3 March 2024

There was a nice turnout for the survey at van Riebeeck Park in the Bluff area. The weather was good and we were welcomed by low-flying Barn Swallows and Lesser Striped Swallows, Village Weavers building nests in the fig trees and even a Yellow-throated Longclaw in the overgrown grass in the parking area. The usual forest birds were calling, and the birdlist grew quickly. The resident Natal Spurfowls were calling raucously, but remained hidden in the long grass, while a Sombre Greenbul gave us good views (Figure 2). We walked out along the boardwalk, which had been cleared of grass and weeds, so nobody tripped up this time (Figure 3). A lot of alien vegetation had been cleared and, although there were plenty of bulrushes in the wetland area, there was no exposed water. We probably need more rain for that – it has been quite a dry summer.

We spent quite a while watching over the wetland and grassland area, getting good views of Levaillant’s Cisticola, Burchell’s Coucal, Fan-tailed Widowbird and Little Bee-eaters. Practice in swift identification was provided by African Palm, Little and White-rumped Swifts.  A special bird that I have not seen there before and which was a lifer for a few members was a Brown-backed Honeybird, which nicely showed off its white outer tail feathers as it explored the grass and vegetation not very far away, presumably searching for cisticola or prinia nests, both of which it parasitizes.

When the addition rate to the bird list slowed down, we went back along the boardwalk and walked along a newly-mown path through the grassland. There wasn’t a lot to see here other than Little Bee-eaters and more Levaillant’s Cisticolas, but the group was interested in a large moth resting on plant stem, possibly Azygophleps inclusa, which has the equally strange common name of ‘inclusive goat’! And you thought some bird names were odd.

Thereafter we wandered around the edges of the cricket fields. The lower field yielded two pairs of African Pipits that allowed us good views, while a Familiar Chat watched us from a sight screen and we had a brief view of a slender mongoose. Near the road, three Black-headed Heron were foraging for insects in the grass, but not a lot else was seen on the walk that took us back to the carpark, where we again saw the Yellow-throated Longclaw and a Yellow Weaver that was nearby some nests in the reeds. In the end, we racked up a list of 47 species in 2 ½ hours, not bad for a small not very natural area, albeit in rehabilitation, in the suburbs.

Report by Steve Davis