This is a working relationship with the City of Cape Town and the Cape Bird Club.
Alan Morris started the co-ordinated bird counts in December 1974 and they still continue at Zandvlei.
Zandvlei Upper.
Before sunrise at the Main gate the mist was hanging over the waterways and low laying areas, with no wind and quite cold air temperature. The sky was clear with no visible clouds which eventually turned blue after sunrise. The pond which we can only access from the eastern side was full and over flowing in an easterly direction to wards the main water body. The dense vegetation and reed growth on the western side prevents us from its western side near the Lakeside railway station. Fortunately the pathways which were saturated were almost dry. The northern western shore line is being eroded by wave action when the SE wind blows and the water level is high and we have to walk inland in places forming new pathways. Visually in our section there were very few birds flying or on the water. In past years July is the time for Spoonbills and Little Egrets in their numbers. Today we were not seeing these species in the usual places or numbers.
The Naval Cadets were parading and marching to a band playing music in their grounds. We did not see the Water Thick knees at the Scout Base today.
Zandvlei Lower.
At about 10h00 the water surface of the main waterbody was still like glass mirror which is very unusual at Zandvlei. We saw a couple in a small rubber boat with a trolling motor and later we saw Darren in his boat having completed counting in the Marina canals and returning up the main waterbody. Soon after Chris spotted a Little Bittern at the Yacht basin.
Just south of the Yacht basin there was considerable bird and fish action with cormorants, gulls and egrets in hot pursuit. We saw a couple fishing and he said he could not reach that side of the vlei with his line with a grin on his face.
The sand spit between turn one and two from the estuary mouth was huge and one would almost be able to walk across from bank to bank in this area.
Chris with his long camera lens spotted a Rock Kestrel fly up onto a large house roof on the eastern side of the vlei. The estuary mouth was open and plenty of brown slit laden brown water was flowing under the Royal Road bridge. The Heron and Sacred Ibis roosting and nesting tree had no activity in it today.
Thank you to Darren for counting the Marina canals by boat today.
Zandvlei Westlake Wetlands and Rutter Road Pond.
Water flow was 1 metre per 6 seconds inflow to the main waterbody and quite silt laden, muddy brown in colour with no light penetration.
We saw an otter swimming in the canal where the Black crowned Night Herons now roost.
A pair of Brown throated Martins were seen flying up and down under the railway bridge near last years nesting site. Good to know there are Spurwing Geese to be seen in the wetlands. The Black Duck numbers is probably one of the highest counts ever at Zandvlei. The Marsh Harriers are at Strandfontein by the absence in the usual place in the wetlands for a number of months. The African Purple Swamphen and the Little Bittern were good sightings. These
Also thank you to all the volunteers and staff who assisted with the count today.
Thank you to all the participants today.
Photographs by Gavin Lawson.
Gavin Lawson.
This is Gigi Laidlers list of birds seen today.
Trip: 2025_07_19 Zandvlei CWAC
Date: 2025-07-19 to 2025-07-19
Observations: 40
Species: 40
Species (heard only): 2
Pentad: 3405_1825, Start: 2025-07-19, End: 2025-07-19, Species: 40, Observations: 40
1. Rock Kestrel, 2025-07-19 11:29
2. Red-winged Starling, 2025-07-19 11:25
3. Rock Dove, 2025-07-19 11:11
4. Cape Wagtail, 2025-07-19 11:11
5. Purple Heron, 2025-07-19 11:09
6. Little Bittern, 2025-07-19 10:05
7. Laughing Dove, 2025-07-19 10:05
8. Speckled Pigeon, 2025-07-19 09:43
9. Malachite Kingfisher, 2025-07-19 09:28
10. Great Crested Grebe, 2025-07-19 09:26
11. Red-knobbed Coot, 2025-07-19 09:19
12. Hartlaub’s Gull, 2025-07-19 09:18
13. Kelp Gull, 2025-07-19 09:15
14. Cape Cormorant, 2025-07-19 09:15
15. Reed Cormorant, 2025-07-19 09:15
16. Grey Heron, 2025-07-19 09:14
17. Brown-throated Martin, 2025-07-19 08:58
18. Little Egret, 2025-07-19 08:48
19. Egyptian Goose, 2025-07-19 08:48
20. Little Rush Warbler, 2025-07-19 08:45
21. Yellow-billed Duck, 2025-07-19 08:42
22. Black-crowned Night Heron, 2025-07-19 08:42
23. African Darter, 2025-07-19 08:42
24. African Spoonbill, 2025-07-19 08:38
25. Pied Kingfisher, 2025-07-19 08:38
26. White-backed Mousebird, 2025-07-19 08:37
27. Levaillant’s Cisticola, 2025-07-19 08:36
28. Southern Fiscal, 2025-07-19 08:33
29. Karoo Prinia, 2025-07-19 08:30
30. White-breasted Cormorant, 2025-07-19 08:27
31. Cape Robin-Chat, 2025-07-19 08:24
32. Lesser Swamp Warbler, 2025-07-19 08:21
33. Hadada Ibis, 2025-07-19 08:21
34. Common Moorhen, 2025-07-19 08:20
35. Cape Teal, 2025-07-19 08:20
36. Southern Masked Weaver, 2025-07-19 08:19
37. Common Starling, 2025-07-19 08:12
38. Cape Sparrow, 2025-07-19 08:12
39. Cape Bulbul, 2025-07-19 08:11
40. Red-eyed Dove, 2025-07-19 08:10
Below are the count datas for 19 July 2025.
