Outing report - Mpenjati Conservancy, 10 July 2016

Attendees: Val Culley,  Doug & Angie Butcher, Graham & Sue Salthouse, Stanley & Asothie Gengan, Clive & Margie Cowan, Hazel van Rooyen, Stefan Ringelmann, Louis & Pat Fourie

Bird count:  47(see end)

Text: Hazel van Rooyen

Today was such a different bird count from our previous outing in January, which is to be expected I suppose, it now being mid-winter. 

Kelp Gulls on the sandbank whilst a container ship looms ghost-like on the horizon (photo: Doug Butcher)

 

From the carpark we watched as a Pied Kingfisher dived for his breakfast from his vantage point on a washed-up tree-trunk and White-breasted Cormorants dried out their wings.  Both Pied and Cape Wagtails inspected the grassy area around the braais for tidbits.  A Grey Sunbird perched high in a strelitzia while a Black-headed Heron flew over the estuary.  Stefan spotted a Purple-banded Sunbird which we don’t usually see around here as it is at the limit of its range and this is the most southerly sighting Stan has heard about.

Grey Sunbird (photo: Stefan Ringelmann)

Purple-banded Sunbird (photo: Stefan Ringelmann)

Taking the tar-road up to the grasslands we spotted Black-bellied Starling, Dusky Flycatcher, Southern Black Flycatcher amongst others.  A Golden-tailed Woodpecker squawked intermittently from the woodland and Tambourine Doves flashed across our eye-line.  The boggy areas of grassland were dotted prettily with the orange and yellow of Red Hot Pokers.  Proceeding through the sand forest all was quiet until we came out into the sunshine onto the ground-cover laced dunes with the high tides pounding on to the beach.

Red Hot Pokers on water-logged grassland (photo: Hazel van Rooyen)

In the past the arrival of the sardines at this time of year would have also heralded the appearance of many more seabirds but those days are gone so it was nice to see a flock of about 40 Kelp Gulls and 15 Swift Terns resting on the sandbank.  

Swift Tern (photo: Hazel van Rooyen)

Kelp Gull (photo:Doug Butcher)

A visit to Mpenjati wouldn’t be complete without sighting the White-fronted Plover scampering about on the littoral.  A fascinating piece of bamboo drift-wood supported a colony of barnacles in a very pretty fashion, conjuring up visions of it being swept around beneath mysterious deep oceans.

White-fronted Plover (photo: Hazel van Rooyen)

Barnacles (photo: Hazel van Rooyen)

The photographers took advantage of the sight of a pair of dapper African Black Oystercatchers marching up and down the river tide-line.

 

African Black Oystercatchers (photo: Hazel van Rooyen)

After breakfast we made our way across to the other side of the estuary and investigated the forest walk to the beach.  Sadly the boardwalk through the forest still hasn’t been repaired but we enjoyed the walk as far as we could go, spotting Terrestrial Brownbul, Brown-hooded Kingfisher and Grey Waxbill.  As we returned back into the open a flock of Woolly-necked Storks were circling high on the thermals.

Grey Waxbill (photo: Stefan Ringelmann)

 Those who stayed on for the braai added a Black-headed Oriole to the day’s list.

Breakfast at Mpenjati (photo: Doug Butcher)

Breakfast at Mpenjati River (photo: Doug Butcher)

47 species

Barbet, Black-collared Boubou, Southern Bulbul, Dark-capped Brownbul, Terrestrial Cisticola, Rufous-winged Cormorant, Reed Cormorant, White-breasted Dove, Red-eyed Dove, Tambourine Drongo, Fork-tailed Egret, Little Fiscal, Common Fish Eagle, African Flycatcher, Dusky Flycatcher, Southern Black Goose, Egyptian

Green-Pigeon, African Greenbul, Sombre Gull, Kelp Heron, Black-headed Ibis, Hadeda Kingfisher, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Giant Kingfisher, Pied Mannikin, Bronze Neddicky Oriole, Black-headed Plover, White-fronted Prinia, Tawny-flanked Robin-Chat, Red-capped Starling, Black-bellied Stork, Woolly-necked

Sunbird, Amethyst Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Grey Sunbird, Olive Sunbird, Purple-banded Tern, Swift Tinkerbird, Yellow-rumped Tit, Southern Black Wagtail, Cape Wagtail, Pied Waxbill, Grey Weaver, Spectacled Weaver Yellow White-eye, Cape Woodpecker, Golden-tailed

(All photos property of photographer)