On a dull morning, myself, Alastair Campbell, Hilary Atkins, Will Jamieson, Christine Fowler, Di Gilbert and Barb Schlegel set off along the 1st and 2nd fairways to explore the fringing bush and woodland. After months of trying we finally got our binoculars on the vociferous but elusive yellow-whiskered greenbul, and whistling the call of the yellow-rumped tinkerbird brought it down into plain view to see who was invading its territory. As the light improved we got good views of African green pigeon, cinnamon-chested bee-eater, and scarlet-chested, variable, northern double-collared, and collared sunbirds. Spot-flanked and white-headed barbets were also in good voice.
At the pond near the tee on the 5th, grosbeak weavers were constructing their wonderfully tidy nests, and Hilary Atkins later obtained assurance from the Club management that they would not be disturbed by any cutting back of the reeds. At the dams, however, it was again sadly demonstrated that a sea of plastic is not an attractive bird habitat, and the migrant population was restricted to a few black-winged stilts and common sandpipers, along with a grey heron and the resident family of Egyptian geese.
At the wetlands the star of the show was a perched long-crested eagle, the first sighting of that species on the bird walk. All in all the walk yielded a very satisfying 52 species, listed below.
All best, John Dawson
Egyptian Goose
Yellow-billed Duck
Little Grebe
Sacred Ibis
Hadada Ibis
Grey Heron
Reed Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Black Kite
African Goshawk
Long-crested Eagle
Black Crake
Black-winged Stilt
Three-banded Plover
Common Sandpiper
Red-eyed Dove
African Green Pigeon
Hartlaub’s Turaco
Klaas’s Cuckoo
Little Swift
Speckled Mousebird
Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird
Spot-flanked Barbet
White-headed Barbet
Black-backed Puffback
Tropical Boubou
Common Fiscal
Pied Crow
Rock Martin
Red-rumped Swallow
Yellow-breasted Apalis
Grey-capped Warbler
Grey-backed Camaroptera
Common Bulbul
Yellow-whiskered Greenbul
Olive Thrush
Cape Robin Chat
Ruppell’s Robin Chat
White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher
Collared Sunbird
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Bronze Sunbird
Northern Double-collared Sunbird
Variable Sunbird
Grosbeak Weaver
Baglafecht Weaver
Spectacled Weaver
Holub’s Golden Weaver
Speke’s Weaver
African Pied Wagtail
Streaky Seedeater