Grootvadersbosch Nature Reserve

Our third Family Camp, held at Grootvadersbosch on the long weekend of 22 – 25 September 2017, proved to be a most enjoyable experience – for the children, their parents and those Cape Bird Club members running the programme. There were 34 participants – 32 in 8 cottages and one couple at the campsite. The ages of the 14 children ranged from 7 to 16 years. The aim of these camps is to gather together younger families with children and to give them a taste of birding and Cape Bird Club activities. Families are not necessarily already members of the Cape Bird Club; we welcome any families showing an interest.

We arrived in the rain on Friday and left in the rain on Monday – but the two days inbetween were dry – Saturday, a sparkling day with sunny blue skies and Sunday, although overcast, not actually raining

The camp started rather later than anticipated because families were caught up in the exceptionally heavy traffic leaving Cape Town for the long weekend soon after lunch and then were slowed down even further by heavy rain as they neared Swellendam and Grootvadersbosch. Supper was eaten in participants’ cabins, after which all walked across to the hall in the as yet incomplete educational facility which the Cape Nature staff kindly let us use. After introductions – to one another and to the programme, every child received a CBC cap and a camp booklet (drawn up by Loraine Codd) filled with information and puzzles and also bird-lists. Andrew Codd’s short and humorous presentation, ably assisted by daughter Samantha (changing slides) and son Marc (providing sound effects), was an introduction to some of the special birds we were hoping to encounter during the weekend. Participants were introduced to the camp challenges for the weekend: A photographic competition and the inter-cabin word puzzle competitions.   Both children and adults were encouraged to take photographs which could be of anything seen or done over the weekend.  For the birding-related word puzzle competitions on both Saturday (wuzzles) and Sunday (crossword puzzle) families were encouraged to work together and a prize would be awarded to the first-drawn correct entry on both Saturday and Sunday evenings.

On Saturday morning we gathered before 7h00 and split into 2 groups. One group set off with Brian Vanderwalt and Andrew and Heather Hodgson leading, to explore the forest close to the cabins. The other group drove to the entrance gate to the reserve, parked the cars and then walked down in to the forest area to follow the BushBuck Trail. I was with this latter group and we were lucky to have with us Gillian Barnes, Andrew Codd and quite a few of the parents who turned out to be knowledgeable birders. One image which stays with me as we moved down the steep path towards the forest was of four Greater Double-collared Sunbirds in one tree highlighted in the rays of the sun.  Before even entering the forest we had seen Fiscal Flycatcher, Sombre Greenbul, Cape Canary, Red-eyed and Cape Turtle Doves, both White-rumped and Little Swifts, Cape White-eyes, Red-winged Starlings, and Bar-throated Apalis. In the forest itself the confiding and inquisitive African Dusky Flycatchers abounded, watching us as much as we were watching them! A great sighting was had by most of the group of a Grey Cuckooshrike. Other birds we saw in the forest included Cape Robin-Chats and Olive Thrushes.  We all were very excited to hear a tap-tap-tapping and then to locate an Olive Woodpecker.  An African Goshawk was seen flying rapidly away from us across the valley.  After a short tea-break at the little stream at the bottom of the valley (where we heard but did not see Narina Trogon), we moved through the magnificent stand of historic Redwoods.  It is difficult to imagine that the Redwoods in the US are 4 times as tall as these ones at Grootvadersbos!  Terrestrial Brownbuls in the leaves on the forest floor got us all excited. We heard the ‘Piet-my-vrou’ call of the Red-chested Cuckoo (but could not see it). We spotted a group of Swee Waxbills as we emerged from the forest.  While gathering breath after the uphill slog, we identified flying overhead African Black Swifts, Black Sawwings and Greater Striped Swallows. On the way back to the cars we saw Fork-tailed Drongos in the camping site.

When we regrouped at the cabins it was to learn that Brian’s group had had just as successful a morning with their highlight bird being Knysna Woodpecker. They had also spotted buck on the forest edges near the cabins. Other wildlife seen included baboons and monkeys.

After lunch and “free time”(some of the children had their bicycles and the bigger boys kept themselves entertained during “free time” playing soccer), there were voluntary craft activities – making seed bird feeders from recycled materials (organised by Priscilla Beeton) and also making plaster casts of baboon footprints (organised by Brian Vanderwalt). Mid-afternoon we all gathered again so that Andrew and Heather Hodgson could explain about Geocaching, an outdoor treasure hunting game which uses GPS-enabled mobile phones. Participants have to navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache container hidden at that location. Families had to work out the coded clues to locate the two geocaches in the reserve and then all worked together to locate them: one was found at the entrance gate to the Reserve and the other at the foot of the tall tower bird hide. It was a lot of fun, and having been introduced to it, some families may well go on to become regular game players. Before returning to the cabins a large flock of Red-winged Starlings was seen flying overhead.  An exciting observation along a wide green pathway was a small group of Red-necked Spurfowl.

Supper around the braai fire saw parents getting to know one another better and the children running around playing hide-and-seek and other games in the dark.