Outing to Driftsands Nature Reserve, Cape Flats 19 April 2015

This is a working partnership with Cape Nature and Cape Bird Club.

On a beautiful late summers day the conditions were warm, sunny and with no wind for the duration of our visit. 12 Cape Bird Club members arrived at the Reserve. This is a new birding venue for the CBC and the outing was led by Felicity Ellmore.

Driftsands is a Provincial Nature Reserve, so it is managed by Cape Nature. It is bordered by the R300 freeway on the western boundary, N2 freeway on the southern side. The Eerste River corridor and Mfuleni on the eastern side and Hindle Road is a little north of the northern reserve boundary. It has magnificent views of Table Mountain and the Peninsula range to the west and in the east the Hottentot Holland Mountain range also sets a stunning backdrop. In the north Tygerberg is clearly visible. There is some wonderful dune slack areas with a variety of grasses and restios. There are thickets along the ridges with a wonderful variety of plants. There also many invasive species a challenge which management are trying to address.

So it is very central for the major bird clubs and fledgling clubs in the area.

While waiting at the gate for all to arrive, there were at least 10 species added, Cape Batis included, to the numerous lists being made for BIRP, SABAP2, the Reserve and personal lists.

Teboho Maliehe the Manager of the Reserve arrived and introduced himself and his guides Mkhuseli Boesman and Siyabonga Mbukuthse who would accompany us around the circuit we would take today.

We were given a short introduction about the Reserve before setting off.

Thank you to the Reserve staff who gave up part of their Sunday to accompany us around, and which we hope more members will come to visit this “new venue”.

Also thank you to Felicity and all those who came along today. The bird list tally was 60 species, confirmed.