Meeting the Birds of Princessvlei
25 April 2014  (part 1).

Celia Wolfe showing her group the Egyptian Goose on the chart.

 

This is a working partnership with the CBC and the Princessvlei Forum.

 

The Cape Bird Club at Princessvlei – Meeting the Birds on 25 April 2014. (Part 1.)

Anne Gray co-ordinated the CBC members Gillian Barnes, Penny Dechmont, Anne MacLeod and Celia Wolfe to lead the groups of children around the south eastern shoreline of Princessvlei.
This was an outdoor school activity for all the schools involved. They had to take notes, take photographs with their cellphones and cameras (this is the new age) to illustrate the school project lessons they had to complete at home and back at school.

Anne Gray handed out the bird charts to the leaders of the groups for the children to use. Anne McCleod gathered her group of Hyde Park Primary children (learners dressed in blue). Penny Dechmont with her group went off ahead. Gillian Barnes, with her group, pointed out the cormorant swimming and diving under the water, and Celia Wolfe was showing her group where the Egyptian Goose is on the chart.

Penny and her group stopped to watch the Egyptian Geese and the White breasted Cormorant in the water. Some having a turn looking through the binoculars. Penny listened to questions from this girl in the photo.

Some of the girls made notes from the bird charts in Anne’s group. Gillian took her group down to the the weir at the outlet of Princessvlei where there could be some other species not seen yet. This outlet flows underground most of the way via the Italy Road canal to Rondevlei nearby.

Celia asked the group to tell her what the name of the birds they had seen on the water by looking at the bird chart.
“Oh no, I got it wrong” she says. “Dont worry” answers Anne, “look here is the Darter on the chart”.

Meantime Anne Gray waited patiently for the Zeekoevlei Primary School children to arrive by bus, the bus driver had got lost in Grassy Park.

Celia pointed out to the group from South Peninsula High (dressed with maroon tops) that these wild vygie plants are indigenous and have many beneficial properties for the habitat, humans, insects, reptiles and birds.
Celia was a school teacher at Bergvliet High School and recalled coming to Princessvlei to plant trees about 20 years ago with her pupils from the School Eco Club.

Anne with the second group waited for some stragglers to catch up. A Hartlaubs Gull was seen flying about. Gillian asked her group if they knew what bird was seen flying across from the other side of the vlei.
Her group had just seen a “lost” Barn Swallow fly past. The group wanted to know where a Barn Swallow comes from?

Penny headed off across the outlet towards the trees near the Jolly Carp to see what could be found in the large gum trees. Seen here in the shade discussing the Sacred Ibis they had seen flying over.
On the slopes across the water are Buitenverwachting, Groot Constantia and Klein Constantia wine estates, these are historic wine farming areas of the Constantia Valley region.

The group had just seen the Cattle Egrets joining the Sacred Ibis nearby. They had also seen the weaver bird nests and wanted to know more about the nests. They also saw what could have been a Hadeda Ibis nest high up in the gum tree. The weaver nests were also discussed.

At the outlet weir was Gillian’s group. They saw the Hadeda Ibis and the Blacksmith Lapwings on the slope behind them. There were a couple of African Pipits as well. This habitat should be good for Cape Longclaw.

Anne’s group crossed the bridge at the outlet and in the background were the distant Helderberg Mountains. They were looking to see if they could see a Cape Wagtail here.

A Marble Leaftoed Gecko was seen on a gum tree, next to a piece of paper stuffed into the branch of the tree.

Celia’s group were working their way along the shore with Devils Peak in the background. A Purple Heron was seen earlier in the day.

Gillian took the Zeekoevlei Primary children on a short walk, as they had to leave early for a fellow pupils funeral. A Pelican was seen to fly in at about mid day.

Teacher Mary Cupido from Zeekoevlei Primary School came to thank Anne Gray for the opportunity that the school children were able to come on todays outing.

The transport for the Zeekoevlei Primary School children to visit Princessvlei was sponsored by Glendower Whisky and Strettons Gin.

Photographs by Gavin Lawson.

 

Gavin Lawson.