This is a voluntary working relationship with the City of Cape Town and the Cape Bird Club since 1978.
Today Cape Town sweltered in the mid to high 30 degree C temperatures with little to no wind. This morning was similar and thank goodness a breeze from the SE was blowing to help keep us cool, when we had arrived. The sky was blue with the odd small clouds near the mountains. The first pond is almost dry as seen in the photo. There were a few Scout sailing boats using the SE wind to effect practising their craft.
So we are back at the Promenade Road site where a number of Port Jackson, Rooikrans and Brazilian Pepper trees and shrubs have taken hold from the seed stock from many years gone by. Bert, Barry and I got stuck in. Bert remembered to bring his large axe today.
The visible insect life has reduced from last month, see the photos of the paper wasp which was low down in a Port Jackson shrub. Also seen was a small pale grey coloured grasshopper. We saw an African Monarch butterfly circling around the area we were working.
The Scouts were out in yachts in the light breeze and the Naval cadets were busy with their training at the base. There were a number of fishermen seen trying their luck, the ones spoken to had not caught anything yet.
There were more birds seen flying around today than last month. A total of 11 species seen.
The estuary mouth was closed. The salinity levels are very high right back into the Rutter Road pond where Barry reports a few fishermen have caught smaller Leervis (Garrick) during the weeks.
We do need some younger volunteers for this job, so if any of you out there are interested in helping you are assisting the Nature Reserve staff who cant cover all the bases they are responsible for. Contact me if you are interested.
See this link for the past reports of what we have done.
photographs by Gavin Lawson.
Gavin Lawson.
