The Birds Of The Area
The focal point of the area is Ballots Bay, a small rocky cove at the bottom of the steepish road. The beach is too small to attract large numbers of birds, but the rocks are feedingplaces for the black oyster- catcher, while Cape wagtails & even a little egret have been seen below the high water mark. Here too, the enthusiast will, although not in huge numbers, eventually come across a wide variety of sea & coastal birds. Overlooking the bay and the coastal forest are high cliffs where you will see rock pigeons, red-winged starlings and rock martinsamongotherswhile overhead scavenging crows are now and then locked in aerial combat with intruding raptors.
There is a microscopic little lagoon with a thick stand of reeds and other vegetation where the Meulen river flows into the sea Here you will encounter kingfisher, common waxbill, yellow- backed widow, Cape canary plus a wide variety of bird life flitting & foraging between this habitat and the forest.
Following the Meulen river up-stream, the valley is thick with dense indigenous riverine forest. This area stretches for some distance to the Amphitheatre and beyond. Here are found all the bush birds one would expect, Cape bulbuls, Cape batis, white-eyes, southern tchagra, mousebirds, Burchells coucal etc. The sombre bulbul and shy Knysna toerie, often unseen, call from all parts, as does the bar-throated apalis and the boubou. Double collared sunbirds and Cape robins are much in evidence.
As evidence of the diversity of birdlife, a pair of Eptian geese is breeding in of of the shallow caves overlooking the Amphitheatre.
A bonus is the Stanley bustard. Move up from the cool forest through the harsh warm Renosterveld to. the relative flatness of the Zuurvlakte plateau with its panoramic sea & Outenique mountain views. Here you will see this very shy type of bustard,although only from a distance. Approach too close and the flock will surely fly away. But look alt round - the enthusiast mightjust see a breedingpairof blue cranes. Failing this, observe francolin, quail, korhaan & plovers in their natural habitat.
Walk down the slope to the coastal nbos and see a forktailed drongo and shrike, their activities not always toour taste, but both small links in the bigger chain of life.
No one habitat within this area is unique in the world, but for all of these to be concentrated in five square kilometres, must rank Ballotsdale as the birding area on the Garden Route. Combine this with the fact that experts are now looking St a location to develop a shallow water lake, designed to support as many species of water plants, water vegetation, frogs & fish as possible. The aim is for this in turn to attract & permanently support a wide variety of water bird species. Add to that the large number of indigenous fruit trees being planted at present and the foreseen number of 250 different specie of birdlife might just be surpassed.
Baron von Mollendorf.
