Suikerbosrand NR birding, Jun 2014

Before attending a memorial get-together and braai for our departed hiking friend, Brian Smallwood, we paid a quick morning's visit to Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. We weren't expecting much from the visit in the middle of winter but were happily surprised to encounter a small flock of Orange-breasted waxbills - one of the most elusive local endemics for us and a lifer to boot! Unfortunately they were very lively and views were good but brief and not long enough for photos. Red-throated wrynecks seemed uncommonly common with several individuals seen and their calls heard all over the reserve. Other interesting birds included a number of Grey-winged francolins, Mocking cliff-chat, Mountain wheatear and early in the morning when we arrived, a single Marsh owl perching nicely for pics.

Brian Smallwood, 23 May 1941 - 13 Feb 2014

I joined Highveld Hikers in 1998 (then still under the flag of SAA Hiking Club) and not long after met the Smallwood's, Brian and Norma. Over the past 16 years we have done many many hikes together until Norma's troubling foot operations prevented her from joining us anymore. Brian kept on going and even after he got sick he could be seen on several hikes, still enjoying nature... and his beer! Brian passed away suddenly on 13 Feb this year and even though it was not completely unexpected, it was still a great shock to all of us who knew him. On Sunday 29 June we had a celebration of Brian's life with a braai at Eddy's house. We met old friends and reminisced about the good times and the memories. Many people remembered specific events or moments like these below - if you'd like to add something to the text, please add a comment at the end of the post and I'll happily add it in the text body. Also, if you have more pictures of Brian, please forward them to Shirley or me. Norma, we mourn with you and think of you every day. Brian, thank you for sharing your life with us. Farewell.

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Brian my birthday buddy, I will always have a glass of sherry (OB’s) on him with my birthday. When doing a hike and I am scared of slipping. I remember Brian’s words. When we did Tepelkop in the Free state, it was raining, the sandstone was wet and slippery, Brian was walking with me and he used to say to me always trust your boots and where ever I go and I am in the same situation, I remember his words and he is in my thoughts. For me he is always walking with me, especially when we do a hike in the Free state. KEEP ON WALKING, Buddy…

Madelene Haasbroek

My memories of Brian are that he was always a caring and helpful person. He always helped me when I was hiking; always lending a hand when I needed support. He will be sorely missed.

Shirley Klein

Brian Smallwood - a Hiker to the very end. Hikers the world over will be familiar with the phrase, " I'm going to cut a corner off your badge for taking a short-cut", but this could never be said about Brian. On many occasions he would rather walk the rocky path about 5 metres from a perfectly good road, maintaining that he was following the path and not taking "short cuts“. Of all the many hikes I have hiked with Brian, I can truly say that he never complained about anything. Yes, he might have occasionally muttered a few choice words, many of which contained the phrase "bloody hell", but he stoically trundled on at his own pace. Brian may have passed on to better pastures, but in our hearts and minds he will always be taking up the rear on future hikes, ready to give a helping hand to those who need it.

George Surman

He always knew where he was – he never got lost. So now he must be in his rightful place – rest well my friend

Eddy Schudel

Brian our dear friend, you may not be with us in body but you will always be with us in spirit on every hike. We will talk to you, ask you if we are walking in the correct direction, see you "test” your bed about 6pm; hear you ‘quietly’ get up in the morning to put the kettle on. I shall miss toddling along at the back with you; having a quick sit down; watch you “count insect’s legs” as you bend over to have a few seconds rest; your ever ready hand to help me over a river or difficult place. Your safe driving so I could have a catnap. Your generosity like when we got lost in Cedarburg and we had to go on half rations and you gave me all your peanuts - “Bloody hell woman – take them, you need them more than I do.” All your stories about Poland and your youth. Never a great talker during the day but often chatted in your sleep – loudly! When asked if you wanted to do a particular hike – don’t mind it’s ok with me whatever you want to do! I am so glad you did Hadrian’s Wall with Eddy and I last year; I knew you really wanted to do it and it was a wonderful experience and a great hike. You will be greatly missed but always remembered. Sleep well my friend.

Shirley Tebbutt

I was thinking and then Brain came into my mind - a story he was telling us, how early one morning Norma woke him up to get out of bed and he asked why, she said she needed to go to the loo. His answer was why don't you get out your side, her answer was because Bella (her cat) was comfortable and asleep, so dear Brain, as usual, did what he was told to do.

Tony and Patricia

Brian refused to let the inevitable consequences of age get in the way of him living life and he made sure he lived it to the last! Every hike, every moment, lived with youthful passion.

Nicola Vrey

Brian stayed with her the whole way, supportive and encouraging. At one stage Brian even pushed her bottom to get her over the next hurdle! The progress was slow but Brian remained with us for the entire climb to the top.

Karin

On a hike to Hanglip in Limpopo, we were standing topless outside the hut after a long hot day’s hiking. I was very fit and skinny at the time and Brian looked me up and down, slapped his belly and said: “You need to start drinking some bloody beer and get some meat on you”.

Pieter Vrey

Brian, Always there on a hike with a helping hand or shoulder and waiting ever so patiently for us slow walkers. And of course, that great sense of humour. Remembered with fond memories.

Dennis and Elise Le Roux

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Time is too slow for those that wait

Too swift for those that fear

Too long for those that grieve

Too short for those who rejoice

But for those who love, time is eternity

Henry van Dyke

Cape Town birding, Jun 2014

Links

• List of birds

With 16 June being a public holiday, the long weekend was an ideal opportunity to try and do a pelagic trip out of Simon's Town with Trevor Hardaker's Zest for Birds. Having had a Cape Town pelagic trip cancelled before due to weather, we were really hoping that this one would come off. Sadly, this was not to be.

After meetings in Pretoria on Friday, I rushed home to pick Nicola up and drive to the airport, only to get confirmation from Trevor while sitting in the lounge that the entire weekend's plans have again been called off due to bad weather. It was depressing news since it meant we would miss out on the possibility of about five lifers and 15-20 new birds for the year. But at least we had a back-up plan to visit a few other Western Cape localities to try and up our annual count. The flight went without a hitch and after picking up our rental from Avis we made quick work of getting to our accommodation in Kalk Bay at The Inn at Castle Hill. Unfortunately our accommodation didn't really lift our spirits - although the room itself was nice and comfortable enough, it had no TV and you had to stand on your knees to reach the coffee/tea on a little trolley. The 'private' bathroom was not en-suite but down two passages, lacked a shower and the skylight leaked. Luckily we weren't planning on spending a lot of time in the room so we settled down for the night.

At 5am we were up and left Kalk Bay for West Coast NP, arriving just before the gates opened. It was cold and windy with waves of drizzle and rain blowing in every now and again. But the birds still had to feed so we notched up a few like Bokmakierie, Cape spurfowl (hundreds), Cape bulbul and Pied crow before getting to Geelbek. In the reedy marshes before the first Geelbek hide, Levaillant's cisticola was calling and Blacksmith lapwings, Curlew sandpiper, Three-banded and Kittlitz's plovers were all battling against the wind on the exposed flats. From the hide we could see plenty of Greater flamingoes and a single Lesser flamingo also winged past. Caspian and Swift terns were fairly common but as the tide started receding, we were most interested in the waders. First of course were the long-legged Common whimbrels followed shortly by Grey plover and Common greenshank. No Eurasian curlews though. With the wind howling from the east, we kept only the windows open looking west towards the second Geelbek hide. Reports from the previous week indicated Common redshank in the area and it was a surprisingly short time before these flashy birds showed up. Two individuals came quite close to the hide and we got decent pictures of them feeding alongside all the other more common birds. Having spent two and a half hours at the hide it was time to move on and we paid a quick visit to Abrahamskraal where we were lucky to add African rail along with Cape shoveler, Red-knobbed coot and Little grebe. On our way to Tsaarsbank we came across a family of Grey-winged francolins that gave us good opportunities for decent pictures. At Tsaarsbank itself there were the obligatory Kelp and Hartlaub's gulls along with a handful of African black oystercatchers. A few Cape, Crowned and White-breasted cormorants were around but no Bank cormorants. We sat and waited for a while but when it started raining quite heavily around 11:30, we called it a day. We drove back to Geelbek for lunch and thereafter, north to Langebaan for a quick bit of shopping before heading back to Cape Town. My brother-in-law, Gordon, joined us for dinner at Harbour House restaurant in Kalk Bay where we pigged out on seafood and wine.

During the night it started raining again and by the time we woke up, it was coming down heavily. So we dozed for a while longer before having a quick bite to eat and then packed up and left. Although it was still pretty miserable outside, it had stopped raining so we headed to Kommetjie to see if we could find Bank cormorant and/or Antarctic tern. Although there were nice views of Swift tern and both Cape and Crowned cormorants, neither of our target species could be seen. The wind was howling and things were fairly unpleasant so at last giving up just after 10am, we headed to my parents' place in the Strand. Here we were welcomed with cookies and tea and spent the rest of the weekend with the family. On Monday morning we had a late breakfast before packing up and heading for the airport.

It was very disappointing to have the pelagic trip cancelled and the weather easily cost us 20 new annual species. But we're still very happy that we got the Common redshanks and it was good to spend some time with the family.

Lesser black-backed gull twitch, Korsman Bird Sanctuary, 08 Jun 2014

With news since the start of June that a Lesser black-backed gull has been hanging out at the Korsman Bird Sanctuary in Benoni, we thought it might be a good twitch if it was still around over the weekend of 7-8 June. Reports on Friday and Saturday indicated that it was, so at 4am on Sunday morning we were up and quickly drove the 140km stretch to Benoni. At the edge of the sanctuary, other birders were already waiting in the freezing cold and together we stomped our feet, carefully checking each and every gull that approached a series of posts about 30m away. By 07:00 there was nothing yet, so we took a slow drive around the sanctuary, also looking for White-backed and Maccoa ducks. We didn't get either of these but did see Purple, Black-headed and Squacco herons, Cape shoveler, White-faced whistling duck and heard Lesser swamp and Little rush warblers. Back at the gull's supposedly favourite post, it was still freezing and no sign of the gull. Other people started showing up and tried to optimize our chances by positioning themselves at other spots around the perimeter of the fence. Around 8am we got news that it was spotted on a small rocky island on the western side so we rushed off to join another three groups looking for it. The island was unfortunately a fair distance away and the angle of the rising sun made viewing worse - none of us could re-locate it. Then another call came in that it was again sitting on it's favourite post and we all dashed around the corner and found it casually perched perfectly next to a Grey-headed gull for comparison. We took a number of pictures but to be honest, it's not the world's most exciting bird and with Nicola still having some work to be done at home, it was time to go. Another quick drive around the sanctuary netted African wattled lapwing and after our fellow birders directed us to Bullfrog pan for Black-necked grebe we paid a quick visit to this pan as well. At Bullfrog we found both Maccoa and White-backed ducks, African purple swamphen and Malachite kingfisher. There were a number of birds on the opposite side of the dam and another group of birders with a scope picked out what might be Black-necked grebes but it was so far away, even in the scope, that we just couldn't be comfortable with the ID. But three new annual list species, including a lifer, was a great success for a few hours birding on a Sunday morning and we headed home feeling very satisfied with the day's work.