching – the thrill of the chase and the
agony of the “bogey-bird.” Dr. Malherbe is a clinical
hematologist and head of the clinical hematology
division in the department of internal medicine at
Universitas Hospital, University of the Free State,
in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Birding in Namakwaland during flower season.
Where the Birds Are:
Jacques Malherbe, MD
When did you become interested in birdwatching? What drew you to it?
I was interested in birds, and nature in general, at an early age. As a child, I loved paging
through the Southern African bird field guide,
marveling at the incredible variety of birds. I
would dream about seeing some of the more
exotic, restricted-range birds. However, it
wasn’t until many years later, while studying medicine, that I started bird-watching in
earnest.
During a vacation in 2000, my thengirlfriend (now-wife) and I visited St. Lucia, a
particularly bird-rich coastal nature reserve.
The latest publication of a well-known Southern African bird guide caught my eye in the
reserve shop, and I decided to buy it. During the
rest of the holiday I was consumed with trying
to identify as many of the bird species in the
area as possible, and so started a passion that
gradually grew over the ensuing years.
Although she did not initially share my passion, my wife was also eventually drawn into
the hobby – posing a few bumps along the way.
I distinctly remember one of our biggest fallouts was during a subsequent holiday when
she got fed-up with having to wake up every
day at 5:00 a.m. to go bird-watching.
There are so many different aspects of
bird-watching that draw me to it. There’s the
thrill of see