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IRENE WAS THE NAME given to a choice piece of Transvaal highveld in 1889 by its new owner, A.H. Nellmapius.  It contained a stream that became a river after heavy rains; shaded by weeping willows, combretum and white stinkwood trees, the stream meandered slowly westwards, at first through a valley filled with thorn trees and rocky outcrops and then with fruit trees and ploughed lands and finally through wide fertile grasslands that delighted the owner's eye. 

The one thousand, one hundred and twenty-five hectare farm lay between Johannesburg and Pretoria.  Within a year Nellmapius had trebled its size, adding the higher grasslands and hills on the eastern and southern sides and calling it the Irene Estate.

In 1902 J.A. van der Byl, then part-owner of the Estate, created the Irene Village near the heart of the farm.  By 1960 the population of the tree-covered village had risen to about a thousand, and four years later it became absorbed into the municipality of Lyttleton, which rapidly expanded and became Verwoerdburg in 1967.  Several years later, Verwoerdburg's boundaries were again enlarged and the entire area of the original Irene Estate became part of it. 

Verwoerdburg's population is now lapping the 40 000 mark.  New townships are being proclaimed, and the waving grasslands of the Estate have already suffered alarmingly from the apparently insatiable urban sprawl between the nation's capital city and its most densely populated commercial giant.

As the human invasion spread over the land, the larger forms of wildlife sadly, inexorably disappeared from the scene.  The elephant and sable antelope for example that roamed over the Irene veld during the first half of the last century have gone forever.

Even blesbuck can now be seen only in private reserves in and near Irene, and today you are fortunate if you catch a glimpse of a lone duiker, jackal or porcupine in the veld. 

The proud Secretary Bird is a rarity and so are South Africa's National Birds, the graceful Blue Cranes, and the great White Storks of Europe and Asia that used to arrive here in November in their hundreds.  At the turn of the century vultures, now very seldom seen, were common and in 1903 over two hundred were recorded feeding on the carcasses of sheep killed by the lightning near the station.  The large Kori and Stanley Bustards (the Gompou and Veldpou in Afrikaans) have vanished.

The White-bellied, dark-winged Storks from North Africa still come each summer, but in dwindling numbers.  How often have I watched and envied them, high up in the old gum trees on the farm at dusk.  Etched against the sky like wise men in black frock coats, they possess so little and yet look so content.  Slaves only to the seasons, they spiral up into the sky in early autumn and set off on a course, defined centuries ago by their ancestors, northwards into the continent. 

The smaller birds are holding their own.  Indeed it is doubtful if the Cape Turtle Doves and Laughing Doves have ever been more numerous.  Red-eyed Turtle-Doves, the Emerald-Spotted Wood Doves and the Rock Pigeons and Burchell's Coucals enjoy the farm and the village, and their songs are always suggestive of languor and tropical Africa. 

Three migratory cuckoos, the "Piet-my-vrou" Red-crested Cuckoo, the Black Cuckoo and the smaller, lustrous green-and-white Diederick Cuckoo fly down in summer from Central Africa and, hidden in some high, leafy bower, disturb the peace with their distinctive, repetitive calls.

The ubiquitous African Hoopoe comes and goes and always adds colour and interest to the gardens.  Its cousin, the Red-billed Hoopoe, is a notable resident; its Afrikaans name of "Kakelaar" well describes its loud chatter as it scrambles around in small groups examining the trunks and branches of trees for food.

The Cape Wagtail, another garden favourite, appears to be making at least a temporary comeback after the banning of some of the more dangerous pesticides.  Garden birds that are still numerous are the Waxbills, Mousebirds, Sparrows, White-eyes and Bulbuls, the gargling Crested and duet-singing Black-collared Barbets, the Cape Robins, Cape Thrushes and Bokmakieries.  Less numerous are the Red-breasted Wrynecks, Groundscraper Thrushes and Drongos.  The "Butcher-Bird" Fiscal Shrike is quite common.  The other shrikes at Irene are the Crimson-breasted and the Boubou, both more attractive than the Fiscal:  neither preys on other birds; the Crimson is sometimes seen in the veld near the river and the Boubou usually near bushes or investigating kitchens. 

Along the river the Paradise Flycatchers, the Cormorants and Darters, the Kingfishers, the Warblers, the Hamerkops and the Bishop Birds survive.  Among the Kingfishers the four varieties most often seen are the Woodland, the Malachite, the Brown-hooded and the Giant; and the Sakabula Widow-Bird dragging its long, heavy black tail ponderously from stalk to stalk is still very much in evidence.

The exquisite European Bee-eaters arrive each year in summer from Southern Europe and Asia.  They are a glorious sight, circling high in the air, calling to each other as they catch their prey, their plumage radiant in the late afternoon sun. 

Just as lovely to watch, though less colourfully feathered, are the swallows and the swifts, dipping low and at great speed.  At Irene the most common swallows appear to be the White-throated variety, that makes a half-bowl nest of mud pellets on walls, the Larger- and the Lesser-striped with their long nest entrances (also made of mud) and the European Swallow, which does not breed in South Africa.

Pied and Black Crows can be seen and heard but they are not common, probably because of their unpopularity among farmers; that they have survived at all is a tribute to their wariness and cunning.

We have at least three varieties of Starling, the Cape Glossy, the Pied and the Plum-coloured.  The latter is a rare summer migrant to Irene and the rich plum-coloured throat, head and wings and the white body of the male bird make him most attractive.  The Cape Glossy and Pied Starlings are local residents and fairly common.

Among the Owls, we have the Marsh, the Giant Eagle, the Spotted Eagle, and the Barn varieties.  It is the Marsh Owl that flies silently round its haunts on the farm at sunset.  The farm is also the home of the Ant-eating Chat, several types of Lark and of the Crowned Plover (Kiewietjie).  The latter's cousins, the Wattled and Blacksmith Plovers, frequent the irrigated fields along the river, where the Grey Heron and the Cattle Egret keep them company.  At night the plaintive cries of the large plover-like Dikkops and the mournful notes of the small Buff-spotted Flufftail can now and then be heard.

An unusual sight on the farm was an exceptionally large swarm of Black-winged Pratincoles that settled on an infestation of army worm in the veld east of the railway line in 1959.  A few specimens were collected by staff members of the Transvaal Museum - an easy task as the birds had gorged themselves to such an extent they could hardly fly. 

Summer migrants to Southern Africa from Europe and Asia and normally seen in swarms or flocks, this memorable visit was the last recorded one in which quantities of these plover-like birds with long wings and short legs actually settled on the ground at Irene for any length of time - since then they have been seen flying over Irene in fair numbers, but not in large swarms and neither resting in trees or feeding on the ground.

Sacred Ibis and their raucous relatives the Hadeda thrive on the farm and with their long curved bills are constantly probing for food in the lush green camps where the cows have been grazing.

Birds of prey are well represented, probably because of the plantations of tall trees that provide good nesting sites.  Wahlberg's Eagle, the Black Sparrowhawk, Lanner Falcon and Buzzard are all known to us, and the Banded Harrier Hawk, the Little-banded Goshawk and the Black-shouldered Kite are regular visitors. 

On the open veld the Black Korhaan remains, guarding its territory as always with its characteristic "cracker, cracker" cry and helicopter flight, while the less conspicuous female crouches quietly by its almost invisible egg laid directly on the bare brown earth.

In the arable lands and along the river the guinea-fowl and francolin are plentiful, and the little quail is sometimes flushed from its cover and whirrs away to safety.  With the Maria van Riebeeck Nature Reserve and Rietvlei Dam nearby, the survival of Spurwing and Eqyptian Geese seems assured, and great skeins of them have been seen flying over Irene an hour before sunset in winter to feed in the mealie-lands beyond.

A few Egyptian Geese, Black Duck, Yellow-bill and Whitefaced Duck, Red-bill Teal, Moorhens and Coot live on the river and dams and are known to have bred successfully. 

It is good to hear from ornithologists that they have recently listed approximately 300 species of birds within a seven kilometre radius of Irene station - a substantial increase over the 170 recorded in 1906.