The last two weeks (concurrent with the heavy rains and bad
weather) I have been on the road retracing the route I undertook by bicycle
from February to May earlier this year. Due to a lack of sponsorship I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone by doing it all by
bicycle a second time – so I’ve been cruising along in the Suzuki Jimney
donated to the project by Chris Lee. This means road surveys have been
completed quickly, and transit times are a matter of hours instead of days. In
between toe-numbing temperatures during counts I’ve on occasion been able to
get back into a nice warm cab. However, many sections of the survey can only be
completed by bike and on foot.
I had a fun journey up and down Blesberg (northern Swartberg)
by bicycle, from El Yolo, kindly supported by Willem Cilliers. Willem also suggested
using whistles on wind-turbines to scare away birds – he uses dog-whistles on
his car to scare off kudu. Recently I
hiked through snow on the Oom Stan se Liggies trail up the southern slopes of
the Swartberg just north of Ladismith, and hiked half-way up Seweweekspoortberg and Sleeping Beauty in the last couple of days.
Matt Stritch joined me for some of the survey, taking care
of some of the driving and packing up camp to move from one spot to the next.
He has also been a star with the data entry, and thanks to Matt we are
completely up to date with all sightings – I can’t spot birds fast enough for
him to enter into the computer! He’s also braved some extreme weather – camping
in the rain in Die Hel of all places, as well as camping in freezing
temperatures at Seweweekspoortberg (he casually asked me if I’d also had
icicles inside my tent on the one morning).
But, we’ve had shelter from cold and rain a couple of times –
thanks to Di Turner in George, Tom Barry for letting us use the research
facilities at Gamkaberg, and to the Landmark Foundation at the moment for
letting us use facilities at Wildcliff Nature Reserve.
Overall, bird activity has not been too bad. Fynbos birds
don’t seem to mind the cold, and this means I can survey all day long. They don’t
like the wind though. Herewith a selection of my preferred shots.
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Typical winter survey attire - here on the Prince Alfred's Pass |
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Gymnogene with Alpine Swifts |
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Alpine Swift |
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Black Harrier - Robinson's Pass, Kouma Trail |
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Cape White-eyes, Seweweekspoort |
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Grey-winged Francolin, Rooiberg |
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Icicles, Liggie's hiking trail |
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Klipspringer, Die Hel. Wondering about the rain. |
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Leopard tracks next to my bicycle tracks on the Botha's Hoek Hiking trail, Swartberg Pass |
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Female Cape Rock Thrush on Aloe ferox in the Seweweekspoort |
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Male Cape Rock Thrush |
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Female Orange-breasted Sunbird, sipping nectar from Paranomus centaurioedes, northern side of the Swartberg |
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Red dawn from the Rooiberg |
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Matt and survey vehicles on the Swartberg Pass |
This winter weather has been quite something! Still cold!
ReplyDeleteAlan that sunrise photo is amazing. Are those considered linticular clouds?
ReplyDeleteHi Marti - I have no idea what the technical term is for those clouds, they were just spectacular, and it was also a special moment because I was driving up the 'red mountain' pass under a red sky.
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