Ringing and upcoming meetings

I will be ringing birds at the Paarl Bird Sanctuary this Saturday (24th Sep) from 7.00am. This sanctuary is part of the Paarl Sewerage Works and is a great birding venue. Please feel free to come through and join me, visit a little while and do some water-bird watching.  The monthly water bird count will also be taking place that day (run by group in Paarl) so there will be plenty of bodies around.  Remember this venue is not safe for birding on your own. 

I will be ringing birds at the Wild Flower Garden behind the Franschhoek Huguenot Memorial Museum on Saturday the 1st of October from 7.00am.  As always, you are very welcome to come down and see how we do it, and walk around the garden looking for our own lovely birds.  

The next monthly meeting is the following Saturday, 8th of October and we will be having Dr Bool Smuts from the Landmark Foundation speaking to us.  They work in many areas of conservation and sustainability but will be talking to us about the sourge of gin-traps used by sheep farmers to control predators, especially the effect on leopards.  Dr Smuts is a well respected conservationist and it is an honour to have him talk to our club.  I hope that as many of you as possible will attend, and feel free to bring guests along.  Please remember the R5.00 per member and R20.00 per guest entrance fee/lucky draw ticket. All these little amounts help towards growing a meager kitty.

Lastly, Jill Heistein has had an op and we wish her a very speedy recovery and send lots of love.  Please keep her in your throughts.  I will be sending some flowers from the club for her.

See you all soon, happy birding!

Artemis Ringing

Did a spot of ringing in Andrea's beautiful garden a few days ago.  This was the first little one in the net, an Olive Thrush.

After many years of tenderly lavishing the garden with love and care, she and Kobus have created a wonderfully lush indigenous haven just right for birds and beasts of all kinds.

The attention to detail in the garden provides interest and fantasy around every corner.

Even scorpions have a home here!

Birds ringed were Olive Thrush, Southern Masked Weaver, Cape Robin-chat, Cape Canary, Cape White-eye and Common Fiscal.

Thanks Andrea and Kobus for your hospitality and we hope to be back soon to ring some more of your little feathered friends for you.

Karoo Desert Botanical Garden in Worcester

Saturday the 20th of Aug was a beautiful sunny and hot day which followed and preceded very rainy weather so it was fortuitous when that date was chosen some 3 months ago for this outing, by the Tygerberg Bird Club.

Ten BBB club members met up at 7.15am and traveled together to Worcester, with one group taking the shorter  High-way route in order to pick up Johann on the way.  The rest of us took the scenic route over the Franschhoek Pass and through Villiersdorp.  The mist was thick on the ground most of the way, making for very beautiful scenery.

On arriving at the garden, the TBC had already started their walk so we looked around the car park and the planted gardens and almost immediately spotted the White-backed Mousebirds.  Quite a few of them around and one looked like he'd just had a bath. We were trying to spot the colourful back in this pic but I love the scraggly look as he tries to dry off in the sun.

We also spotted Speckled Mousebirds and Red-faced Mousebirds.  Just a bit further on we were treated to nice sightings of a pair of Chestnut Vented Tit-babblers.  House and Cape Sparrows were abundant in the area and some juveniles were also seen.

Pat and John Ruane

The garden was literally packed with Southern Double-collared Sunbirds and they were seen around every corner.  Such beautiful birds, we didn't mind looking at them every time.

Male Southern Double-collared Sunbird

Common Fiscals (Shrikes) were also seen often and we took time to distinguish between the male and female.

Common Fiscal

We came across this example of a Khoi San "kook skerm" (cooking shelter) and popped in for a group pic... pity no tea was on offer.

back l-r:  Mike, Kobus, Andrea, John - Middle l-r:  Estelle, Diana, Robyn, Pat - Front l-r:  Adel, Joahnn

Karoo Scrub-robin

We had then caught up with the group from the TBC at the Shale Trail who told us about the Karoo Scrub-robins at the top of the hill who were nesting.  We all took on the very steep walk up the hill and enjoyed excellent views of the two birds carrying nesting material back and forth.  The scenic views from the top of the hill were excellent too.

The flowers in the garden were at their best, with this week being the height of the Karoo flower season.  We all admired the Chinese Lantern bush (also known as the Karoo Lantern).

Chinese/Karoo Lanter (Klapperbos) Nymania Capensis

The various coloured daisies were gorgeous.

The aloes were also in full bloom and looking wonderful.  Many of the birds were feeding on the blooms and their faces were covered in red pollen.

   

And  we cannot leave out the lovely succulents that also had a few flowers sprouting.

At the end of the walk, we joined the TBC for our picnic lunch and enjoyed soaking up the sun.  A really lovely outing and hopefully we will be back next year.