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A very full day visiting several hides in the West Coast National Park, 120 kilometres up the west coast from Cape Town.

We reached the lagoon at high tide and so most of the birds were quite distant but we visited other hides where the birds were much more accessible. I still can’t believe how the rock kestrel posed for us only a few yards from the car.

I look forward to some free time to identify some of the birds I haven’t got to grip with yet.

Rock kestrel

Bontebok

Cape bunting

Cape sparrow

Cape sparrow

White-throated canary 

African sacred ibis

African sacred ibis

Yellow-billed duck

?

Lesser flamingo

Lesser flamingo

On the foreshore there were curlew sandpiper, bar-tailed godwits, sanderlings and a few other small jobbies.

I’m sure I have seen this grey heron in Eastville Park

Click below for gallery of photos from today:

Travelog for Sunday 25th February

Menu Cape Town Feb/March 2018

This morning we visited the Rondevlei Nature Reserve on the outskirts of Cape Town. We arrived at the same time as a very excited school group and thought that our visit might be a disaster but we had a wonderful time with good sightings of a good number of species.

There have been sightings of 231 different species at this reserve since it opened in 1952. I hope to be able to identify some of the birds we saw today in the next couple of days if I get a few minutes to myself but our social programme has been very busy and as yet have not had the time, although we did get quite a lot of help from a very friendly and helpful lady birder in one of the hides.

A few of my favourites from this morning with a gallery of the other photos at the end (the last few were from the playing fields of SACS College where we watched some cricket and had a braai with our South African (and French) friends,

Karoo Prinia

Cape wagtail

Three-banded plover

Pin-tailed Whydah

Common waxbill

Flamingo

Black-winged stilt and greenshank

Avocet and black-winged stilt

Great white pelican

Great white pelican

Blacksmith lapwing

Glossy ibis

Barn swallow

Greenshank

Yellow-billed duck

View across the reserve

Sacred ibis

Click below for gallery of today’s photos:

Travelog for Saturday 24th February

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018

Nothing terribly adventurous today – just a walk along the beach in Camps Bay to the next bay at Clifton.

Masses of cormorants flying south and a few north – a mixture of Cape cormorants and a back bird with brown wings (probably a red-winged starling), a great black-backed gull, Egyptian geese which are obviously considered as pests locally, and a little egret.

Cape cormorant

Bank cormorant

Cormorants of South Africa

Could this be a red winged-starling? – can’t wait to get my hands on a bird book

Egyptian goose

Little egret

Also saw some Cape wagtails along the main road in Camps bay.

Today’s travelog

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018

In the morning we had a very pleasant walk along the beach at Hout Bay where we saw a number of gulls and a very small cormorant-like bird diving in very shallow water and a single swallow (one swallow doesn’t make a summer but it’s definitely summer here).

Bird photographer in local camouflage at Hout Bay

Bank cormorant

We had enjoyed a very pleasant breakfast at Hout Bay and, not feeling like lunch, we made the silly mistake of visiting The World of Birds in the hottest point of the day.

We had doubts about seeing caged birds but as this is very much a bird sanctuary we thought it would be worthwhile. We believed we were nearing the end (literally) after cages 17 and 18 but discovered this was only the first section and that in all there were over 150 cages.

Here are photos of a few of the 400 species that can be seen at The World Birds from our (exhausting) visit.

Today’s travelog

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018

On our first full day in Cape Town we visited the National Botanical Gardens of Kirstenbosch – surely one of my top ten best places in the world.

The gardens were as spectacular as ever and we had a few glimpses of birds on the coast road to Kirstenbosch (mainly cormorants) and at the gardens (although as yet I don’t quite know what I’m seeing).

Seals and sea birds on the coast road out of Camps Bay

A sample of birds from Kirstenbosch:

 Egyptian Goose

Guinea Fowl

And some of the amazing flora:

I have created a travelog page of our stay in Cape Town for family and friends who might be interested (but they won’t all be nature photos).

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018

I have just finished reading Horatio Clare’s charming little book Orison for a Curlew about the (possibly) extinct slender-billed curlew. It’s a mix of travel and nature writing

My photo and plate are taken from the entry about the slender-billed curlew in Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender-billed_curlew

I so enjoyed reading this book and thought it would be worthwhile to record the nature books that I have read and enjoyed in the last few months:

Horatia Clare (2015) Orison for a Curlew (Little Toller)

Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss (2017) Wonderland A Year of Britain’s Wildlife, Day by Day (John Murray)

Rosamond Richardson (2017) Waiting for the Albino Dunno How Birds Can Change Your Life (Weidenfield & Nicholson)
Simon Barnes (2017) The Meaning of Birds (Kindle Edition http://www.headofzeus.com)

Lars Gejl (2016) Waders of Europe A Photographic Guide (Bloomsbury)

I have also created a bibliography page which I will add to as time allows.

Bibliography

Circumstances and dismal weather have limited my sorties recently and so I enjoyed my walk through Stoke Park and Eastville Park this morning, especially as the weather was  milder and the birds are beginning to sing (although most of the noise seemed to come from robins which were just about everywhere).

In Stoke Park the first bird I heard (and then saw) was a song thrush.

Next, in the (very) wet area next to Duchess Pond there was a male stonechat but no sign of the female. The crows even seemed quite cheery.

There were a couple of Canada geese on Duchess Pond, a few mallards and even more moorhens.

Before leaving Stoke Park a dunnock appeared and had plenty to say for itself.

In Eastville Park there were even more robins (I counted 10 different robins on my walk) and half a dozen long=tailed tits.

I was disappointed not to see a kingfisher at the lake but I think I was just unlucky as there were several reports of one. There was a cormorant fishing and it was interesting to see that some of the black-headed gulls are now getting proper black heads.

Some of the heads of the black-headed gulls are quite black now

The blackbirds were outnumbered by the robins this morning

The pigeons and wood pigeons were enjoying the sun too.

I spent a while watching a juvenile grey heron trying to fish but it didn’t seem to have the knack and was looking rather disheveled.

Near the weir I had very good views of a grey wagtail and then, just before I left the park, I saw the flash of a kingfisher fly along the River Frome.

When I arrived home I was beaming like the red breast of the robin.

A robin and holly – it could be Christmas!

A squirrel enjoying its stash of nuts.

More encouraging signs that winter is moving on – snowdrops next to the River Frome.

A blue tit also making lots of noise.

I saw a tweet (from Rojobus) about dippers (or the lack of them) in Siston Brook, Willsbridge and realised that the brook led to St. Anne’s Church (now famous for hawfinches and ring-necked parakeets) and thought I would have another go at seeing hawfinches. We had no luck but really enjoyed the stroll up from Willsbridge Mill (with its pleasant café) to St Anne’s Church.

We were treated to snowdrops, crocuses, catkins, a fleeting glimpse of a dipper and several views of a kingfisher. There were reports of ring-necked parakeets but none of hawfinches.

The ring-necked parakeet which I had seen at St Anne’s Church on the 29th January.

The trees are beginning to show signs of life

Catkins

The beautiful willow below St Anne’s Church

Crocuses and snowdrops

St Anne’s Church is a real delight (with its Commonwealth War Memorial graves) and beautiful yew trees.

The walk back was brightened by a cheery robin singing its heart out.

A cheery robin singing near to Siston Brook

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning:

I was the only person at Northwick Warth this morning and it wasn’t really surprising as it was bitterly cold. However, there was plenty of bird action to maintain my interest and encourage me to stay.

There were large flocks of wigeon, dunlin and redshank and 3 oystercatchers on the water’s edge, 50+ curlew and 40+ shelduck on the warth (warth is an old or dialect word for a river bank or a flat meadow beside a river or estuary especially along the Severn estuary).

Redshank

Redshank and dunlin

Dunlin in flight

Redshank

2 redshank and a dunlin

A wigeon escaped the flock

Mixed flock of wigeon and dunlin

Oystercatchers join the dunlin and redshank

2 curlew in flight

Oystercatcher and a dunlin

Wigeon

Redshank in flight

Dunlin in flight

Curlew flying with dunlin

Flock of dunlin

Dunlin

Mixed flocks

And a few others before driving home:

Starling

Robin

House sparrow (male)

House sparrow (female)

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning:

Eastville Park in the rain in winter is more about fungi and lichen but this afternoon I saw the first celandine of the year and the yellow theme was maintained when a grey wagtail came close and brightened up a miserable afternoon. Through the gloom the catkins also looked quite a picture.

Grey wagtail

You would think it would be all about ducks on a day like today (and there were quite a few)  but there were plenty of other things to see and (try and) photograph.

Black-headed gull

Mute swan

Canada goose

Moorhen

Herring gull

Herring gull

Blackbird

Long-tailed tit

Long-tailed tit

Grey heron

Moorhen

Cormorant

Female mallard – the special one

The rain was quite persistent and I was quite glad to get home.

After relentless rain yesterday it was not surprising that it was very wet in the park today. I saw three goldfinch as soon as I arrived in the park and then a male and a female stonechat.

On the lake there were a dozen mallards, 2 moorhens and a grey heron which flew from one side of the lake to another, giving me good opportunities for photos of birds in flight.

There were only three black-headed gulls but plenty of crows and a single blackbird.

A very pleasant hour spent on a dull afternoon.

One of three goldfinch which didn’t really want to show themselves

Male stonechat on 2 different perches

Mallard in flight

Pair of mallards in flight

Grey heron flying from one side of Duchess Pond to another:

Mallards looking very handsome

Black birds

Crow

Blackbird

Just a chance for a few photos whilst on a visit to Midsomer Quilting at Chilcompton in North Somerset.

Collared doves, robins, pied wagtail and meadow pipit,

Unusual to get 2 robins together?

Collared doves in a barn

Meadow pipit

Pied wagtail

Bucolic scene in North Somerset

First snowdrops of the year

Rainbow over Chew Valley Lake on our journey to Chilcompton

Winter Levels – The Somerset Levels as seen through the eyes of quilter Judy Hayward on a frosty morning