Farewell to the Waders, West Coast National Park.

 

On the 22 March 2026 was the annual “Farewell the Waders” outing, my personal favourite CBC outing. After leaving the house at around 05h10, we picked up Amy, her mom and Max on the way up the coast. We had a clear target for the day – or rather, two targets. We’d heard about the Broad-billed Sandpiper and the Lesser Crested Tern in the park, and were aiming for them.
There was a lot of animated birding discussion on the way up, which seemed to greatly shorten the time it took to arrive at Geelbek. As we were turning into the road to Geelbek, Max spotted a bird which was new for my West Coast National Park list – an African Hoopoe! By the time we arrived at the meeting spot, we had 35 species on our list.

During Uncle Mel’s usual introductory talk, we received the very sad news that this would be his last time leading the outing! It came as a big blow to me, as I’d always enjoyed learning about the birds of the area from Uncle Mel’s experiences, and hearing the news made me even more determined to make this one special.
Due to unusual tides, we were given an hour of free time before the outing officially started, and so my mom, Max and I headed straight to Abrahamskraal after we heard that an African Rail had been sighted there not half an hour before. Although we managed to add twelve birds to our list, including a lovely Long-billed Crombec, we dipped on the Rail, and headed back to Geelbek to meet up with the group.
African Rail, seen at Abrahamskraal at 14h00. A rail was spotted by Justin there in the morning, before the outing, and again in the afternoon.
I was surprised to hear, upon arrival, that an African Rail had just been spotted along the walk to the hide! Max and I immediately headed down the boardwalk to look for it, while my mom waited for the other two members of our party. When we reached the group of people standing on the boardwalk, the first words that left our mouths were, naturally, “Can anyone see the Rail?” Although no-one could spot it at first, luckily for us, someone managed to get it. I remember Aunty Penny phoning me and saying, “We’re looking at a Rail here!” and me answering, “We are too!” before walking straight into her!
Max and I managed to both get it as a lifer – for me #508. We anxiously waited for my mom to arrive, as she was only three birds from 500, and this would put her up to 498. It had dipped out of view by the time she arrived, but luckily I managed to find it again promptly, and so the three of us all got it.

We then went down to the crowded hide, where we spent the next few hours looking for the Broad-billed Sandpiper and Terek Sandpipers. Uncle Mel was the only one to see the latter, while the former did a vanishing act and never showed up. There were still lots of great sightings, however, such as an African Marsh Harrier flyby, lots of Curlew Sandpipers, Grey Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones and even a pair of South African Shelducks.

Around lunchtime people started leaving and, eventually, after a farewell of our own to Uncle Mel, Uncle Simon and Uncle Sarel, we also left and headed up to Seeberg to wait for the tide to go down, so that we could look for the Lesser Crested Tern. A surprising turn of events was when I realised that we still hadn’t got Kelp Gull on our lists! Eventually we managed to get a flyover of one for our 71st species.

At this point I realised that there was a problem. Amy, the fourth member of our party, and the one with the least lifers in the car, still hadn’t got a lifer that day! She’d seen the Rail at the Rondevlei outing in February, and so it hadn’t been a lifer. I made it my mission for the rest of the trip to get her more lifers than I got (after all, it would be strange for the person with over 500 to get more lifers than the person at 325).

We started off the lifer count for Amy almost immediately with a Eurasian Curlew at an incredible distance, which was also one of the highlights of my trip as this was the first time I’d seen one on a Farewell to the Waders outing. After a lot more waiting and shivering in the freezing wind, we managed to get a few Bar-tailed Godwits. This was a lifer for Amy. We also got the only rarity of the trip, the Eurasian Oystercatcher, in full breeding plumage.

We managed to snag Little Tern at 4 o’clock and then hung around until 5 o’clock, looking for the Lesser Crested, but eventually decided to dip on it. I was still pretty satisfied with myself, getting a long-time bogey bird (the African Rail), and not being embarrassed by getting more lifers than Amy.

As we headed out, we managed to add six more birds to our list, including Black Harrier and Helmeted Guineafowl, ending on 87 species for the day. We had a lot of fun on the way home, and I also had a little reflection on the day. It was a really great day, an awesome outing, and it made me hungry to go birding again. As I sat in the car, laughing my head off at a joke, I realised that I had learned something special that day – birding isn’t always about seeing all your targets; it’s about having fun with your friends and gaining nuggets of wisdom from those more experienced than you. This year’s Farewell to the Waders wasn’t just another ordinary outing for me, it helped me to truly understand birding as it is supposed to be.

I’d also just like to thank Uncle Mel so much for all the little pearls of wisdom he would drop during the outing each year. The next leader of the outing will have big shoes to fill!

Photographs by Zachariah Kaspersen, Leigh Johnson, Sasha Ella, Stephen Judge and Justin Hawthorne.

Report by Zachariah Kaspersen (14 years).

 

Farewell thPhotographs by Zachariah Kaspersen, Leigh Johnson, Sasha Ella, Stephen Judge and Justin Hawthorne.e Waders – Farewell Mel.

The turn-out for this outing this year was overwhelming. A testament to the popularity of this outing, and the interest in waders… or perhaps the leader, as was suggested by one member?
In excess of 40 members and non-members turned up, but I made no official count and no doubt someone can trump up with an accurate figure.
The Geelbek hide was bursting at the seams with several birders resorting to peering through the gaps in the shade cloth along the boardwalk and a few cautious members voiced that the hide might sink!

Even so, everyone managed a front seat at some point in the morning. What struck me was the wonderful camaraderie.
Lily (Liling), a member who hails from China came with a few other Chinese friends, and in conversation with Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, a professor of paleontology, who recently gave the club a wonderful talk on Living Dinosaurs, discovered that they had a common connection from Anusuya’s work on prehistoric bird fossils that she did in China several years ago.
On a personal note, Pippa Haarhoff, the manager of the Fossil Park at Langebaan was also there. I hadn’t seen Pippa in many-a-year and recalling our time together on The Club’s Conservation Committee and her portfolio running the Junior Bird Club, took us back to the early 1990s.

At some point I was asked how many of these outings I had led, but had no immediate recall, but later a flick through my archived Promerops showed starting in 2013. Before that, Vernon Head was leading them, so every year since 2013 makes it thirteen years.

I did voice on the day to a few members that this would be my swan song, my last in leading this outing.
So, here formally I announce it publicly… Farewell the Waders – Farewell Mel.

Many thanks for all the memories.

Photograph by Mel Tripp.

Report by Mel Tripp.