The Cape Bird Club hosted an outing for the CHS Bird Club to Strandfontein on Saturday 18th February, after a long gap since March last year. Unfortunately, our planned outings in the second and third terms last year had to be cancelled, because of lack of availability of students and a poor sign-up.
At our previous outing (also at Strandfontein), I was particularly concerned because nearly all of the eight students attending were in matric – soon to leave the school! Mr Nick Chadwick (a Geography teacher at the school who has been liaising with the CBC) suggested at the end of last year that a few CBC members attend a Friday Assembly and advertise our outing, plus promote birding generally, in February.
This we did, with Mike Buckham giving an enthusiastic, illustrated talk for ten minutes. He was accompanied by myself and Aadam Abdullah – a past pupil of the school and a very keen birder. Aadam was in Position 5 on the Birding Big Year, out of over 250 participants, at the time and is a well-respected birder in Cape Town, despite his age.
There was a healthy sign-up after Assembly and a new CHS Bird Cub WhatsApp Group was launched, administered by a Grade 10 girl, Linda. However, the response to the invitation to our first outing was rather slow, with some of the leaders, and Nick himself, wondering just two days before the event if it was still worth continuing with it.
I was therefore delighted to arrive fifteen minutes early at our meeting-point at the school, and find Linda was there with two Grade 10 boys who had travelled by public transport. They had both brought binoculars – one had borrowed a pair from his grandfather, and the other had borrowed some from his father’s friend. Things were looking up!
In the meantime, a message appeared on the Birding Big Year WhatsApp Group to say that Aadam, who had gone ahead to Strandfontein, had heard an African Rail calling from P1 at 8.30 a.m. We set off soon after 9 a.m., to meet at the Hub. I took a detour via P1 but, sadly, all was quiet there. We had nine students (seven girls and two boys), between Grade 9 and 10.
Our first stop was between P1 and P2, where Otto was able to add Ruff to his BBY list, and the students enjoyed a clear view of a lone African Spoonbill. There was a good variety of waterbirds. Aadam pointed out a Blue-billed Teal (unfortunately not a good view of it, because of the lighting) and a distant view of Purple Swamphen – probably new birds to all of the schoolchildren.
We continued round the bottom of P2, where we looked at the tern roost. Proceeding to P3 and P4, we added Maccoa Duck, Fulvous Whistling Duck and Little Grebe to our tally. My group enjoyed looking at Faansie Peacock’s bird book to help identify some of these species. By the end of the morning, we had a pleasing 57 species, including Priscilla’s surprising sighting of a Black Crake crossing the road near the Hub!
After 1.5 hours of birding, we stopped at the picnic tables at the Hub where the group enjoyed snacks and discussed the morning’s birding highlights. We talked about other possible venues for future outings – I look forward to more trips in the course of the year with this enthusiastic group of birders!
My thanks go to Priscilla Beeton, Otto Schmidt and Aadam Abdullah for assisting with transport and for leading the different groups. Thanks also to Nick Chadwick and Linda Mutatsh for helping to set up the outing, as it would not have been possible without them.
Photographs by Cathrene Zakheyo and Penny Dichmont.
Report by Penny Dichmont.