Today I had the privilege of guiding a class of Grade Three girls, whose teacher is an ex-colleague of mine, on a bird-watching excursion. Each year she does a theme on birds which includes an outing to The False Bay Nature Reserve. I know this park and its birds very well which is why the teacher asked me to be their guide. Of course, I took my ‘driver’ along with me and he enjoyed it just as much as I did.

Yesterday, we visited the park to get an idea of where the various species were likely to be found. For the past week, the weather in Cape Town has been stunning – perfect for bird-watching. We were delighted to find that the feathered creatures had not packed up and left the area.

Last night, however, I woke to the sound of strong winds and heavy rainfall! Oh no – our outing! But I needn’t have worried. The ponds were crowded with huge flocks of birds and the wet weather did not dampen the spirits of our young explorers. Fortunately, it did not rain continuously and the little ones were able to get out of the cars to get a better look at the birds. One of the dads had brought a telescope and that made everything even more exciting. What we noticed today was that the birds had gathered in larger flocks than yesterday. There were literally hundreds of little grebes, stilts and ibises flocking together.

I do not post photographs of other people’s children without permission so I am only posting birds today. Some are from the outing and some are from yesterday’s pre-visit. Unless otherwise stated the girls saw all these species. And they needed very little help in identifying them. It was awesome to see how excited they were to see and identify the different species and happily tick them off on their lists. “The only one on the list we didn’t see was an African Black Oyster Catcher,” they declared. The reason for this is that the part of the park where it is usually seen is no longer easily accessible and also the ponds in that area have dried out.

Many other species were seen but the photos are not post-worthy. This is the list of the birds the girls were able to tick.

• Avocet Pied
• Coot Red-knobbed
• Cormorant White-breasted
• Duck Fulvous
• Duck Yellow-billed
• Egret Cattle
• Egret Little
• Flamingo Greater
• Goose Egyptian
• Goose Spur-winged
• Gull Hartlaub’s
• Gull Kelp
• Grebe Little
• Heon Black-necked
• Heron Grey
• Ibis Glossy
• Ibis Hadeda
• Ibis Sacred
• Lapwing Blacksmith
• Spurfowl Cape
• Moorhen Common
• Pelican Great White
• Shoveller Cape
• Sparrow Cape
• Starling Common
• Starling Red-winged
• Stilt Black-winged
• Swamphen Purple
• Teal Cape
• Teal Red-billed
• Tern Swift
• Wagtail Cape

What fun it was to be with a class of children again – it’s been a while! Their excitement over each bird observed and ticked off was a joy to behold. Bird Watching is a hobby for life – you’re never too young to start nor too old to stop. I can see that now that these children have had a taste for birding they will be noticing them whenever they’re out and about.