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From: Self <MUSEUM/WVADER>
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Subject: African impressions
Cc:
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 09:07:25 -0200
TWO CATCHUP WALKS IN THE OVERBERG. 2. VROLIJKHEID RESERVE
I stayed overnight in Robertson, a quiet small town full of
jacarandas, and arrived at the gate of the Vrolijkheid reserve near
Macgregor as early as 8 o'clock. (Early for me, that is; I know i
should have been here two hours before!)
This is a very different landscape from the mountain fijnbos of Sir
Lowry's Pass The vegetation is much scantier and thornier, and
there are even veritable coppices of Sweet Acacia, while various
succulent Euphorbia, numnumbushes and botterwood are much to the
fore.
The weather was glorious, calm and warm, thus ideal for birding, but
a lot of pesky small flies made it difficult to stand still. Much
fewer flowers, also fewer lizards, but lots of turtles, both on land
and in the large dams.
The most conspicuous birds in the morning were the Karoo Robins,
especially as the pairs apparently could never meet without a small
ceremony of calls and wing-flapping. That ardour decreased with the
increasing temperature, it seemed. There also ought to be various
larks, eremomelas, and Rufous-eared Warbklers in the dry stuff, but
I never saw any of them, possibly because I left the drier areas
till too late
Instead I walked the Heron trail, and stayed a long time in the two
hides overlooking various parts of the large dam. What a peaceful
scene! At first I only saw a heraldic Darter sharing an islet with a
large fat tortoise close by, and a family of SA Shelducks with 6
largish young paddling at the opposite shore. Then a Spoonbill flew
in and started foraging, and a pair of coots came out of the reeds.
The longer you look the more you see: Common Sandpipers on one little
beach, a Three-banded plover on another, and even a large shaggy
mongoose (Water Mongoose?) eating something dead, half-hidden in the
background forbs. None of the birds reacted to him at all! Not even
the Blacksmith Plover, who otherwise would not tolerate any
sandpipers or plovers on "his beach" at all; neither a Kittlitz
Plover nor a Greenshank got the chance to land anywhere---the
Bontkiewiet harrassed them till they left in disgust. He did not
react at all, however, to the ducklings, the spoonbill, or to a Cape
wagtail. Why this difference?
Somewhat later a pair of Moorhens ventured out of the reeds, and a
small Black Crake sprinted across the open area from one clump of
reeds to the next one.
In the other hide, things were even quieter, although here a small
group of Springbok and a few ostriches came in to drink. The path to
this hide led through a sizeable thicket of Acacia. Here there
clearly were birds, but they were not all that easy to watch. SoI I
walked that stretch 10-15 times, and very very slowly birds started
to show themselves. First only Cape White-eyes and Karoo Robins, so
Titbabblers, then a Pied Barbet, a pair of Crombecs, looking like a
cat got their tail, and a Bar-throated Apalis shouting its little
song-ditty.Theno some different-looking Prinia's turned up, close to
the border of the reeds: less spotty, long wispy tails, Namaqua
Prinia's.
And on one of the last runs I had the good fortune to watch
and listen to the Fairy Flycatcher, a dainty bird that certainly
lives up to its name. As so often, once I had seen it once, I could
watch three in a row quite well, and in rapid succession.
I spent 5 hours in the reserve, met nobody at all. Maybe I saw not
all that many different birds either, but it was a miost satisfactory
day anyway.
Wim Vader, c.o.South African Museum
Cape Town,
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