Weekend atlasing - Sunday 25th July 2010

The atlasing project is a very important one for the ADU and I try to get as much atlasing done around Franschhoek as possible.  Sunday morning was beautiful weather wise and an excellent day to go atlasing in the south of our town between the vinyards, orchards and stud farms.  Around every corner there are gorgeous views of our stunning town and loads of birds were out and about.  Here are some pics for you to enjoy.  

A lovely Fork-tailed Drongo on the plum blossoms that are already adorning the orchards.

The Cape Canary's are all over town, singing their melodious songs.

Brown-throated Martins are the only martins around at this time of year and this one was enjoying the early morning sun.

Not forgetting our own dear little Amethyst Sunbird mommy sitting in her nest here at FTL.  We also have a pair of Hadedas nesting here in the grounds but they are not on the nest at the moment.  I'll post a pic of them when they are home.

On Saturday Adel and I went for a drive down the coast towards Bettys Bay and visited the Penguins at Stony Point. 

This little Cape Bulbul was sitting waiting for us in the car park and was happy to pose so beautifully.

The Kitlitz plovers were all over the beach, this is the male.

And this is the female.

Of course there were lots of penguins.

and lots of dassies, so sweet and not at all afraid of us.

And on the way home we stopped off at Rooisands, the new Nature Reserve next to Kleinmond and saw this handsome Pied Kingfisher doing his thing.


Always love being out and about in the Cape.  Hope you can join us soon.

Today's CWAC in the pouring rain

Today was the official CWAC (co-ordinated Water Avian Count) day so we duly reported to the Benguela Cove wine estate on the Bot River estuary to do our duty.  Adel and I, Mariana Delport, Beverley and Anina were the only brave souls to make the journey to our side of the estuary. There were others counting on the other side of the water as well. 

We counted what precious little there was to see and got absolutely drenched in the process.  We started out on the bridge facing in the wrong direction and a diligent member of the police force stopped by to warn us that if we didn't remove ourselves quick smart, he would give us a R2500.00 fine.  We were gone in a second.  We went on to the Benguela Cove estate and made our way down the slippery slope between the vines.  After seeing very little, we decided to head out and found our dear bakkie well and truly stuck in the mud....  literally. 

Thank heavens one of the other team of counters had a nice big 4x4 Volvo and he kindly pulled us out.  We moved on to firmer tarred road and continued our count until we decided, enough was enough.  We went up to the estates wine tasting centre, got changed into dry clothes (except those of us who forgot to take some with!) and had our lunch.  We then made our weary wet way home and thats the CWAC done for another 6 months.  Die-hard birders survive all things!

And then on the way home, we came across a whole flock of Blue Cranes next to the road.  So pretty.

See you all on Wednesday (14th of July) for our 1st Anniversary party.  Please bring some small change with you as we will be selling raffle tickets for R5.00 and we have a number of nice prizes to be won during the course of the evening.  A light supper will be served which is with our compliments but feel free to make a donation in the box if you wish.  See you at 7.00pm.

What plastic is doing to our ocean... Please watch.

Ringing weekend - 04.07.10

Phoebe Barnard and her husband Rob Simmons joined me in Franschhoek this weekend for some ringing.  Saturday morning was spent in the Museum Wild Flower Garden and we managed to net and ring 51 birds.  New members, John and Pat joined us for most of the morning and Pat had the opportunity to scribe for me while I was ringing... thanks Pat!

It was a beautiful day in Franschhoek and we caught a steady stream of birds including this lovely little Karoo Prinia.

On Sunday, we made our way up to Mont Rochelle and set up nets deep in the fynbos hoping to catch some Sugarbirds and Orange Breasted Sunbirds.  It was extremely misty at first and we marvelled at how the mist stormed past us and made the atmosphere quite eerie but very enjoyable.

We managed to catch 2 male Orange Breasted Sunbirds and 1 female.  They now have rings as well colour rings so if you see any OBS with either a white, blue or orange ring on their left leg, please let me know.

We also caught one Cape Robin-Chat and one Karoo Prinia.  Not many birds but it was wonderful to have the OBS in the hand.  We did see our logo bird, the Cape Rock Thrush (male and female) and a pair of Ground Woodpeckers.  There were a number of Sugar Birds but they seemed able to evade the nets every time so they are still on my "to-do" list.

It is our 1st anniversary meeting coming up on the 14th of this month so don't miss this special event... lots of nice goodies to give away, light supper served and interesting talk on gardening for birds.  See you there.