Attendees: Margie Cowan, Barrie Willis & Sue Hansbury, Sue &
Graham Salthouse, Jona Jacobs, Mike Lavin, Doug Butcher, Robin Eccles, Bob
& Hazel van Rooyen (11)
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| White-fronted Plover (photo: Hazel van Rooyen) |
Species identified (25) Text: Hazel van Rooyen
A beautiful sunny day greeted this morning’s Trogons club
outing and while we waited for everyone to arrive at our meeting point, the
first birds we saw was a flock of seven Trumpeter Hornbills. Moving on down to the trail, we were
greeted by the usual cock-a-doodle-do in this area – always a friendly sound but not quite
what we were looking for.
Crossing the grassland we noticed that a super jungle gym
had been erected for visiting children – sorry pensioners, only under 12’s
allowed! At the tennis club, we also
observed that new brick braais had been built and the verandah had been
extended. You could see a lot of hard
work had been put into the garden which had improved the overall look and the
examples of indigenous flora were growing well.
Most interesting too.
The Bushbuck trail was quiet except for the continuous pop-pop-pop
of the Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird. A sunny
patch of bush produced Bronze and Red-backed Mannikins plus Paradise Flycatcher and more activity was seen when we came out of
the forest on to the sunny road. Here we
saw Cape White-eye, Sombre Greenbul, Speckled Mousebird, Black-collared Barbet and White-eared Barbet
amongst others.
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| Black-collared Barbet (photo: Hazel van Rooyen) |
After breakfast we wandered across the road, over the golf
course to the beach and along the Frederika Trail. We were brought to an abrupt halt where a
large tree had fallen across the path and had to back-track, there was no getting over or under that. A helpful young man said he would organise a
clean-up operation, it had probably happened as a result of the strong winds we
had been experiencing recently, the tail end of Cyclone Idai. Back on the beach Robin spotted two
White-fronted Plovers huddled in a sheltered nook atop an outcrop of rocks. At our approach they flew off on to the sand and
stood with their eyes closed against the windswept beach.
I felt sorry we had disturbed them.
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| White-fronted Plovers (photo: Hazel van Rooyen) |
As it was getting very hot we decided to return to the shade
by the tennis club and held a short committee meeting. Doug and Robin visited the whale deck but
didn’t get any further sightings.
It was a bit of a disappointing day bird-wise but wonderful to get
out in the fresh air with good company.
Thanks to everyone.
Species identified:
Barbet, Black-collared
Barbet, White-eared
Bulbul, Dark-capped
Crowned, Trumpeter
Dove, Red-eyed
Flycatcher, Paradise
Goose, Egyptian
Greenbul, Sombre
Hornbill, Trumpeter
Ibis, Hadedah
Kingfisher, Brown-hooded
Mannikin, Bronze
Mannikin, Red-backed
Mousebird, Speckled
Puffback, Black-backed
Starling, Red-wing
Sunbird, Collared
Sunbird, Olive
Tinkerbird, Yellow-rumped
Turaco, Knysna
Turaco, Purple-crested
Waxbill, Common
Weaver, Spectacled
White-eye, Cape
Woodpecker, Golden-tailed
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