Outing report: Sezela Sugar Mill, 12 February 2017

 Text: Sue Hansbury

Attendees:

Sue Salthouse, Graham Salthouse, Stanley Gengan, Asothie Gengan, Sandy Olver, Hazel Nevin, Sue Hansbury, Barrie Willis, Alastair Warman

Species: 62 

The day started off overcast, and was lovely and cool to begin with.  Alastair took us a different route than last time, and led us meandering through the sugar cane fields to Ash Dam where we wandered around looking at all the grass birds.  Eventually the clouds dispersed and the sun came out as we walked around Clear Water Dam before departing to find a cool spot in the shade for breakfast.

After breakfast we had a short stroll along the stream, the temperature was now reaching 30º, and we were getting a little hot under the collar. On the way to the lunch spot we stopped at the lagoon to see what birds we could see there, but it was so over grown, it was quite a disappointment compared to last time we were there. 

It was decided to try our luck and go past Conrad’s house as he told us that he had seen a Sooty Falcon, but luck was not on our side and unfortunately we did not get a sighting of it.

Alastair had the key to the boom this time so we found a beautiful shady spot for our lunch, we parked the cars and went for a stroll around the Dam.  Things got quite exciting when we thought we saw a rare bird in the trees, but after looking through the bird books we came to the conclusion that it was most probably a Rosy Faced Lovebird (obviously an escapee).

The braai was lit, and the beers came out, so we settled ourselves down for some light hearted conversation and had a wonderful lunch at a beautiful unspoilt spot on the South Coast.

Thank you Alastair for showing us around. 

Species seen:

Barbet Black-collared Bee-eater Little Bishop Southern Red Bulbul Dark-capped Cameroptera Green-backed Canary Yellow-fronted Cisticola Rufous-winged Cormorant Reed Cormorant White-breasted Coucal Burchell’s Crake Black Crane Crowned Cuckoo Diderik Dove Red-eyed Drongo Square-tailed Eagle Long-crested Fiscal Common Flycatcher Southern Black Goose Egyptian Goose Spurwinged Grebe Little Greenbul Sombre

Guineafowl Helmeted Hadedah Ibis Hamerkop Heron Black-headed Hornbill Crowned Kingfisher Malachite Kingfisher Pied Kite Yellow-billed Lapwing Blacksmith Mannikin Bronze Moorhen Common Mousebird Speckled Myna Common Oriole Black-headed Prinia Tawny-flanked Saw-wing Black Seedeater Streaky-headed Spurfowl Natal Starling Black-bellied Starling Red-winged Starling Violet-backed Stonechat African

Stork Woolly-necked Sunbird Olive Swallow Barn Swallow Lesser-striped Tinkerbird Yellow-rumped Turaco Purple-crested Wagtail Cape Wagtail Mountain Warbler Lesser Swamp Warbler Little Rush Warbler Willow Waxbill Common Weaver Spectacled Weaver Village Weaver Yellow White-eye Cape Whydah Pin-tailed Widowbird Fan-tailed Woodpecker Golden-tailed