Birding

It was almost as cold as Cape Town gets this morning. 6 degrees. We arrived amidst riverine mist. But, contrary to the weather report, the sun streamed onto the mountain which was flanked by a dawn moon.

Last Tuesday at my bird count with Jane. It’s been a miserable anxious week with my boy cat Crumb missing without trace since last Monday. We did see a bittern after the count though, which is still an absolute treat.

Today marked two years of our weekly bird count at the Liesbeek Confluence. Terna has had me up for it at 6:30 this year - excruciating for me except that it’s close to the dawn and the light is beautiful. Also Ana had hot rooibos tea and it was a treat sitting on the grass with them and looking out at this familiar scene.

Before and after our 15 min bird count this morning. A year and a half and we’re still recording more species. Jane identified a Karoo Prinia calling on the far bank.

This scene again. It was a three kingfisher day today - Pied (which we see most days), Malachite (we see these little jewels maybe every three counts or so), and Giant (seen more rarely - although this lady has a fave spot in the willow so maybe we’ll see her again next week). This in a place that shills for the developers love to pretend is a ruined, lifeless dump.

Terna as I found him soaking in the dawn by our river confluence bird count. In summer I really miss the late dawn that invites you to enjoy it without too much bother. This project is partly what inspired my newfound love for daybreak.

Our Liesbeek bird counting group had an away day this morning at Strandfontein Sewerage works. Jane and Terna looking out at the thousands of birds in every direction. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the place so dense with avian life. As we drove down the tracks, Barn Swallows swirled around the car stuffing themselves with unseen bugs - to fatten up for their long journey back to the summer of Europe. We saw so many different ducks - Cape, Red-Billed, and Blue-billed Teals. Cape Shovelers. Spur-Winged Geese, Egyptian Geese, Southern Pochards, Fulvous Whistling Ducks, and Yellow-Billed Ducks. ...

I didn’t see an otter today. I saw two.

We haven’t worked out what these little wading birds were yet [Little Stints most likely] But damn if there weren’t a lot of them… Some kind of atmospheric disturbance made it really hard to get sharp pics of them with the long lens when they settled. Will update with ID. There were a bunch of serious birders there for a “Baird’s Sandpiper” - probably some storm-lost bird from a distant country or something. Very exciting for the people who’re into chasing down these vagrant rarities, but it’s not really our bag.

Lesser Flamingoes! I don’t think I’ve ever seen them at Strandfontein before. Plenty of the Greater Flamingoes - and we saw lots of those too. Greater Flamingoes are almost all white except for their pink beaks and wing feathers. Lesser Flamingoes like these have deep red beaks, often quite red wing-feathers, and occasionally the whole bird is a lurid pink. Manual focus on the Fujifilm XE1 with a Nikon 300mm f4 and 1.4x converter 💪 ...