9 March 2025

On Sunday 9 March we did a BirdLife eThekwini KZN bird survey at Van Riebeeck Park on the Bluff as part of the continuing series. After all the recent rain, we were expecting that the wetland would have water, and this proved to be so, with the grass flooded up to close to the boardwalk. However, the rampant growth of vegetation meant that there was almost no open water, so no waterbirds. There was still a lot of alien vegetation, but there were clear signs of recent activity to control it.

At the start of the walk, we were greeted by a Black-headed Heron stalking along the car park, and the usual wagtails by the cricket pavilion. Just before the start of the boardwalk, I heard a very creaky song coming from a nearby bush – Great Reed Warbler. I had not recorded it here before and it would be a lifer for Anneli. Fortunately, it chose to come out from the depths of the bush and showed itself nicely in the morning sun for a while.

We then moved on to the boardwalk, where we added the usuals: Southern Red Bishops, Fan-tailed Widowbirds, Levaillant’s and Rattling Cisticolas and the raucous Natal Spurfowls. Other than that, the birds were quite quiet, but there were clearly lots of tiny aerial insects about, as the skies were full of swifts and swallows: White-rumped and African Palm Swifts, Lesser Striped and Barn Swallows, Brown-throated Martins and Black Saw-wings. Interestingly, on looking at the photos, many of them had very tatty plumage with plenty of damaged feathers – clearly in need of a moult.

Thereafter, we did our routine perambulation around the grass fields, adding the resident Yellow-throated Longclaws, Little Bee-eaters and eventually the African Pipits. There were also flyovers of Yellow-billed Kite, African Woolly-necked Storks and Spur-winged Geese, but they didn’t land. Common and Grey Waxbills were nice additions, but the final highlight was a European Honey Buzzard that came circling overhead, although not close.

In the end we got a bird list of 57 species, which is the typical number we get, but also added a good number of butterflies and dragonflies, which seemed to be more numerous and conspicuous than in recent walks there.

Text by Steve Davis and photos by Anneli Mynhardt