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.
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| 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.
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| Male Southern Double-collared Sunbird |
Common Fiscals (Shrikes) were also seen often and we took time to distinguish between the male and female.
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| 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.
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| back l-r: Mike, Kobus, Andrea, John - Middle l-r: Estelle, Diana, Robyn, Pat - Front l-r: Adel, Joahnn |
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| 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).
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| 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.
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