farm 215 | fynbos reserve in the overberg | western cape

farm 215
overberg
south africa
nature retreat & fynbos reserve

a 4-star country house on the "fynbos road" between stanford & cape agulhas - southern overberg - western cape

flora & faunabirds

The nature retreat of farm 215 has been selected as a "birder-friendly establishment" by BirdLife Africa.

True fynbos does not harbour a lot of birds. Having said that, several bird-species are strictly confined to the small area of the fynbos-biome of the Western Cape. The Cape rockjumper, Cape sugarbird, Orange breasted sunbird, Cape siskin, Protea canary and Victorin's warbler are all endemic to the cape floral kingdom and all occur on farm 215. In the veld of farm 215 the Cape sugarbird (feeding on the nectar of proteas) and sunbirds, such as the Orange breasted sunbird, Malachite sunbird and Doublecollared sunbird (mostly feeding on the Erica species) are most conspicuous, partly because of their striking colours, partly because of their nervous jumps from bush to bush and partly because they are not shy. In the case of the Cape sugarbird, its ridiculously long tail (almost 70% of its total length) is obviously the biggest give-away. The Victorin's warbler on the other hand, made it its mission in life to be invisible for man. It hardly comes higher than the top of the fynbos-branches and one wonders why this creature needs to fly in the first place.

Still, if you know where to go, the other endemic species can be seen as well. On Koudeberg (farm 215 consists out of two bordering properties: "Koudeberg" (cold mountain) and "Hartebeeskloof" (kloof of the red hartebeest) there is an old farmhouse in a valley, nestled between rocks and close to a stream surrounded by thicket. The rocky habitat with a lot of scree and a lot of mountain bullrush is the text-book habitat of the otherwise shy Cape rockjumper. And in the Koudeberg Valley the Cape rockjumper indeed obeys the text books; they sometimes -in their typical half-hopping, half-flying manner- come very close to the house.

The Koudeberg valley with its different vegetation-types from almost bear rocks to mountain fynbos, riverine thicket and wetlands is also the place where one will begin to understand that there are more than 300 bird species in the Overberg. This is the valley where a couple of the enormous black eagle shows up for a few days on a stretch, sailing along the "koppies" looking for rock-dassies, its main prey. This is also the valley where the silhouette of the Cape eagle owl can be spotted almost every night on one of the big boulders against the moonlight communicating with the silhouette of its mate a few hundred meters away on another boulder. And this is simply the valley of numerous birds. Cape rock thrush, Cape robin, Cape canary, Grassbird, Bokmakierie, Cape batis, Yellowrumped widow, Burchell's coucal are all just examples of what has been spotted in this hidden valley.

Yet another habitat on farm 215 where other species of birds can be seen are the several dams, ponds and pools. Egyptian geese, ducks and teals often rest in between the bullrushes. Giant kingfisher competes with the Marsh terrapin next to the dams. Grey heron, Blackheaded heron and Purple headed heron can be seen flying away in a stately manner when one approaches the dam wall, while the Blue cranes on the dam wall save their energy and just wearily walk away a few feet at a time each time you come closer.

The dam, 500 metres from the house has further the funny feature that it is apparently a point of navigation for endless flocks of noisy Hadeda- and silent Sacred-ibis that fly over on low altitude every day around sunset from their feeding grounds on the Agulhas plains to their sleeping areas in the kloofs.

In any case, whether or not you come to the Overberg for birds, you cannot miss the African fish eagle: you first hear its typical call and than spot it, high in the air. Several raptors (harriers, kites, falcons and kestrels) cannot be missed on telephone lines and poles next to the road. On the more rural roads you are bound to run into the pedestrian Cape francolin, Helmeted guinea fowl and a quail here and there.
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