A 36 hour super productive time at Pringle Bay and Harold Porter Botanical Gardens in Betty’s Bay. On arrival at 7am at
Pringle Bay I was immediately met with a Cape clawless otter scurrying across the beach as my presence lured him
back into the water. A calm state of confusion came over me as I was enticed from both ends of the beach with
excellent birdlife. The most plentiful spot settled me next to the rocks scanning over endless Terns, Gulls and
Oystercatchers.

 A pair of Black Oystercatchers wade through the shallows

The ever-changing tides created a backup of water at the base of the dunes making it fairly comfortable to choose a
site and sit in patience for the opportunity of Egrets, Herons and Oysterctahcers to wade past in search of prey.

This Little Egret danced up and down in search of food

An awesome sunset to wrap up the day in Pringle Bay

Nestled in between 2 kloofs above Betty’s Bay lies one every special birding gem, Harold Porter Botanical Gardens.
The compact gardens and relatively small size, abundant water and food, has created a haven for birds in the area.
The close proximity in which the birds have no option to coincide with humans makes it an outstanding place to
photograph birds, even on the trails up on the mountain.

An Orange Breasted Sunbird poses perfectly

One incredibly relaxed Cape Grassbird

 A super chilled out Cape Batis

Cape girdled lizzard

On the fynbos trail I came across a scene that I have been anticipating to see in any form or place, the active behaviour
of ‘brood parasitism’. In this case it was South Africa’s smallest Cisticola, the Neddicky which had been so cleverly
conned by a Brown-backed Honeybird.
One of 2 things couild of happened in this instance, the egg of the brood parasite would hatch before the hosts egg and the new intruder
will toss out the existing egg or the chick of the brood parasite could have killed the hosts chick and evicted it from the
nest. Either way it is clear that the Neddicky’s strong maternal instincts keep her utilising energy in raising
a chick who has no affiliation to her genetically whatsoever.

Neddicky feeding the Brown-backed Honeybird