Nature walks

Minna is suffering from a migraine for a second day in a row and Matias stayed over at Joona's for the night and day. India, dogs and me went for a couple of walks today after a long break. Megan has been in heat for a month. Now it is finally over and we can start giving the dogs more exercise.

Late morning we walked along the river to the beach. The river had created a large shallow lake above the beach. Almost hundred gulls were standing in there. Hartlaub's gulls (Larus hartlaubi) in the water and adult and sub-adult Cape gulls (Larus vetula) mostly on the shore. Among the Hartlaub's gulls, there was one African black oystercatcher (Haematopus moquini). A pair of stoic Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca) and four twittering Pied kingfishers (Ceryle rudis) completed the menagerie.

The wind was exceptionally from North West today and was whipping sand from dunes down to us. Clouds gathered on mountain tops.

After short nap mid-afternoon, India needed to go out again. We drove up Chapmans Peak Drive and parked before the toll gates next to the East Fort. From the fort ruins we followed a stone path up the hill and left along an old gravel road. Large number of low stone walls were were build across the road to make it totally impossible to drive through as well as to prevent rain waters to dig into the ground. Eventually vegetation will cover the road.

This was an excellent place to walk slowly and study the vegetation. Unfortunately I do not recognize the plant species. A trip to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens is needed. The fynbos was silent and devoid of life: lack of sun shine and relatively low temperature kept the lizards hiding. I heard a few and saw one Orange-breasted Sunbird (Anthobaphes violacea) in the bushes, but that was it. The view across the bay was magnificent.

We had hardly got home after a two hour trip when it started raining for the first time in weeks.