Outing to Mamre Moravian Church and surrounds.

15 February 2025 – Led by Zoe Lunau-Johns.

The outing to Mamre this year, in terms of weather, was a significant improvement to last year’s misty and cold conditions that never lifted. This time around we had clear, warm conditions with hardly any wind throughout the morning.
We first started off in the forest patch behind the Moravian Church. Within the first few minutes of walking in, we had great views of two Lesser Honeyguides displaying in the tree tops. Some other species of note that we saw there were two vocal Peregrine Falcons, which were pursued by a Rock Kestrel as well. A large flock of Greater Striped Swallows were also seen as we made our way back to the car park.

We had to cut our visit to the church grounds a little bit shorter than planned, due to a funeral that would be held at the church, so we left and made our way to the farmlands above Mamre.

We turned off onto the famous dirt road that became very popular during the City of Cape Town Big year back in 2023, as one could get some scarce birds for the city on the first few kms of road before one had to turn around to stay within the city boundary.
The birds at first were not very vocal, but were able to spot a family of Blue Cranes in the fields. Along with that, a whole string of raptor species started to make their appearance. Two Lanner Falcons were seen sitting in the fields, also Yellow-billed Kite and Common Buzzard. A pale morph Booted Eagle was also seen being mobbed by at least three Pied Crows that flew low overhead.

A second Rock Kestrel also made an appearance, but a short while after that, a male Lesser Kestrel was seen hunting in the field right next to the city boundary – a special bird for the area. They are summer migrants. We watched it for a long time and, as we stood there on the side of the road, we saw a flock of Pied Starlings. Even an odd semi-leucistic Pied Starling was seen in the mix.
We then travelled a bit further along the dirt road towards Darling and stopped at least another twice to scan in the fields. It had become a lot warmer by then, and still not that many birds could be heard calling.
We were able to add some more species for the outing list, such as African Stonechat, Capped Wheater, Black-winged Kite and a distant Jackal Buzzard. A small number of aerial feeders came around as well. Most were Little Swift and Barn Swallows that were feeding in clouds of insects hovering above the fields.
We had still not heard or seen any pipits or larks by then, but on our way back we stopped near the Lesser Kestrel spot again and had brief views of a Large-billed Lark that was picked up on call.
We then made our way to one last stop, to Dassenberg Drive, to see if the Sickle-winged Chats were possibly still around, as they were also discovered there during the Big Year Challenge in the city.
There were no chats around, but we had brief views of African Pipits, Yellow Canary and more common farmland birds at this site.

The species tally was at least fifty for the morning, as follows:

Speckled Pigeon
Red-eyed Dove
Ring-necked Dove
Little Swift
Blue Crane
African Sacred Ibis
Hadada Ibis
Western Cattle-Egret
Great White Pelican
Black-winged Kite
Booted Eagle
Yellow-billed Kite
Jackal Buzzard
Common Buzzard
Lesser Honeyguide
Lesser Kestrel
Rock Kestrel
Lanner Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Bokmakierie
African Paradise-Flycatcher
Southern Fiscal
Pied Crow
Large-billed Lark
Red-capped Lark
Karoo Prinia
Grey-backed Cisticola
Pearl-breasted Swallow
Barn Swallow
White-throated Swallow
Greater Striped Swallow
Cape White-eye
European Starling
African Pied Starling
Olive Thrush
African Dusky Flycatcher
Karoo Scrub-Robin
Cape Robin-Chat
African Stonechat
Capped Wheatear
Southern Double-collared Sunbird
Cape Weaver
Southern Red Bishop
Yellow Bishop
Cape Sparrow
Southern Grey-headed Sparrow
Cape Wagtail
African Pipit
Yellow Canary
Cape Canary

https://ebird.org/tripreport/331369

Photographs by Stephen Judge and Penny Dichmont.
Report by Zoë Lunau-Johns.