It’s been a busy last few weeks in the Cape with rarities, and with several provincial lifers for me all found relatively close, Milli and I found the time to get outside and find some of these birds.
The elephant in the room is, of course, the fact that my last twitching post was made 4 years ago now! No, I haven’t stopped birding – but I was having some website problems for a while that I just didn’t have the incentive to resolve.
In fact, in the last year I’ve added 6 new species to my provincial list (less impressive when I mention that three were in the past week).
Nonetheless, I’m back and happy to be writing for myself again (as well as having to put out around 5000 to 7000 words a week for work).
Wattled Lapwing & Bailon’s Crake at Paardevlei
With Paardevlei being less than 6 kilometers from my home, there really wasn’t any excuse to make about going after the Bailon’s Crake and Wattled Lapwing that were recently spotted. Milli still needed the Bailon’s and both of us needed the Wattled Lapwing for our provincial lists.
We arrived about 45 minutes after the Lapwing had been found, and arrived at the sight of birders running off in various directions. It would be a little comical with a 20s themed backing track to be honest.
The idea was to catch up with them and hopefully get some intel on where they were running to, as no one in sight had anything in their scopes. We ran into one guy who seemed a little misinformed about the target, and sent us on a bit of a wild Lapwing chase around the dam.
Returning to the site near the entrance, we made our way to where the Bailon’s Crake was seen and scouted out the location for a while. But we noticed a few other birders moving past and making their way to the NE side of the pond. As is typically a good idea when birding, we conformed and made our way to where they were headed.
There was a small group gathered, one of which was my old friend Tertius Gouws, whom I’ve shared some memorable birding experiences with over the years. He had the Wattled Lapwing in his scope and gave us views of the bird before we got our naked eyes on it, resting down in the rocks near the waterline.
Views weren’t great, but more than good enough to know we saw the bird. But it wasn’t long before the Paardevlei security showed up and dispersed the birders, who had to move a bit onto the vlei to get a view of the bird. We bounced before they arrived, like the coy non-confrontational individuals we are.
On our route back, we scanned the dam for additional species and while there were a lot of water birds present, it was mostly the usual suspects: Egyptian Geese, Common Moorhens, Hartlaub’s Gulls, Sacred Ibis, Southern Pochards, Yellow-Billed Ducks, etc.
There were also a surprisingly large number of Glossy Ibis, which has seemingly become a bit more common there over the last few years. Additionally, some Whiskered Terns gave us some fly-bys.
Unfortunately, we never did connect with the Crake – owing partly to the extremely strong winds that weren’t exactly accommodating to any of the birds.
The Return To Paardevlei
We returned a few days later, to see if we could locate the Spotted Flycatcher that was also seen in the gum trees near the entrance, and to also look for the Willow Warblers that were reported. These were both species that Milli still needed to see.
As fate would have it, it took us no more than 10 minutes before I spotted a Flycatcher dipping from the branches of a nearby gum tree. By the time we made our way close enough to ID it, it had disappeared. Patience proved vital and by sitting and waiting for a while, we managed to get better views.
Boom! Undoubtedly the Spotted – showcasing distinct striped patterns on the chest and crown, along with a more slender build. We watched it move between the trees and nearby fence, as it was very successful in its hunt of small insects.
The Willow Warblers weren’t found, and given the recent warnings from the security, we decided not to go check out the Crake spot on the day. It was also too late, with most sightings being in the early morning.
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