There were 19 birders and the first excitement was the “Vida ecafe” Spotted Eagle Owls who were in the large tree just as you enter Gate 1, everyone was able to get good sightings of them. We wandered up the main path, enjoying the Southern Double Collared Sunbirds and the Sombre Greenbul who seems to reside in the vegetation on the left of the path. I spotted a female Common Chaffinch, but she didn’t stay around so was not seen by the others. There were some very small Egyptian Geese, we didn’t think there would be as many the next day – they are very vulnerable to the predators in the gardens.
We were treated to a wonderful sighting of an African Harrier Hawk (Gymnogene) who was pulling something from the bark of a small branch. The bird was there for a while and everyone was able to watch it. There were African Olive Pigeons (Rameron) on the Atlas Cedar, which we could see from “The Boomslang”. In the top part of the garden, Myburg Brink showed us one of the other owls, who was roosting low down on quite a small tree. We enjoyed Cape Sugarbirds and one of the group saw an Amethyst Sunbird.
Our total was 30 bird species seen with 2 heard. We had a lovely morning.
Linda Hibbin.
Greg Hudson took the photographs.