Outing to Clovelly Wetland.

Wednesday 13^th February was not as hot as the previous days and the wind was barely a gentle puff in the first hour. Twenty six keen birders, including several new members to the club joined me at the parking area opposite the electrical sub-station.

Our first stop was on the bridge overlooking the first gabion pond. The reeds were cleared in about April 2018 and have not yet grown back too much. The water level is still good and we saw, amongst others, Yellow-billed Ducks, African Sacred Ibis, Blacksmith Lapwing, Southern Fiscal, Common Moorhen, Lesser Swamp Warbler and Cape Weavers. However the two birds that were really special were the Purple Heron and Malachite Kingfisher.

A pair of African Black Ducks had been sleeping at the edge of the reeds when I was walking to the meeting place but by the time that we had gathered on the bridge about half an hour later only one of our group managed to catch a glimpse of them before they moved out of sight.

We then proceeded up stream towards the second gabion where there was nothing except a few Common Moorhens so continued further to the pipe bridge.

One must always be on the lookout for anything that happens to fly overhead and suddenly the call went out – what is that flying past. It was a pale phase Booted Eagle! What a wonderful sight of the low flying raptor. As luck would have it, it was on a mission of its own and not thinking of giving a group of birders any kind of lengthy look as it disappeared round the corner of Trappies Kop on its way to Kalk Bay.

It was time to walk amongst the houses but not before a male Orange-breasted Sunbird sat on a reed so close that one did not need binoculars to enjoy his handsome plumage whilst a Cape Grassbird was calling in the nearby bushes determined not to be seen.

A slow stroll around the suburb gave us Fiscal Flycatchers, Red-faced Mousebird, Cape and Grey-headed Sparrow, Cape Wagtail, Barn Swallow, Common Buzzard, Paradise Flycatcher, Cape Batis, Cape Canary and Fork-tailed Drongo. A Sombre Greenbul was heard.

By 11.00 o’clock the wind had picked up a bit and so it was time to say goodbye to everyone.

Our total for the morning was 48 of which 5 were heard only. (On our walk at the beginning of June 2018 we had 41 species)

Thank you to everyone who joined me to enjoy my local patch and what it has to offer (my personal list for that whole day was 61).

The full list is as follows:

1. White-breasted Cormorant
2. Kelp Gull
3. Levaillant’s Cisticola
4. Karoo Prinia
5. Black-headed Heron
6. Pied Crow
7. Southern Fiscal
8. Purple Heron
9. Sacred Ibis
10. Yellow-billed Duck
11. Common Moorhen
12. Laughing Dove
13. African Black Duck
14. Blacksmith Lapwing
15. Cape Weaver
16. White-necked Raven
17. Lesser Swamp Warbler
18. Cape Sugarbird
19. White-throated Swallow
20. Malachite Kingfisher
21. Speckled Pigeon
22. Cape Bulbul
23. Booted Eagle
24. Pin-tailed Whydah
25. Malachite Sunbird
26. Cape White-eye
27. Orange-breasted Sunbird
28. Helmeted Guineafowl
29. Red-eyed Dove
30. Red-winged Starling
31. Fiscal Flycatcher
32. Paradise Flycatcher
33. Cape Sparrow
34. Red-faced Mousebird
35. Common Buzzard
36. Cape Batis
37. Hadeda
38. Barn Swallow
39. Cape Wagtail
40. Grey-headed Sparrow
41. Cape Canary
42. Common Starling
43. Fork-tailed Drongo
44. Cape Spurfowl (heard)
45. Sombre Greenbul (heard)
46. Cape Grassbird (heard)
47. Bokmakierie (heard)
48. Cape Robin-chat (heard)