Just back from a morning of birding and atlassing at the Milnerton (aka Potsdam) Sewage Works. A reasonable morning with around 70 species, but nothing hugely exciting on the birding front, probably the highlight being about half a dozen Hottentot Teal, not a common bird in this part of the world. However, bird of the day went to a fantastic sighting of a CAPE CLAWLESS OTTER...! It remained a little distant for decent photos, but it sauntered along the path ahead of us for quite some time and really gave us great looks. Whilst they are certainly resident in the greater Cape Town area, one doesnt get to see them all that often and to have one just a few kilometres from home is even better...:) Another surprize was finding a small party of 3 LARGE GREY MONGOOSE there as well. Whilst Small Grey Mongoose is common in our area, its larger cousin is only a recent arrival. Over the years, they have progressively expanded their range further and further south down the west coast and this is certainly the furthest south on the west coast that I have seen this species. So a morning of birding was actually overshadowed by mammals, always a nice experience, especially here in the Cape where it doesnt happen all that often...:)
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 08:30:22 +0000