Women’s Day Birding

My darling husband decided to drive up to Struisbaai to check on the renovations this morning and was up at 6:00 a.m. to make and early start. I offered to go with him but he was happy to go alone. So instead Cheryl, Andrea and I celebrated Women’s Day at Rondevlei and Strandfontein. Cheryl has a new camera and Andrea new binoculars and both wanted to try their new toys out! I packed coffee and sandwiches and arrived at Cheryl’s at 8:30. We all piled into the Caravelle and hit Rondevlei at 9. The open hide in front of the new conference room gave us our first excitement for the day – a bittern flew into the reeds and then a crake appeared briefly before flying across the water and disappearing into the reed on the other side.

The next hide always has a lot to offer so we checked it out briefly before going to the end and working our way back and finishing in said hide at the end. It was not as active as last Sunday but we did see purple swamphen and the little malachite kingfisher. We also go the kingfisher on the walk-through bridge hide where it posed beautifully on both sides for us. But my pics were not good. I think Cheryl got better ones with her Nikon.

Highlights of the day at Rondevlei this morning were Spur-winged geese, white-faced ducks, malachite kingfisher, purple swamphen, bittern and crake. At 10:30 we sat at a sunny table and enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and sandwiches. While we were relaxing we heard the familiar call of the Klaas’s Cuckoo very close by. I eventually found him in the branches of a tree and we got some lovely photographs – another special sighting.

Strandfontein was not as cold and windy as last week and there was busy bird activity in every pond. There were more flamingos, many black oyster catchers, avocets, little grebes, southern pochards and all the rest that are often seen. We did not see any purple swamphens though.

On our way back going past Rondevlei I spotted a purple heron out of the corner of my eye – There was a car behind me so instead of making a sudden stop so prone to birders I swerved onto the grass verge and leaped out of the car camera and binoculars at the ready. The bird very politely flew up and landed in an even better position and posed nicely for some good portraits.

Wow – what a good day’s birding with the girls. Its something we must do together again soon.