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On 29 Nov 2016, news broke of a Temminck's stint that was seen at Strandfontein sewage works in Cape Town on 26 Nov 2016. This was only the 7th record in southern Africa of this species and the first this century so this was definitely considered a mega-rarity. To add fuel to the fire, as the first twitchers scoured Strandfontein, news also came in if an American golden plover, Red-necked phalarope and Pectoral sandpiper! With a possible three lifers in one location, we frantically started looking for how we could manage our weekend commitments and still try to make it to Cape Town. Nicola had a stork-tea on Saturday afternoon and as the main instigator, she had to be there. So we decided to get onto a late Saturday night flight, sleep over at my parents in the Strand, and then rush through on Sunday morning and get back to the airport for an afternoon return flight. Luckily I was able to use frequent flyer miles to get tickets for both of us for less than R700 and a free car rental for the day.
As Saturday approached, we keenly watched every Rare Bird News Alert with trepidation but by Saturday morning, all the rarities were still present and our excitement mounted. I picked Nicola up from the stork-tea at 6pm and we rushed to the airport for a 9pm flight, arriving at my parents just after midnight. We planned to get up at 04:30 on Sunday morning so it was off to bed immediately.
Feeling a little dazed, we were up as soon as the alarm went off and half an hour later were on our way. Road works on the N2 could've possibly delayed us so we drove the coastal road and arrived at the sewage works just after 6am. It was a beautiful morning and we couldn't help but bird the grassland and ponds on the way to the stint's location. Finding the location where it was seen last was not difficult as a car was parked there already and a single photographer clicking away. With the bird just three meters from us on an open mud patch and seemingly unconcerned about the human presence, it was a truly magnificent sighting! We joined the clicking game and snapped a whole bunch of photos while analyzing the features that clinches the ID - we were atlassing as well so we knew we would have to explain and justify why we recorded this rarity and eliminated all other birds that look similar.
After fifteen minutes we decided to go look for the other attractions and drove to the spot where the phalarope and golden plover were seen last. As we arrived, John Graham was just pulling away from the side of the road and he pointed out to us where he had just seen the golden plover. Unfortunately it was a good 80-100m away from us but we were able to pick out the slightly darker and thinner-necked American golden plover (non-breeding plumage) from the Grey plovers nearby. We hung around this spot hoping for the phalarope as well and then got alerted by another twitcher next to us that he just spotted a godwit. Scanning the pans we quickly found it as well and when it flew up, our twitcher friend was able to snap a few pictures and confirmed it to be a Bar-tailed godwit - a bit more common than Black-tailed godwit and one we'd seen before.
Half an hour later we still had not found the phalarope and neither had anyone else. We decided to drive around the sewage works in the hope of seeing it elsewhere. We picked up some great birds along the way including African marsh harrier, African jacana, Hottentot teal and a young Cape eagle-owl. We returned to the phalarope location several times but by 10:00, nobody had yet seen it. We decided it was time for us to go and with two out of three lifers in the bag, we were super chuffed. The Red-necked phalarope would've been the cherry on top of a very successful day but we knew that these birds show up almost annually along the south-western corner of West Coast so we figured we'd get another chance later. The rest of the morning we spent with my brother and parents in the Strand before we received a text message that our flight was delayed. Hoping to be able to get onto an earlier flight we left for the airport at 1pm but on arrival learned that the delay had already forced them to fully book the earlier flights and we were stuck on a flight that was going to be about 2 hours late. We phoned Nicola's brother Gordon who then joined us for a cup of coffee and catch-up at the airport. The time flew and soon we said goodbye to Gordon and headed for security. We stopped in the lounge for a quick bite to eat and then boarded our flight which only arrived back in Johannesburg at 8pm. The drive home was initially a bit wet but we arrived safe and sound at 22:30.
On 29 Nov 2016, news broke of a Temminck's stint that was seen at Strandfontein sewage works in Cape Town on 26 Nov 2016. This was only the 7th record in southern Africa of this species and the first this century so this was definitely considered a mega-rarity. To add fuel to the fire, as the first twitchers scoured Strandfontein, news also came in if an American golden plover, Red-necked phalarope and Pectoral sandpiper! With a possible three lifers in one location, we frantically started looking for how we could manage our weekend commitments and still try to make it to Cape Town. Nicola had a stork-tea on Saturday afternoon and as the main instigator, she had to be there. So we decided to get onto a late Saturday night flight, sleep over at my parents in the Strand, and then rush through on Sunday morning and get back to the airport for an afternoon return flight. Luckily I was able to use frequent flyer miles to get tickets for both of us for less than R700 and a free car rental for the day.
As Saturday approached, we keenly watched every Rare Bird News Alert with trepidation but by Saturday morning, all the rarities were still present and our excitement mounted. I picked Nicola up from the stork-tea at 6pm and we rushed to the airport for a 9pm flight, arriving at my parents just after midnight. We planned to get up at 04:30 on Sunday morning so it was off to bed immediately.
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| Greater flamingos flying over Pan P2 at Strandfontein sewage works |
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| Twitchers looking for American golden plover |
Feeling a little dazed, we were up as soon as the alarm went off and half an hour later were on our way. Road works on the N2 could've possibly delayed us so we drove the coastal road and arrived at the sewage works just after 6am. It was a beautiful morning and we couldn't help but bird the grassland and ponds on the way to the stint's location. Finding the location where it was seen last was not difficult as a car was parked there already and a single photographer clicking away. With the bird just three meters from us on an open mud patch and seemingly unconcerned about the human presence, it was a truly magnificent sighting! We joined the clicking game and snapped a whole bunch of photos while analyzing the features that clinches the ID - we were atlassing as well so we knew we would have to explain and justify why we recorded this rarity and eliminated all other birds that look similar.
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| Temminck's stint |
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| Temminck's stint |
After fifteen minutes we decided to go look for the other attractions and drove to the spot where the phalarope and golden plover were seen last. As we arrived, John Graham was just pulling away from the side of the road and he pointed out to us where he had just seen the golden plover. Unfortunately it was a good 80-100m away from us but we were able to pick out the slightly darker and thinner-necked American golden plover (non-breeding plumage) from the Grey plovers nearby. We hung around this spot hoping for the phalarope as well and then got alerted by another twitcher next to us that he just spotted a godwit. Scanning the pans we quickly found it as well and when it flew up, our twitcher friend was able to snap a few pictures and confirmed it to be a Bar-tailed godwit - a bit more common than Black-tailed godwit and one we'd seen before.
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| American golden plover (almost in the middle, facing right). The two preening birds are Grey plovers and the big pied ones are Pied avocets. |
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| Bar-tailed godwit |
Half an hour later we still had not found the phalarope and neither had anyone else. We decided to drive around the sewage works in the hope of seeing it elsewhere. We picked up some great birds along the way including African marsh harrier, African jacana, Hottentot teal and a young Cape eagle-owl. We returned to the phalarope location several times but by 10:00, nobody had yet seen it. We decided it was time for us to go and with two out of three lifers in the bag, we were super chuffed. The Red-necked phalarope would've been the cherry on top of a very successful day but we knew that these birds show up almost annually along the south-western corner of West Coast so we figured we'd get another chance later. The rest of the morning we spent with my brother and parents in the Strand before we received a text message that our flight was delayed. Hoping to be able to get onto an earlier flight we left for the airport at 1pm but on arrival learned that the delay had already forced them to fully book the earlier flights and we were stuck on a flight that was going to be about 2 hours late. We phoned Nicola's brother Gordon who then joined us for a cup of coffee and catch-up at the airport. The time flew and soon we said goodbye to Gordon and headed for security. We stopped in the lounge for a quick bite to eat and then boarded our flight which only arrived back in Johannesburg at 8pm. The drive home was initially a bit wet but we arrived safe and sound at 22:30.
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| Young Cape eagle-owl |
