Yesterday was South Africa’s Birding Big Day (BBD) when teams from all over the country compete in an area of their choice within a 50km radius, in order to try to identify as many birds as possible. It is a very stimulating and enjoyable event, but sadly, too few take part.
Our team, the ‘Grey Herons’, comprising Renee, Cynthia and me, set out at 4:45 am ready to take on the Challenge in the Hermanus area. Of course, it was raining! Some wet weather had been forecast, but we had about three times what was predicted. Nevertheless, we persevered and started to accumulate our birds, first in Hermanus, and then heading westwards, via Onrus, Vermont Pan and the Hawston sewage works (where we met Lester and Cheryl, also competing) to the Swartrivier road.
Fortunately, it started to clear after about three hours, by which time we were well into our work, having a good list which included most of the local Larks and the inevitable Denham’s Bustard, but we were not seeing or hearing many species which we thought would be a cinch, such as the Cuckoos
Our journey took us to Rooisand, where we met other competitors, but the water is very low and we did not get much. One of the problems with trying to cover a large area is that we felt that we had to keep moving and probably did not devote enough time to walking around.
We proceeded to Rooi Els, where we failed to see the Cape Rockjumpers and Ground Woodpeckers, and then on to Stony Point. Harold Porter was a bit disappointing – no Swee Waxbills, but at least we got a Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher!
We had lunch in the car park before heading back east through Hermanus and on to Stanford, where Appel se Dam was pretty bare, as was the Klein river. The feeding grounds for waders have been severely disrupted by the recent floods, so we saw less than expected.
We then headed down the gravel road via Papiesvlei towards the Uilenkraal river mouth. Along the way we were lucky to find a couple of Lesser Honeyguides – fantastic, before a detour to the road into Flower Valley, which was great as we immediately got Black and Red-chested Cuckoos as well as Burchell’s Coucal.
Our stop at Uilenkraalmond was not very productive and we went on towards Danger Point for a great sighting of a large flock of Ruddy Turnstones, before heading for home.
We were out for 14 hours of continuous birding, and we achieved a total count of 135 species, less than last year, but nevertheless very enjoyable and super stimulating! Unfortunately, the birding was so intense, that I did not have time for any photography, so have no images of what we saw! The map below comes from Birdlasser and shows our sightings.
roncorylus 