This is a voluntary working relationship with the City of Cape Town and the Cape Bird Club since 1978.
Celebrating a combined 25 years voluntary community service at Zandvlei for two members of the hacking team on their retirement today.
The weather was a perfect winter afternoon, sunny, blue skies, no clouds. The air temperature was cool with a slight breeze from the SW.
Today was a significant day as 2 of our stalwarts are retiring. Robin who has turned 90 years old decided there are other more important things he needs to do with the energy he has left.
Barry is lingering with a lack of energy due to illness.
So today we are celebrating their combined voluntary community service of 25 years hacking at Zandvlei. Barry started hacking at the Zandvlei Nature Reserve in May and Robin in June 2012 respectively.
Both are still very keen and interested in the natural environment. Robin together with his wife Patricia started and finished a 2 part herbarium for Zandvlei. This took over 15 years to complete, which involved collecting specimens of all the indigenous local plant species and then pressing them in a scientific method aided by a number of academic and expert botanists in Cape Town. This involves identifying them against the reference library herbarium at UCT. Then mounting and labelling them to the known and practised scientific methods. Robin and Pat both do not come from scientific backgrounds and learned all this after retirement as volunteers. They have identified over 440 species at Zandvlei. One herbarium the master copy was kept at UCT and went up in flames when the Zoology dept. burnt in the massive fires which swept through UCT in April 2021. The other herbarium is at the Nature Reserve offices, but not kept in ideal conditions. The herbarium needs to be in a secure room temperature and humidity controlled, and insect proofed with strict control of the handling of the documents. There is a annual cleaning process which is required to keep it in good condition as it is all organic matter. The paper is special acid free paper and there is a register of all the contents and its upkeep.
They have both trained many students at Zandvlei, Rondevlei and Zeekoevlei Nature Reserve staff members over the years to identify the various species in the field.
Barry continues to lead a U3A group hiking around the Peninsula, he monitors the fishing activities near where he lives which is part of the Reserve. Also the illegal activities if and when they occur in the neighbourhood. Barry has a very good general knowledge about the natural environment. Both he and Robin are very knowledgeable about the animal, bird, fish and insect life of the area, as well.
The sea scouts and the naval cadets were active today practising sailing and rowing their boats. There were 3 fishermen on the western shore trying their luck.
We carried on in the area where we left off last month and on the way there Robin showed us a young Cape dune mole rat which was probably killed by dogs as it had blood on the underside of its head. There are a number of plant species starting to blossom which seems a little early this year. The pond we pass is full and starting to over flow eastwards towards the main waterbody and the ground is saturated in the area to ankle deep in places. There were no birds in there accept Cape Weavers in the reeds.
The Port Jackson shrubs and trees are starting to generate flower heads which turn to seed pods. We should be able to get rid of them before the seeds set.
We do need additional help now. It is surprising how much just an extra pair of hands can make. We got quite a lot done this afternoon.
We found a Cape Lappet Moth caterpillar in the Port Jackson a favourite of theirs. Also saw a honey bee with great big orange pollen sacks on its legs collected from the Chasmanthe (Cobra Lily) flowers.
Just as we were leaving the area Robin was showing answering some questions for Jacob and Bert, and I over heard him telling them that there are over 2400 indigenous plant species been identified just on the Peninsula.
We saw 17 species of birds today with the Cape Robin Chat found dead and still warm next to my car with blood on its beak and the road, which was sad to see.
We finished hacking smartly at 16h00 as we were going to Robins house to have a little get together and Pat had baked a whole lot of goodies to eat and there was wine for those who wanted it to cheer and celebrate the occasion. We did leave before sun set after the thank yous and good wishes.
Thank you Robin and Barry for all your dedicated consistent work over the years.
The next generation and possibly those who have not had a turn, need to come forward and help the Nature Reserve staff to maintain the Reserve for future generations to enjoy. They can not do it with the staff compliment and budgets allocated to their dept.
It is only 2 hours of your time on 1 Saturday afternoon in the month.
See this link for the past reports of what we have done.
photographs by Gavin Lawson.
Gavin Lawson.
