SA Rare Bird News Report - 29 March 2012

[Trevor Hardaker]

This is the Southern African Rare Bird News Report issued at 21h15 on Thursday, 29 March 2012. Information has been gleaned from various websites, email groups as well as from individual observers who have passed on their sightings. This report cannot be taken as being totally comprehensive as it is based only on information made available at the time of writing. All bird sightings reported here are reported in good faith based on information as provided by the observers. Any inaccuracies are totally unintentional and the writer cannot be held liable for these. For those who may have only joined the group recently and are interested in finding out what has been seen in the past, previous reports can be viewed at http://groups.google.co.za/group/sa-rarebirdnews
Since there have been a lot of new subscribers to the list in recent days (I wonder why…?), I just thought I would quickly start by saying that if you do happen to stumble across a rarity somewhere out there, there are 2 ways to get the information to me quickly. Either you can email it to me at hard...@mweb.co.za or you can call or sms to me at 0827800376. Save that number…J The same pertains to passing on updates on rarities that have already been reported. And always remember that the quicker you get the news through to me, the better chance others have of being able to get to the bird in time…   Alright, on to some news and, without a doubt, the Western Cape has been in the spotlight in the last week with the stunning LITTLE CRAKE at the Clovelly wetlands which was still showing well today. Several of you have contacted me saying you have lost the directions to get there, so here they are again:   Using Google Earth, the co-ordinates for the site seem to be 34 deg 07’ 45,13” S and 18 deg 25’ 58,81”E   Directions to the site – travelling from Kalk Bay, follow Main Road until you reach the intersection with Clovelly Road. Turn right into Clovelly Road and then follow this for a little way until you reach the first left turn into Montrose Avenue. Continue along Montrose Ave and take the second left into Bethel Road and then the first left again into Winkle Way and then the first left again into Hilton Road. Follow Hilton Road for a few hundred metres until you reach the obvious pond on your right hand side and that is where the bird is.   This bird has drawn a fairly large crowd already and I am still trying to get accurate numbers, but at the moment, I am aware of 503 individual people who have actually made the trip to go and specifically see the bird of which at least 91 have had to travel in excess of 500km one way just to get there. Please don’t forget to send your details through to me of how many people were in your group and their names, distance traveled, costs incurred, etc.   This bird has also become a milestone bird for a couple of twitchers and congratulations are due to Yolande Oelsen who claimed this as her 700th bird in Southern Africa and to Pierre Hofmeyr who finally cracked 800 with this bird! It has also moved several birders into precarious positions needing just one more for various listing milestones and these include Mike Bridgeford, now at 799 species, Niall Perrins, now at 849 species, and my good friend, John Graham, at a whopping 899 species. John, we can’t wait to celebrate your 900th bird…!
Little Crake at Clovelly © Margaret Hardaker	Little Crake at Clovelly © Alf Taylor
Little Crake at Clovelly © Corrie du Toit	Little Crake at Clovelly © Kim Bouchier
Little Crake at Clovelly © Thomas Hohls	Little Crake at Clovelly © Tobie Muller
Little Crake at Clovelly © Mike Buckham	Little Crake at Clovelly © Mike Bridgeford
Little Crake at Clovelly © John van Zyl	Little Crake at Clovelly © Roelof van der Breggen
Little Crake at Clovelly © David Swanepoel	Little Crake at Clovelly © Otto Schmidt
Little Crake at Clovelly © Hugo le Roux	Little Crake at Clovelly © David Hall
Elsewhere in the province, there have still been some other good sightings too. Another of our recently very popular birds, the SOOTY FALCON at Emily Moon Resort in Plettenberg Bay is still present and was entertaining onlookers again yesterday whilst there were also still AMUR FALCONS near Karatara earlier this week as well. Other good birds included a single AUSTRALASIAN GANNET on Malgas Island in Saldahna Bay last Thursday, 2 GOLIATH HERONS at Verlorenvlei near Eland’s Bay yesterday, 2 KORI BUSTARDS reported on the farm Vergelegen in Somerset West on Tuesday (at least 250km further west and south than any previous records that I can find in the SABAP database) and a pair of BLACK-COLLARED BARBETS reported from a garden in Wilderness Heights yesterday. Is this latter species finally starting to expand properly into the Western Cape now…?   In Gauteng, there was some surprise this morning when a KURRICHANE BUTTON-QUAIL was found walking around in a garden in Fourways in the middle of suburbia. It was clearly feeling a little lost…!   And finally, in Namibia, a few of the rarities continue to show in the Walvis Bay area with 2 GULL-BILLED TERNS and a BLACK-HEADED GULL still showing well on Tuesday.
Sooty Falcon in Plettenberg Bay © Japie Claassen	Amur Falcon near Karatara © David Hall
Goliath Heron at Verlorenvlei © Jackie During	Kurrichane Button-quail in Fourways © Peter Hochfelden
Please remember to send through your details to be included on the various listing clubs that are hosted at www.zestforbirds.co.za. This website also has an extensive rarities gallery that has many additional photos of a number of rarities that are mentioned in these reports.
Thank you to all observers who have contributed their records. Please continue to send through any reports of odd birds as well as continued updates on the presence of rarities already previously reported, no matter how mundane you think they may be. Even if you think someone else has probably sent in a report, rather send the report yourself as well. The only way to improve this service and to make it as useful as possible to everyone is if it can be as comprehensive as possible.
Kind regards Trevor
------------------------------------------------------------------------   TREVOR HARDAKER Cape Town, South Africa     Follow our local exploits in the field at: http://hardakerwildlife.wordpress.com/   See our photos and trip reports at: www.hardaker.co.za     ZEST for BIRDS Pelagics, rarity photos, listing clubs and more: www.zestforbirds.co.za     SA RARE BIRD NEWS Get the latest rarity news by joining at: http://groups.google.co.za/group/sa-rarebirdnews     SOUTHERN AFRICAN RARITIES Online database of all SA rarities www.rarities.co.za -----------------------------------------------------------------------