Resident osprey gives a fine display in Bitou wetlands
The Plettenberg Bay Bird Club has a monthly outing to one of the many birding venues around Bitou. This month we visited Goose Marsh, which can be accessed from the N2 at the turnoff to NH Hotel.
The short walk was attended by about 20 members and their guests. In total about 40 birds were identified on the lagoon in the morning, but the highlight was an appearance by our resident osprey.
The bird – known as visvalk in Afrikaans – was spotted over the lagoon, where it suddenly dropped into the water and caught a fairly large fish on its second attempt.
It then flew over our group of birders, giving us a magnificent view.
I was lucky enough to get an action photograph of the osprey with its prey! The good-sized, if unlucky, fish was identified as a flathead mullet (Mugil cephalus).
It is very unusual to have an osprey in this region all year round, but we have sighted the bird regularly for about three years now – in winter and summer.
Normally, ospreys breed in the northern hemisphere and Australia (Scotland is a good place to see them), and migrates to South America and Southern Africa south of the Sahara during summer. It is regarded as a mostly uncommon, non-breeding Palaearctic migrant.
Yesterday two birds were seen over the Bitou Wetlands. They have been recorded only twice in Southern African records as having bred in Southern Africa. We could be lucky enough to see a third record…
Contact Bird Life Plettenberg Bay on 044 535 9434 or 044 533 5994, or at mikebridgeford@telkomsa.net for further information.
Author: Mike Bridgeford
Source: CXpress