An excellent outing to the Durban Botanical Gardens – lovely weather and a good turnout – also a number of non-members joined us due to Virginia advertising our outings in the various newspapers.
Liz Ellis, who used to be very involved with the Gardens when she lived across the road, was a wonderful source of info on the various trees etc. – she was concerned that the Egyptian Geese might have taken over the Black Sparrow-hawks nest but the Black Spars were very much in residence, with fresh greenery around the top of the nest and we saw one of the adults bringing in a kill. There was also a dead Rock Dove under one of the trees with the breast and heart torn out!!
There were a number of Red-capped Robin-chats, Kurrichane Thrush and various weavers all going through the leaf litter under the trees – plus a White-browed Scrub Robin which I don’t think I have seen in the Gardens before. Of course the White-eared Barbets are starting to make their presence felt but still a number of Black-Collared Barbets were seen, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbirds, Olive, Amethyst, White-bellied and Collared Sunbirds in abundance.
At the pond we had Green-backed, Purple, Grey and a Black-headed Heron plus the Pink-backed Pelicans, Spoonbills and Sacred Ibis nesting in the Casuarians. Our total bird count was about 50 plus.
After walking through the Orchid house we retired to the tea kiosk for some much needed refreshment.
The excellent pics were taken by John Bremner and Dave Rimmer – thanks guys.
Cheers
Elena
