Our newly metamorphosised club had its first outing for the year today to Harold Porter Botanical Gardens in Betty's Bay and then Stony Point. It was very well attended with 13 members and 3 visitors (who will be members soon, we hope).
We started the morning off at 7.00am, meeting at the big church in Franschhoek's Main Rd. After arranging car-pooling we were off at 7.15am. We took a slow drive up the Franschhoek Mountain pass as it was thick with mist and visibility was poor. We took the route around Theewaterskloof Dam, the R45 to the N2 and then on to Botriver. There were plenty of Steppe Buzzards on the road and just before turning off to the N2, we stopped to have a look at 2 Blue Cranes with 2 tiny chicks, not more than a few days old.
We arrived at Harold Porter Botanical Gardens at 9.00am and our first bird of the day was a Reed Cormorant at the pool close to the entrance. A beautiful Orange Breasted Sunbird and a Cape Batis kept us entertained for a while and we continued our walk up towards the waterfall. On the bridge we spotted a whole family of Karoo Prinia's with chick fluttering their wings and being fed by dotting parents.
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| Karoo Prinia below the bridge |
While walking along the river, we spotted Black Sawwing, African Black Duck, Fiscal Flycatcher, Dusky Flycatcher and heard the Giant Kingfisher.
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| Dusky Flycatcher |
We arrived at the waterfall and were thrilled to find the rare Disa was in full bloom with many of the beautiful, delicate flowers appearing on the cliff face opposite us, very high up. Couldn't get a really good pic but this is the best one I have.
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| Disa Uniflora |
It was lovely being at the waterfall and if it was a hotter day, we may have been tempted to jump into the dark Brak water but it was a bit chilly for that.
On the way back, the weather must have been warming up somewhat and we eventually found the Sombre Greenbull calling "Willie" at us. We also found Lesser Double Collared Sunbird, Cape Robin-chat, Cape Sugarbird and another beautiful pair of Orange Breasted Sunbirds displaying for us very considerately.
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| Orange Breasted Sunbird |
We stopped at the restaurant for a cup of tea and coffee after our 2 hour walk and caught up on some socialising.
While on our walk, we had of course seen many beautiful plant species and Andrea was kind enough to impart some of her local knowledge to us with their identification. Here are some of the best ones we found.
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| Brunia stokei - the only red Brunia sp. |
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| Helichrysum vestitum |
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| Erica mammosa |
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| Fan Aloe (Aloe plicatilis) |
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| Mimetes hirtus - endemic to area - headed for extinction |
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| Crassula coccinea |
After tea, we left the garden and headed out to Stony Point to see the penguins. The first birds we spotted there were Cape Wagtails and hundreds of Hartlaubs Gulls.
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| Stony point, Betty's Bay |
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| Hartlaubs Gull |
There were also Kelp Gulls and Grey-headed gulls, Cape and Bank Cormorants and of course, the African Penguins and their neighbours, the ever-present Rock Hyrax (common Dassies, to you and me).
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| Rock Hyrax (Dassies) |
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| African Penguin - escapee from the colony looking for somewhere to hide |
After our visit to the penguins, we had a quick picnic lunch and then everyone made their way home. Thanks so much to all of you who attended. It was a very successful outing and we look forward to the next one in February. See you at the next meeting.
PS Adel and I did some more birding after this and you can see what we saw, something really exciting, on my personal bird blog - click
here.
