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The day dawned cloudy and rain threatened, but with very little wind in Cape Town. However, when we arrived at Rooi Els there was a howling gale and very little prospect of
seeing many birds. In fact some turned round and said ‘this is not for us’. Twelve stalwarts however, under the leadership of John Magner pressed on, in what was
described on a previous occasion at this same venue as ‘extreme birding’. We looked for but did not see any activity on the cliffs in the vicinity of the Verreauxs’ Eagle nest,
but a white necked Raven did fly past. As we were blown along the path by the northerly wind we came to a less windy spot and found a pair of Orange Breasted Sunbirds
with two young feeding on a Leucospermum oleifolium in full flower.
Young (left) and Adult male (right) Orange Breasted Sunbird feeding on Leucospermum oleifolium. As we went further the wind abated slightly although a sprinkling of rain was enough to make us cover our cameras and binos, but it soon passed over. A little further on we saw a male Yellow Bishop in breeding plumage, and also a female which differs markedly from the male, being brown in colour and heavily streaked.
Male and..... ......female Yellow Bishop We looked for but couldn’t find any Cape Rockjumpers. However, we did see Cape Sugarbirds and Cape Bunting.
Cape Sugarbird. Cape Bunting. Although it wasn’t a spectacularly successful birding outing, as only 12 species was recorded, we all agreed it was an interesting and stimulating morning, for which we thanked our leader John Magner most warmly, and had hot coffee and sandwiches afterwards. Orange Breasted Sunbirds and Cape Buntings seem to be able to cope with strong winds better than most! Frank Hallett.
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