Paul Greyling Bird Club Outing to West Coast National Park 11 September 2024.
The CBC supports the little bird club run by the headmaster, Mr André Engelbrecht (himself a very keen birder) at Paul Greyling Laerskool/Primary School in Fish Hoek. In 2022 the Committee purchased and donated 5 pairs of binoculars to the school. They regularly borrow, as needed, additional pairs of binoculars from the set that the CBC has for use in schools. This Paul Greyling Bird Club has grown from a handful of children to more than 20, spread across the grades. Below is an account of an outing to the West Coast National Park during the recent SANParks Open Week.
On Wednesday morning, 11 September 2024, twenty-one of our Bird Club members departed for an adventure of a lifetime. The club used the SANParks Heritage Open Week to go and visit the West Coast National Park.
The group consisted of nine grade 1-3 learners and twelve grade 4-6 learners and the club leader, a foundation phase birding enthusiast and a first aid person.
We started out at 06:00 as we wanted to be at the gates at 08:00. On the way, however, we decided to start from the Langebaan gate after detouring through the Oliphantskop Quarry. This strategy was motivated by the possibility of seeing more open flowers at Postberg later on in the day.
We hiked out onto Oliphantskop to look for the elusive pair of Verreaux’s Eagles breeding there. After what seemed like an eternity, the pair entertained us with a fly by. We then proceeded to look for the nest and eventually found it. The pair’s activity at the nest seemed to indicate breeding. The young birders were delighted to be approached by a flock of inbred quackers and mallards (which became a teachable moment about aliens). We have on a previous occasion experienced the same; they seem to be fed by the public.
We then went into the WCNP, with 80% of the learners experiencing the Park for the first time. We visited Seeberg hide first and the learners’ enthusiasm for the flamingos was humbling. Open Week then caught up with us and there were 13 people waiting for us to exit the hide!
We were very excited to welcome our first sighting of Yellow-billed Kites for the season. We counted more than 11 on the day. While showing the learners the holes of the Cardinal Woodpecker in the Bluegum trees at the Geelbek hide entrance, we also sighted an African Marsh Harrier in the Bluegum trees. After a trip to the Postberg section and experiencing the bumper flower displays, we were glad to see a Black Harrier on the way out of the Park.
We noted 45 birds for the day and a very tired group of birders and more tired educators returned to the school at 16:00.
Photographs by André Engelbrecht.
Report by André Engelbrecht.