26 April 2025

The annual outing to Grass Roots Farm in Cato Ridge took place on Saturday, April 26, 2025.

Originally, 24 members had registered for the walk, but due to the heavy rainfall in Durban the previous week, only 17 arrived early at the meeting point to proceed to the farm. We were informed that the farm had received 1mm of rain in the last 24 hours, but judging by the road conditions, it seemed like much more had fallen.

We slipped and slid as we made our way to the farm, finding a parking spot near the main office.

As we approached the parking area, an African Crake darted across the road, but I was too preoccupied with the vehicles following me to get my camera out to capture the sighting. The underfoot was much wetter than expected, but those who had brought gum boots were rewarded with dry feet throughout the outing.

Once everyone had settled in, we set off around the first dam. We were immediately greeted with sightings of Black Crake, African Jacana, Yellow-billed Duck, Red-knobbed Coot, Common Moorhen, Reed Cormorant, and in the distance, we spotted Red-billed Teal and White-breasted Cormorant.

As we continued along the pond wall, we had a great view of African Swamphen and a fly-by of a group of Southern Bald Ibis.

Moving on to the second pond, we were delighted to see African Yellow Warbler and Blue-billed Teal.

In the distance, on the cultivated grass, we spotted the Black-winged Lapwings. We also had a fly-by of approximately 20 birds.

We saw a Black Sparrowhawk being mobbed by Blacksmith Lapwing and shortly thereafter, a gracious pair of Grey-crowned Crane flew past.

We got a good visual of a Giant Kingfisher. Jenny Pahl, who was knowledgeable about birds, explained that the male wears a waistcoat, while the female wears an apron. Later, we saw a Pied Kingfisher, and Jenny reminded us that the male wears a mayoral chain, while the female does not. These are important details to remember.

We eventually made our way back to the parking area for a well-deserved cup of tea and a chat. Some members decided to leave, while the remaining went to the third pond to look for Lesser Moorhen, which had been sighted recently by Clive, the farm owner. The third pond didn’t yield the Lesser Moorhen, but along the way, we spotted Three-banded Plover, Kittlitz’s Plover, Blue-billed Teal, and a kingfisher that flew away towards a wooded area was identified as an African Pygmy Kingfisher.

As we made our way back to the parking area, we got to see an African Fish Eagle.

On my way out, I was greeted by a Black-winged Kite.

In total, we recorded 76 species for the morning, which is 5 more than we did on our previous outing to Grass Roots Farm.

Text and pics by Ronnie Herr