Saturday 6th May, 2023

We met in the picnic area at the entrance to the reserve. We couldn’t have asked for better weather for a morning birding. The plan was to explore the bush clumps in the picnic area, before proceeding into the reserve for the walk.

As it turned out, we had waves of bird parties flying through the bush clump in front of us.  Chinspot Batis, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Cape Glossy Starling, Brown-hooded Kingfisher and Yellow-eyed Canary were just some of the very active bird party we had. It was here, that we spotted a female Black Cuckooshrike and Fiscal Flycatcher, which was one of the target birds, and one of the highlights of the day.

The woodland at the start of the path was relatively quiet and as expected the birds were heard rather than seen. A Southern Boubou in a flowering Cabbage tree was quite entertaining. When the path opened up into the grassland we were soon rewarded with a number of Little Bee-eaters in the bright sunlight, which was ideal for photography. 

We also saw a few Lesser Striped Swallows circling above.

The latter half of the walk was also relatively quiet, and with no water in the pond at the hide, there wasn’t any activity there.

The bird list for the day was a total of 53 species, some seen and some heard.

 Walk led by and report written by Terry Walls.