The Farewell to the Waders outing at the West Coast National Park led by Mel Tripp and Vernon Head was attended by 34 keen members who queued at the gate from 6.30am. We were lucky to have Vernon there at all. The previous evening, he almost did himself a damage when he put Usain Bolt to shame, sprinting back to the hide to twitch the Lesser Yellowlegs which had stayed out of sight all day until he’d given up and left. (Thank goodness for cell phones.)

During our briefing at the Geelbek homestead, Mel pointed out a Rock Kestrel picking up stones in the carpark. He explained that these would be swallowed to help grind food in its gizzard.

At Seeberg we met up with Club members who’d had spent the night in Langebaan. There was no way we could all fit in the hide, so some scopes were set up outside and luckily the birds didn’t seem bothered by our presence. Mel, Vernon and Simon Fogarty went out of their way to ensure that everyone had a good look at the different waders and the five species of Terns in the scopes. Complete novices, as well as old hands, all came away happy under their patient tuition. Many of the migrants were sporting signs of their Northern breeding plumage and the Curlew Sandpipers and Red Knots were especially colourful. Some transitioning Little Terns looked decidedly odd, their normally dark bills now yellow/orange with just a black tip and yellow legs, full breeding plumage.

It was fun listening to the experts argue about a mystery raptor flying overhead while the rest of us nodded sagely. The final consensus was that it was a juvenile African Harrier Hawk (or as the president of CRON insisted – a Gymnogene!)