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Openbilled Storks are normally
found at least 1,500 kilometres
away from Cape Town. They are
fairly regular in Botswana,
northern Zululand and very
uncommon even as far south as
Kruger! |
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In the past few months, an irruption of Openbills
has been spreading along the entire coastline of
South Africa, with a few records inland in Gauteng
and the Free State. The cause of this spread has led
to some interesting debates, such as record high
breeding numbers a year ago in Botswana's floods and
the sudden availability of large snails (Openbills
love snails and crabs) along the coastline. |
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In December, Openbills reached
Hermanus after spreading along
the Garden Route. Suddenly two
were seen in Bergvliet, not five
minutes from where I live. Then
there were 4. In the evenings
these birds roost at a little
wetland in Bergvliet and every
evening there are people waiting
for their arrival, the problem
being that the birds only arrive
just after sunset, not a good
time for photographing them. |
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Today I've had a phone call to
say that there are 4 Openbilled
Storks at Intaka in Cell 4!
Phone calls are flying back and
forth and there is huge
excitement from the northern
suburbs people who couldn't get
to Bergvliet in the evenings -
so expect to see lots of birders
and photographers with very long
lenses wandering around Intaka
in the next few days. |
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As far as I know, these are the
only two confirmed sites in Cape
town, Bergvliet and now
Blouvlei, for this bird. There
is no way of telling how long
the Intaka birds will stay
there, or where they came from.
There are rumours that our
Southern suburbs birds decided
to do some upmarket shopping at
Canal Walk and may have
relocated, as a definite
southern suburbs accent was
heard from the reeds in Cell 4
today :-) |
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Last week I assured Mbewu that
he wouldn't see Openbills at
Blouvlei as it was too small and
there was probably too much
noisy construction going on. |
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How wrong I was! |
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In the meantime, if you know of
any keen birders who would like
to see a species that shouldn't
be anywhere near Cape Town, tell
them to get down to Intaka right
away. |
Regards
Margaret |
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Thursday, 4 February 2010 |
