November | 2020 | Mostly Birding

Continuing the monthly look at where Atlasing, or Birdmapping as it is also known, took me in August 2020 ….. in this case to two pentads in the Ruiterbos area north of Mossel Bay, which turned out to be as contrasting as two pentads adjoining each other can be

Ruiterbos Area – 25 August

Still using my earlier analysis of pentads in the southern Cape which had not yet been atlased in 2020, I noticed that the Ruiterbos area had one pentad not atlased since 2018 and with very low species totals recorded, which piqued my interest – nothing like a challenging pentad to make things interesting! Low totals, I have found, are usually due to limited diversity of habitat (all birds are particular to a specific habitat) or limited means of access to parts of the pentad, preventing the atlaser from getting to all the habitats. In some instances both of the above can apply, which results in really low totals.

I decided to target the challenging pentad as well as the one directly south of it, which seemed to hold more promise. Both are within about 45 minutes of home – the maps below show the location of the former…

The Route

With sunrise gradually coming earlier each day in late August, just a week away from Spring day, I set the alarm a bit earlier and left home at 6.15 am. I followed the R328 regional road to Oudtshoorn, passing Brandwag village and turned left at Ruiterbos Farm stall then travelled a couple of Kms along this quiet road before reaching the start of the first pentad at around 7 am.

Pentad 3355_2155

Birding got off to a brisk start with calls of several species welcoming the new day – a cool, fresh morning with little cloud. Blue Crane, Bokmakierie, Cape Grassbird, Grey-backed Cisticola, Red-necked (Cape Turtle) Dove, even Hadada Ibis all joined the chorus.

Cape Grassbird (Sphenoeacus afer / Grasvoël) (Race afer), Ruiterbos area

Not much further along the gravel road I stopped at two adjacent fields which showed how differences in usage of farming land can have a noticeable impact on the species to be found. The first was covered in lush green lucerne and was seemingly reserved for the “big boys” – Egyptian and Spur-winged Goose and Blue Cranes were prominent. The adjacent field had short patchy grass with a scattering of stones and cowpats – clearly used for grazing of cattle and the realm of the smaller guys – Lapwings (Crowned), Larks (Red-capped) and Pipits (Plain-backed).

Plain-backed Pipit (Anthus leucophrys / Donkerkoester), Ruiterbos area

Red-capped Lark (Calandrella cinerea / Rooikoplewerik) (Race cinerea), Ruiterbos area

Descending into a valley, I passed a fruit farm which had entire fields draped in protective shade cloth, mostly to keep insects out I would guess, but equally proficient at keeping birds away, creating a very sterile environment.

I did not dawdle and proceeded out of the valley into the hills beyond – what a contrast – suddenly the hills were alive with bird sounds, which were music to my ears (why do I feel a song coming on?). The next twenty minutes were bountiful, with 3 species of Sunbird (Southern Double-collared, Orange-breasted and Malachite), Cape Buntings and Cape Canaries twittering away, Stonechat and an African Olive Pigeon (New record).

Klaas’s Cuckoo (new record) announced its presence with its well-known “Meitjie” call and I wondered if it was an early arrival or perhaps one of those that had overwintered in the area, as they are known to do. A Cape Batis became my first record of this species for the year.

After an hour and a half in the pentad, I had logged 34 species – a good start, and being close to the second “challenging” pentad, I decided to tackle it while birds were still active and come back to the first pentad a bit later. This would hopefully maximise my chances of getting a reasonable total in the second pentad which, from the stats, was going to produce a low bird-count card, for reasons as yet unknown.

I returned later in the morning to complete a second “shift” in this pentad, carrying on where I had stopped before. I was now out of the prime birding area, into flatter countryside with less bush, but was still able to add regularly to my atlas card with the likes of Rock Kestrel, Victorin’s Warbler and African Black Swift (New record).

I managed to get a reasonable photo of the Rock kestrel – I had seen it returning with a small prey to its perch on top of a utility pole and guessed it would be pre-occupied while devouring it, which would allow a closer approach than usual. I was right and it only flew off again when the prey was ripped apart and swallowed.

Rock Kestrel (Falco rupicolus / Kransvalk), Ruiterbos area

Along the last stretch before exiting the pentad,another photo opportunity arose – this time an Olive Bushshrike (New record). I heard it calling from a particularly bushy area alongside the road and once I thought I had found the spot where it was concealed (which they are very good at doing) I tried some “pishing” which is a useful way of getting some species to pop out momentarily.

The Bushshrike obliged for just a few seconds, curious as to what was making this sound which birds associate with danger and I was able to snatch a few images – my best of this species to date!

Olive Bushshrike (Chlorophoneus olivaceus / Olyfboslaksman) (Race olivaceus), Ruiterbos area

The pentad had produced 50 species in all, and some very special ones at that.

Pentad 3350_2155

This was the pentad that had me wondering about the low totals logged by others. I soon found out why – apart from the first km or so which runs through open hills, the rest of the only access road ran through a commercial pine plantation, habitat which is notoriously sterile when it comes to bird life. The open stretch held Cape Grassbird, Karoo Prinia, Red-necked Spurfowl and African Pipit.

African Pipit (Anthus cinnamomeus / Gewone koester), Ruiterbos area

Entering the plantation, birding – and indeed life itself – seemed to slow down…

It was nevertheless a most pleasant environment to be in, despite being less than attractive for most bird species – exceptions were Black-headed Orioles, Cape Canaries, Cape Bulbul, and Cape White-eye, all of which I found easily and repeatedly, mostly at the fringes of the plantations.

At one stop, Greater Double-collared Sunbirds were curious bystanders but most stops were met with dead silence and no discernable movement, so each species added was quite precious as I slowly built on the list.

After two hours birding in the invigorating pine-scented air, I found I had reached 20 species, amazingly the second best total for the pentad out of 15 cards completed to date! I later found that I had added 3 new species to the pentad records, being Hadada Ibis (!), Speckled Pigeon and Black Sawwing.

Footnote : Where I show percentages in brackets, these refer to the relative scarcity of the species according to the pentad surveys completed to date over the ten years that the project has been running. So if 100 pentad surveys have been done to date and a species has been recorded 5 times by the observers, it will be shown as 5%. Notable species in my book are those with a % of less than 10%

Just in case you are expecting a tale of a wild trip into a far-off uninhabited, inhospitable area, let me start by saying that this Wilderness is the name of the town that lies a short drive east of George in the southern Cape……

We were in Mossel Bay in the southern Cape during much of the lockdown period and, once travel restrictions became less severe, we made a point of doing regular day trips to some of the delightful spots along the Garden Route. One of our trips was to Wilderness and specifically the surrounding area and the vleis (lakes) that are a feature of this part of the Garden Route.

Although not primarily a birding outing, we decided to include a visit to the bird hides at two vleis which we had visited some years ago and knew from social media reports that the hides were in good condition and well looked after. (Just a side note – why are they called bird hides? Surely the purpose is to hide people from the birds and not vice versa? Apologies, that’s my pedantic side coming to the fore!)

Day Trip 27 August 2020

We left Mossel Bay just after 10 am (“gentleman’s hour” as one colleague in my career called it) – I had heard that the small wetland adjoining the Hartenbos Water Treatment Works just outside Mossel Bay was humming with bird life after good rains, so we made a brief detour to take us past the wetland.

It was indeed full of waterbirds and during our 10 minute stop I had listed 14 species without too much effort, including Little Grebe, Red-billed Teal, Grey-headed Gull and Black-winged Stilt. However, there was no sign of the African Swamphen that had been reported by others.

Our next stop was Victoria Bay for a picnic tea on a bench overlooking the beach – relatively quiet on a weekday, other than the usual complement of keen surfers enjoying the prime conditions of this favourite beach of ours.

Familiar calls emanated from the bush which borders the beach area and on both sides of the steep approach road – Sombre Greenbul, Knysna Warbler, Southern Boubou, Neddicky and Bar-throated Apalis could all be heard loud and clear, but apart from brief glimpses they all remained well hidden.

From Vic Bay we headed through Wilderness to the turn-off to “The Vleis” then followed further signage to the hide at Langvlei (literally Long Lake).

The boardwalk to the hide at Langvlei, Wilderness

It was quite windy and from the hide hundreds of waterfowl were visible bouncing on the choppy water. Most were Red-knobbed Coots but there were also a few Black-necked Grebe, a species I don’t see often so a welcome sight, and several Little Grebes.

Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata / Bleshoender), Langvlei Wilderness

Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis / Kleindobbertjie), Langvlei Wilderness

A few of the birds came close to the hide, so that I was able to get a few photos, but the one I hoped would approach was the Black-necked Grebe, which seemed to move even further away to frustrate my efforts for a reasonable photo.

A post in the shallow water was occupied by an African Darter, providing a good opportunity to get a better shot than the reluctant Grebe

African Darter (Anhinga rufa / Slanghalsvoël), Langvlei Wilderness

On the way back to the car I spotted a butterfly next to the pathway – a lovely specimen of the Garden Inspector – also used as the heading image to this post

The next hide at Rondevlei (literally Round Lake) was a 5 minute drive away – I left Gerda in the car at the parking spot, after checking that it was a safe environment, and walked the short distance to the hide. The bird life was similar as far as the waterfowl goes but one nice feature of this hide is the dead tree stumps positioned several metres away in the shallow water, which were occupied by Cormorants.

White-breasted and Cape Cormorant, Rondevlei Wilderness

A quick scan showed that there were no less than three cormorant species present and all were quite nicely posed for photographs, except for one that insisted on playing “Where’s my head gone” with me.

White-breasted Cormorant (Phalacrocorax lucidus / Witborsduiker), Rondevlei Wilderness

I spent a few minutes getting some nice shots of the Cormorants, which are often difficult to identify at a distance, but close up the subtleties of bill and gape colouring, eyes and overall appearance become far more obvious.

Reed Cormorant (Microcarbo africanus / Rietkormorant), Rondevlei Wilderness

Cape Cormorant (Phalacrocorax capensis / Trekkormorant), Rondevlei Wilderness

The difference in eye colour is particularly startling – something which I will highlight in a follow-up post to this one.

It was time to head homewards, but first we were keen to find a suitably pleasant spot for our picnic lunch. We both had somewhat vague memories of taking the kids many years ago to the “beach in the corner” at Wilderness, but had no idea of the amenities we might find, so I turned off at the road leading to the beachfront area and drove between the many holiday homes until we reached the end and – hooray! – there was the spot, complete with tables and benches.

It was just what we were looking for and we enjoyed our ham and cheese rolls and coffee, with a magnificent view of the wide expanse of beach and high waves rolling in.