Paarl Rock outing

Our clubs second outing for the year was well attended today. Thanks to all of you who came along.  We met at 7.00am and headed out to Paarl Rock, making a detour to Boschenmeer to look for the European Roller that has been there for the past week.  Unfortunately we didn't see it.

We gathered in the parking lot of the Wild Flower Garden and made our way up the mountain.  Our first bird of the day had us all very puzzled.  It was perched at the top of a large Protea bush and the shape of the bill was clearly "sunbird".  I could see it had a metallic green head and I could make out some orange on the top of the breast so I immediately called out "Orange Breasted Sunbird", but it had a large white breast!  We all stood watching it for some time debating on whether it was leucristic or perhaps a vagrant species, when suddenly, the head flew off and the white breast stayed behind!  We had a good laugh when we realised it was an OB Sunbird that had been sitting inside a large Protea flower and only its head was sticking out.

Just up the path, a pair of African Olive Pigeons flew over our heads and landed in a tree not far away and all had a good look at them.  Several raptors were seen overhead and we spotted Steppe & Jackal Buzzard and a Hamerkop was also seen.

As usual there are plenty of Cape Sugarbirds around too.  We also found Malachite Sunbird, Cape Robin-Chat, Cape White-eyes and some Canaries that were so fast buzzing in and out, we couldn't see which ones they were.

Paarl Spa - massage anyone?

The walk up is nice and shady and the little stream flows with lovely cool water. 

The walk ends at the top of the hill and there are great views of the top of this impressive granite rock, said to be the 2nd largest in the world. 

Ericas were in abundance as well as various Protea bushes.

The Pride of the Cape

We made our way down and by then the sun was high and extremely hot so we made our way to the Paarl Arboretum for a quick picnic.  We were hardly out of our cars when Johann found a pair of Olive Woodpeckers pecking away for all to see which was a wonderful find.

While having our picnic we saw a couple of Paradise Flycatchers hawking insects too.
Most of the group made their way home after the picnic but Adel, Cynthia, Johann and myself decided to have another look for the Euro Roller and this time we were successful.  It was perched on the telephone pole at the end of Boschenmeer, at the exact same place Adel and I saw it a few days ago.

Its a great bird for the Western Cape, being that it is a bush bird and not usually found in these parts.  A great end to a good days birding.