Outing to Sunbird Centre, Clovelly, Fish Hoek.

 

As has been the case on most of the outings to Sunbird Centre over the past couple of years, the morning started out grey and misty with the threat of a bit of rain. As the past six months have been very dry with hardly any rain, one cannot help but celebrate a few drops, but why just when the outing was about to start!

However, about 23 people braved the early morning traffic to get to the meeting place on time and it was good to greet mostly new members and a few stalwarts to my end of the world. The parking area is near the old farm dwellings dating back to 1904 or so that have been used as an overnight accommodation for school groups etc. On our particular morning there was a large gathering of young adults sitting on the balcony and steps prior to starting their day. At first they were silent, but before long started singing to help them on their route march in the rain. They were taking part in the Outdoor Phase of the Chrysalis Academy, Tokai, which teaches unemployed and troubled youngsters life skills to become self-confident, economically productive and positive role models within their communities.

Due to the inclement weather, there was very little bird activity for the first 15 minutes of the stroll along the road towards the Clovelly Golf Course but, as the rain eased off, birds started to become active, albeit difficult to spot. But at least the list could begin.

A slow two and a half hour walk along the dirt track to almost where the fifth green is and back to the cars resulted in 31 species being seen and heard. For those interested, they are:

Red-winged Starling Jackal Buzzard
Pied Crow Malachite Sunbird
Southern Boubou Speckled Pigeon
Karoo Prinia Southern Double-collared Sunbird
Cape Grassbird Barn Swallow
Cape Canary Brimstone Canary
Cape Robin-chat Black-headed Heron
Cape Sugarbird Common Buzzard
Southern Fiscal Orange-breasted Sunbird
Kelp Gull White-breasted Cormorant
Peregrine Falcon Cape Bulbul
Cape Bunting Black Saw-wing
Red-faced Mousebird Common Waxbill
Fiscal Flycatcher Lesser Swamp Warbler(h)
Bar-throated Apalis(h) Red-eyed Dove
Cape Weaver

Thank you to all who attended. In the end we did not get very wet and, by the time we returned to the cars, it was back to blue skies and quite warm. Unfortunately, I do not have any photographs to illustrate the report.

Sample photographs of some of the species we saw by various contributors.

Report by Gillian Barnes.