flamingos | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

Temperatures have been hovering between 8 and 16 here in chilly Cape Town this week. Today though we had sunshine and it was a tad warmer. Earl had a fishing date with a friend and after doing a number of chores in town I really felt the need to get my teenage grandsons out of the house and into Nature.

Isn’t it amazing that you can go to the same place many times but each time it’s different. The light was good for photography and I gave Jay (16) my ex-camera, a Canon Powershot SX30IS and Josh and I used my Powershot SX50HS.

Black-winged stilt by Jay

Purple Swamphen by Jay

Flamingos

Black-headed Heron with an snack by Jay

Black-head heron – Jay

Egyptian Goose – Josh

Egyptian Geese

Hadeda Ibis – Josh

Cape Teal

Little Grebe

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Jay

Josh in front

We always look out for the Spotted Eagle-owls in their usual spot and today Jay and Josh found them easily. They were in the open, woke up and stared at us, preened a bit and then went back to sleep. We managed to get a few reasonable photographs.

Sleepy Head

Ho Hum

What are you looking at

Wink Wink

The African Fish Eagle is occasionally seen at The False Bay Ecology Park and today we were lucky enough to catch sight of two. I alerted the boys to one was flying ahead of the car when they yelled – Gran – look – there’s one next to us with prey! It was not easy to focus the camera but I got a very poor shot of it with a mongoose in its talons! It scattered the birds on the mudflats including a number of Spur-winged geese then settled on a mound some distance away.

Poor Mongoose

Fish Eagle

Fish Eagle – Jay

He flew off over the next pond, settled in a tree and then flew off again. We went in hot pursuit of a better photograph.

The Boys hoping to spot the Fish Eagle

Finally it was time to leave. Last shot of a male Cape Shoveller.

The boys agreed the excursion had been most worthwhile!

Having spent the day indulging in urban activities yesterday, I had to catch up on some school preparation this morning. However, who can work when the south easter has dropped and the sun is shining brightly. Unable to resist the call, I grabbed the only other human left at home and kicking and screaming forced him to go birding with me! He was supposed to have gone to a braai with his mom and brother but somewhere along the way managed to get himself left in front of the computer. Grandpa was fishing so he just had to do!

Every Cape Tonian and his brother were out enjoying the sunshine so we fought the traffic through Kalk Bay and Muizenberg and found ourselves at False Bay Ecology Park just after 3:00 p.m. We were warned at the gate that on such a sunny day the Cape Cobras were about so please to be careful!

It was a picture perfect day. Greater Flamingos were abundant and graced every pond. The black-necked grebe outnumbered the dabchicks and all kinds of different ducks swam about gaily.

Black Necked Grebe

Hartlaub’s Gulls

Glossy Ibis

Mr and Mrs Cape Shoveller

Greater Flamingos

Pink is in

African Black Oyster Catcher

We spent a good two hours exploring the park and Josh impressed me with his excellent birding knowledge gained from the recent beginner’s course he attended. We spotted the Spotted Eagle Owl in his usual spot and a black crowned night heron flew out of the reeds and away from us. But I needed to see the beautiful Purple Swamphen. He obliged by coming out just before we were about to say our goodbyes!