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CAPE BIRD CLUB NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2014
CLUB ACTIVITIES
Thursday 4 December
CLUB FUNDRAISER
The Sound of Laughter with Alan Committie
There are just 30 tickets left, so don't delay - see the notice below for booking details.
Saturday 6 November
RONDEVLEI OUTING
Meet at 08h00 These regular monthly outings are for all Rondevlei enthusiasts. Beginners are especially welcome.
Directions: Travel down the M5 towards Grassy Park and look out for Nando's at the 5th Avenue traffic light. Turn left here and continue along 5th Avenue to the first set of traffic lights. Turn left into Perth Road and continue to the end of the road.
There is a small entrance fee for those without season tickets.
The outing usually lasts until about 10.30 but you are welcome to stay as long as you like.
Convenor: Merle Chalton (phone 021 686 8951)
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KIRSTENBOSCH BIRD WALKS
Tuesday 9 December
These bird walks led by members of the Cape and Tygerberg Bird Clubs are still proving popular.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about our Kirstenbosch birds is welcome to join the walks.
The walks are free of charge but the entrance fee for Kirstenbosch is payable if you do not have a BotSoc Card.
This month the walk will take place on Wednesday 5 November.
The duration of the walk is about two hours
Meet at 08h00 at the Information Desk at Gate One.
Leader: Graham Pringle (083 707 1339)
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BIRD COUNTS AND HACKS
Saturday 6 December: Zandvlei Hack
Meet at 14h00
Leader: Gavin Lawson (021 705 5224)
Sunday 7 December: Kirstenbosch BIRP Count.
Meet at 08h00
Leader: John Magner (082 881 3845)
Thursday 11 December: Wildevoelvlei CWAC
Meet at 08h30
Leader: Eric Barnes (021 782 5429)
Sunday 14 December: Strandfontein CWAC
Meet at 08h00
Leader: Dick Barnes (021 689 1106)
Thursday 18 December: Athlone WWTW Count
Meet at 13h00
Leader: Dick Bos (021 423 2546)
These counts will take place weather permitting
Saturday 20 December: Paarl Bird Sanctuary CWAC
Meet at 09h00
Leader: Yvonne Weiss (021 872 4972)
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Alan Committee is ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF LAUGHTER
His new show premieres this December and The Cape Bird Club’s Fundraiser will be on his second night!
The 40-year-old comedian with slightly greying hair is trying to be a little more serous about his comedy.
This essentially means new material but the same suit covering everything from:-
• Selfies to Christmas Elfies
• Banting whilst bunting
• The final say on the Pistorius Trial
• A beautifully nuanced recreation of The Sound of Music – in 8 minutes
• A powerful if ineffective examination of War Horse and why it cannot solve the Middle East Crisis
• Special appearances by Johan van der Walt and demotivational speaker, Trevor Tahor
This promises to be an evening you don’t want to miss. So have some fun while supporting your club!
When: 4 December 2014 at 8pm
Where: Theatre on the Bay
Please contact Helen Fenwick on fenwickh@telkomsa.net or 082 705 1536 as soon as possible to book your tickets
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MEETING COORDINATOR
On behalf of the members of the Club, the committee would like to thank Heather Howell for coordinating our evening meetings for many years.
Unfortunately, Heather has decided that it is time to hand over this responsibility to someone else.
We therefore require a meeting coordinator to organise the program and speakers for the evening meetings.
Heather will organise the meetings until March 2015, so the new person will be required to organise the program from March onwards in time for the next edition of Promerops.
Heather will share tips and ideas to make the task less daunting.
If you are willing to take over this important portfolio please contact a committee member.
ADVERTISING FOR PROMEROPS
The Committee would like to thank Jo Hobbs for sourcing advertising for Promerops in addition to her editorial duties. As Jo and Otto are retiring as editors, we urgently need someone to take on the task of contacting potential advertisers as soon as possible.
This is not a particularly onerous task, as we do not want to have too many adverts, but it is important because the adverts in Promerops are important to help keep the costs down.
If you are willing to take over this important task please contact a committee member.
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VERNON HEAD`S NEW BOOK
“The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World”
This very excellent book by our past Chairman, Vernon, is now available.
Gavin and Anne Greig are selling copies for the Cape Bird Club at the discounted price of R220.
To order, please phone 021 794 7791.
The books can be collected from their house in Constantia.
Quoting from the information on the book, “This book is much more than an adventure in search of the rarest bird in the world. It is a meditation on nature, on ways of seeing, on the naming of things and why we feel so compelled to label”.
Vernon was one of four in an expedition led by Ian Sinclair, to try to find the elusive Nechisar Nightjar at the Plains of Nechisar in Ethiopia.
A must-read for all birding enthusiasts!
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CAPE BIRD CLUB OUTING
EERSTE RIVER RAMBLE
Sunday 19th October 2014
Twenty eight members arrived at the dam on Vergenoegd wine estate for this outing, and though the wind was apparently blowing in Cape Town it was quite calm in the wine lands. A good number of birds were on the dam, including Purple Heron, African Spoonbill, Yellow billed Duck, many Little Grebes, Red Knobbed Coots, and the reeds had all the usual weavers’ bishops, warblers. By the time we left Vergenoegd our list stood at 24 species.
We arranged to leave some cars behind in the restaurant car park and then drove through to Spier Wine Estate. Leaving our vehicles in the car park we walked first through the manicured gardens and there were Cape Canary’s, Cape Robin Chats, White-eyes and SDC sunbirds. In the scrub next to the river we found a family of 3 Paradise Flycatchers and also a pair of Cape Batis. We were very lucky and saw a pair of African Black Ducks with two chicks on the river which rapidly scurried into hiding down the river!
We crossed the river into the farm area, which we had been given permission to go, an area which is being rehabilitated back to indigenous vegetation and renosterveld. A disturbed Spotted Eagle Owl flew low overhead and landed conveniently nearby for observation. Our first encounter with an African Reed-Warbler in this area was only by sound, but we were fortunate to see one properly a little later. In the open areas there were numerous Cape Longclaws and Grey-backed Cisticolas. Near the recycling centre we disturbed a pair of Spotted Eagle Owls. Good views of a Bar-throated Apalis and a male Olive Woodpecker as we approached the river again, and a pair of Fork Tailed Drongos brought our tally up to 61 species.
We left Spier and drove down to the estuary of the Eerste River at Macassar, here we met the near gale force winds that had been predicted and it made the birding very uncomfortable, and most folk did not venture far from the car! However there were a good number of birds present and we added Lesser and Greater Flamingo, African Oystercatcher, four different terns, namely Caspian, Sandwich, Common and Swift. There were also quite a number of duck on the river including Maccoa and Southern Pochard. The waders were extremely difficult to see as it was impossible to look through a telescope in the wind and we eventually gave up with our tally at 85 species.
We returned to the relative calmness of Vergenoegd and while having our tea beside the dam we added four birds including a White-backed Duck, giving us a total of 99 species for the outing, not bad in under 5 hours!
John Magner.
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Report : Club Outing to Clara Anna Fontein
Sunday 16 November 2014
The outing was attended by 32 enthusiasts and 54 bird species were recorded.
The weather was clear and sunny with a light south-easter. We picnicked on the lawns under the trees.
Species recorded were : Southern Red Bishop, Yellow Bishop, Cape Weaver, Southern Masked Weaver, African Reed Warbler, Lesser Swamp Warbler, Le Vaillants Cisticola, Cloud Cisticola, Grey Backed Cisticola, Yellow Billed Kite, Black Sparrow Hawk, Jackal Buzzard, Black Shouldered Kite, Cape Spurfowl, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Common Ostrich, Grey Heron, Cattle Egret, Bokmakirie, Common Fiscal, Fiscal Flycatcher, African Paradise Flycatcher, Malachite Sunbird, Southern Double Collared Sunbird, Red Capped Lark, African Pippit, Crowned Lapwing, Blacksmith Lapwing, Cape Canary, Common Starling, Cape Sparrow, Cape White-Eye, Cape Bulbul, Pied Crow, Karoo Prinia, Laughing Dove, Cape Turtle Dove, Speckled Pigeon, Fork Tailed Drongo, Cape Robin-Chat, Olive Thrush, Red Knobbed Coot, White Rumped Swift, Lesser Striped Swallow, Blue Crane, White Backed Mousebird, Klaas' Cuckoo, Large Billed Lark, Red Winged Starling, Steppe Buzzard, Egyptian Goose, African Sacred Ibis, Hadeda Ibis, White Throated Swallow.
The highlights were seeing the African Paradise flycatchers on their nest and Malachite Sunbirds duped into rearing a Klaas' Cuckoo chick.
All in all a very successful outing.
Thanks for the great turn-out
Sean de Nobrega
Thank you to Linda McIntosh for the photographs below.
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QUIZ EVENING WITH A DIFFERENCE
Our November meeting on 13 November took the form of a Quiz Evening, which was also the end of year party, seeing that out December meeting has been replaced by the Fundraiser evening.
The Quiz Evening was a very successful and fitting celebration to end off another birding year.
Over 100 participants had a lot of fun discussing and answering the quiz questions set by own very own Mel Tripp, ably assisted by Johan Schlebusch who made sure that the scores were added up correctly.
Who knew how competitive our fellow birders can be!
Thanks to everyone who contributed to making the evening such a success.
We are all looking forward to the next one!
Thank to Helen Fenwick for the photographs below.
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SASOL STRETTON'S WADER BASH
West Coast National Park
When: 20 to 22 February 2015
Contact:
Pam Rutledge : 071 160 2822 / 022 772 2787
Noeline van den Berg: 072 250 0045
waderbash.wcnp@gmail.com
Visit: www.sanparksvolunteers.org/west-coast-region
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BIRDATHON FESTIVAL 2015
The 2015 Birdathon/Festival will take place in the False Bay Nature Reserve on the 28th of March.
This is an annual event organised by the City Council, BLSA and the CBC.
It is aimed at making school children and their families more aware of the importance of the area and its bird llife.
Briefly the participants will walk a route through the birding area ranging from 2.5 to 5.5km (depending on age).
Along the route they will be asked a number of questions and the those answering all questions correctly could win a prize. Significant prizes are also offered to schools in a variety of categories.
On completion of the walk there will be a variety of activities and exhibits to entertain the participants including raptor, reptile and amphibian exhibits as well as food stalls.
Members of the club are asked to seriously consider assisting us in registration of members, marshalling along the route or manning the question tables.
It is a major event on the club's calender in terms of educating the youth .
This year we are hoping to have a CBC tent where the objectives of the club are explained and membership will be offered to interested individuals.
Please consider this seriously, it is a fun event with an important educational input.
If you feel moved to assist us please contact Dave Whitelaw at davesue@mweb.co.za for more details or to indicate that you will be available.
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Contributions for the Newsletter
Please send any contributions for the newsletter (interesting sightings, photographs or any interesting news items) to Cheryl Leslie at cdleslie@kingsley.co.za.
Photographs should not exceed 1MB in size.
Postal and Email addresses
Please ensure that we have your correct postal and email address, otherwise you may not receive the Bird Club newsletter or reminders.
Address changes: Please notify BirdLife promptly by post at P O Box 515 Randburg 2125 or fax to 011 789 5188 of any change in address to ensure that you continue receiving Promerops.Email changes:
Please contact BirdLife at membership@birdlife.co.za if you change your email address with a copy to ackroyd.joan@broadwalk-mews.co.za
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