flamingo | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

Our week of hard work and assessments ended with a rewarding two days of FUNSCAPES. Parents, I am sure your little girls have told you all about it and I will be getting them to report back on what they did early next week – so watch this space. For me FUNSCAPES was just fabulous. Imagine being able to use two school day to indulge my passion – BIRDS. I was delighted to hear that my club – Bird Watching – A Hobby for Life was filled very quickly. Those who did not get in – Don’t worry, it will be offered again next year. Twenty-one girls and boys from Grade 1 to Grade 5 entered my classroom on Thursday morning and when I asked – “Why did you choose Bird Watching as your Funscape this year? – these were the replies. ‘I see birds all the time and I like watching them.’ ‘I went to a place with my family once and saw all these birds and ever since then I’ve wanted to learn more about birds.’ ‘I like all animals and I think birds are interesting because they are so pretty.’ ‘My grandpa loves birds and so do I.’ ‘Well, I have two reasons – no actually three reasons. I think birds are interesting. I like all animals and a bird is an animal and I want to save the birds.’ Every one of these kids was there because something inside them made them interested in birds and they had a hunger to learn more. The weather forced me to have our first day in the classroom instead of going on an excursion to Rondevlei. I have used this programme before but it was geared to Grade 3 and above. There was a lot to pack into those four hours and I had a mixed age group – how to manage the content to suit them all was a challenge. Putting them into mixed groups of three was the answer. I made each session short – first a PowerPoint presentation on bills and beaks followed by a group activity – then an outdoor break and back to feet and legs and a group activity on that. Last of all a PowerPoint presentation on the birds we were likely to see followed by creating a card game to help us learn their names. All their handouts were given to them in a Flipfile and one of them said – Do we get to take these flip files home? ‘Of course,’ I replied. “Cool!” One satisfied customer!

I think I know the answer

The older ones helped the smaller ones

What do you think the answer is?

The weather today was not much better but our destination was The False Bay Ecology Park. The ponds here are home to a huge variety of birds. Had the weather been better I would have had the children out of the cars but it was wet and freezing so in the cars we stayed using walkie talkie radios to communicate. The roads were muddy and at one point we had to turn around for fear of getting stuck! My husband was helping with lifts in the Fortuner and went to investigate which roads would be suitable and in his brief separation from us, found a spotted eagle owl. The youngsters with him were over the moon. “Not fair,” I said “that they got an exclusive sighting!” “Tough!” said my deviant husband!

The exclusive sighting – Spotted Eagle Owl in his usual spot.

In spite of muddy roads and inclement weather we had a very successful trip. The children were keen to get the 30 or so target birds on their tick lists and except for a few that eluded us they did very well. They were also thrilled to see a little slender mongoose while we were sitting still eating our lunch. I told the children that we were unlikely to see a pied kingfisher – but I was wrong – right at the end, kingfisher was called! Take a look at some of the amazing birds we saw. As one little lass said – It’s like a bird paradise here!

The best place to find Flamingoes

Red-knobbed coot

Cape Shoveller

The Gulls Flushed into the air caused great excitement

Purple Swamphen

A tricky bird to find – but he appeared just as I’d lost hope of seeing him

Thank you very much to the three parents who gave up their precious time and braved the muddy roads to assist us on this outing. It is really very much appreciated. A big thank you too to my hubby who took the day off from work to help us. Of course he didn’t listen to any of my instructions and spoilt the kids rotten!

24 August 2012

Those of you who follow and read my Blog regularly will know that at my school there is always something exciting happening. Each term we offer the learners a mini-break from regular school activities. The teachers (and a few kind friends of the school) have to come up with a fun club which the learners can apply for a small fee to participate in. The fee covers the costs involved plus a percentage which goes into school funds. We call these clubs, Funscapes. I cannot even begin to tell you how much effort, organisation and creativity goes into organising these events. In the first two terms we have ‘mini’ one day clubs which involves just the grade but in the third term two day Funscapes are offered and the children have to apply to join the one of their choice. Many wonderful things are on offer – cake decorating, fabric painting, ceramic painting, ice-skating, surfing, horse-riding, hiking, mini Olympics, Prince and Princess tea parties, amazing race and computer gaming, young scientist – the list goes on. How to compete with all these amazing clubs is something of a challenge. My passion as most of my readers know is Bird Watching. I have offered this as a Funscape before, but that was when I was a parent/grandparent. Then I took just 6 children in my own vehicle to visit a venue where water birds abound. Now that I am back in the classroom, I am expected to have at least 20 in my club. This means having to persuade parents to help with lifts – and on two days in a row this could be a challenge. Also if I don’t get the number of subscribers I desire I could be relegated to help with another over-subscribed Funscape. This is what happened to me last year when only 6 applied. But luck was on my side this year – I worded my advert differently, opened it to a wider age range and it worked. I had 21 young enthusiasts and 5 parents willingly offered to help with transport.

On Day 1 – I gathered my birders together in the classroom and gave them a super quick lesson on water birds and presented a slide show on what they were likely to see. After weeks of cold and wet weather, I prayed for a sunny, windless day as the wind can keen through those hides and I did not want my beginners to be put off for life. My prayers were answered when Thursday dawned crisp and clear and by the time we arrived at 11:00 a.m. the chill had turned to warm. We were the only school there and met up with just one other adult. My charges were extremely well-behaved and although I apologised to the gentleman for invading his peaceful morning he smile indulgently and said, “It’s great to see the young ones being introduced to birding – they’re no trouble at all.”

There were not too many birds but it was a good introduction and the kids were not confused by having to find the different species among a mixed flock.

Hippo frequent to waters of Rondevlei and the children were fascinated when I showed them evidence of where they emerged to graze at night. Maybe we will see one, they declared. No, I explained – they only come out at night and we won’t see them from the hides because they are further out in deep water during the day. (I have only once seen Hippo at Rondevlei)

We ended the excursion with a visit to the museum where they could study the stuffed models and get to see up close what the different birds and animals looked like in terms of colour and size.

First Hide at Rondevlei

Reed cormorant

Southern Pochard and White-breasted Cormorant

Today, (Friday 24.8.12) we headed for Strandfontein Important Bird Area. Each child was given a Chart with the birds they were likely to see and a tick list. The settling ponds were alive with bird activity and there was lots to see. Each car had a walkie talkie and I kept up a constant commentary on what we were seeing, where to find the bird on their charts and now and then we stopped and got out of the vehicles to get a better view of the birds – but this was only when I was sure the movement of the children would not frighten our feathered friends away.

Recently in the news there has been reports of a hippo escaping from Rondevlei and wandering around the Zeekoevlei area. Residents of the suburb had been warned that this animal might wander around at night and could graze on their lawns. My young charges knew the story and knew too that we were going to a place right next door to Zeekoevlei. My colleagues at school were a tad nervous that we were going to escaped hippo territory and warned me to be careful – You might run into the hippo – please be careful. (The media really gets to people) I laughed and said, We should be so lucky!

The birding was great – we saw flamingos, red knobbed coots, yellow-billed ducks and Cape Teal. Hadedas, sacred and glossy ibis drew squeals of delight and this all before we very far into the sanctuary.

As we drove past one of the ponds – S7, I saw what looked like a block of wood floating in the distance. I ignored it as such until my walkie talkie crackled and an excited parent called – We see a Hippo. I thought I’d better check out my piece of wood with my binoculars and sure enough there it was – the stray from Rondevlei right under our noses! I hopped out the car and instructed the children to keep calm and gather at on the bank for a better look. Of course they were excited but they managed to contain themselves sufficient and did not yell and scream. The hippo cooperated beautifully and swam closer and closer to the bank. I guess he was just as curious about the children as they were about him. We spent a good half hour enjoying this unusual visitor to the old settling ponds of Strandfontein and then reluctantly moved on to enjoy some more feathered creatures.

Looking at the hippo

There he is

Hi Kids – Welcome to Strandfontein Important Bird Area

This was not the last exciting sighting of the day. Two porcupine made a brief appearance and quite a few of the children saw them well – my vehicle, unfortunately “dipped” on that one.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at the tern roost and watched the flamingos flying in and settling right in the pond right in front of us.

The children were thrilled to get a list of over 35 bird species and all declared that they had had an awesome outing. I hope this introduction to bird watching remains a hobby that they can do for the rest of their lives.