Greater  Zandvlei  Estuary  Nature  Reserve

 In and around the Reserve – 2010

19. 24/12/2010 - Today we released this juvenile Cape Clawless Otter in the Central Pan. It was found in the Henley Road area.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby.

Cape Clawless Otter in the carry box being taken to the Central Pan in the Reserve.

18. 24/11/2010 - Today Chandre Rhoda from the City of Cape Towns - Invasive Alien Species Management released another 5000 weevils on the Water Lettuce and Parrots Feather in the Westlake Wetlands rivers.

17. 24/10/2010 - 16th Cape Town International Kite Festival took place at the Zandvlei Nature Reserve.

See more photos from the Sunday event.

16. 18/10/2010 - Do it Day took place in the biodiversity corridor from the Muizenberg to Zandvlei on Friday 15/10/2010. We removed a stand of invassive Spanish broom plants from the corner of the site.

Margit, Cleo and Cassy cutting the branches. Mark was             Oliver with bags to remove the cut material 
also there.                                                                              from the site.

See the report.

15. 08/10/2010 - Cassy reports Cape Rain Frog Breviseps gibbosus was found near the Reserve in Westlake on 07/10/2010. It is listed as being vulnerable in the red data book.

 
photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Cape Rain Frog Breviseps gibbosus, Isnt he a handsome fella?

14. 25/08/2010 - Cassy delivered a paper at the Fynbos Forum 2010 on work done in the Reserve on Helmeted Guineafowl and Cape Spurfowl.

Helmeted Guineafowl.                                    Cape Spurfowl.

Read a short synopsis.

13. 05/06/2010 - Mark reports "The litter cleanup started at nine o’clock the Saturday morning for two hours. The Zandvlei Trust with the volunteers were busy cleaning at Park Island and I was with the learners at the Scirpus Hide in the Reserve. When we had cleaned up half the mess the children could see the difference they were making.
I want to thank the Zandvlei Trust members, the volunteers, the school teachers and the learners from Zirilda Park Primary and Steenburg Primary Schools. We filled 40 bags of litter".

photographs supplied by Mark Arendse

Pupils from Zerilda Primary and their bags.

photographs supplied by Mark Arendse

Pupils from Steenberg Primary and their bags.

Well done guys!!

12. 06/05/2010 - Cassy reports "Please see the attached pics of the doggy doo bins and bag dispensers which we installed on the Eastern Shore of Zandvlei today. The signage on the bin was done free of charge, the dispensers were made out of recycled articles and the lids were supplied at R35 each by Plumbing etc in Wynberg, they were also kind enough to give us a 10% discount. We are going to repaint the dispenser lids properly once we have the correct paint and the weather is a bit better, but at least for now, they are functional.
Well done guys!

photograph by Cassy Sheasby                                                                         photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Eddie, Mark and Margit busy installing the second bin.               

photograph by Cassy Sheasby                                                  photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Margit demonstating where to dispose of                Making the final adjustments.
the packet.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

First bin installed. Please use them, there are no excuses to stand on or in "landmines".
Pick them up please.

11. 24/04/2010 - Cassy reports "First Butterfly Census at the Zandvlei Nature Reserve
on 24th and 25th April 2010 the staff of GZENR took part in the first SABCA (South African Butterfly Conservation Assessment) Butterfly census (Western Cape section), which is a national census run as a project of SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute).
It spanned a total of 6 hours, 4 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday. The census area spanned from the Palm Tree parking area across the nursery section in a block to the road reserve and covered approximately 2km.
We were able to find the following species:

We added 5 new species to our Zandvlei butterfly list on the database, but unfortunately didn’t find the Painted Lady, Citrus Swallowtail or African Monarch, we will be keeping a look out for these.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Many thanks to Margit van Heerden, Mark Arendse, Eddie Moses,
Corinna Keup, Cleo Schroeder and Sylvia Mecenero
for their contributions to this census.

To see more butterfly pictures click.

See the official results Zandvlei came 3rd in the Beginners section. 

10. 13/04/2010 - Cassy graduated this month.                                               updated 27/10/2010.

Cassy being capped at her graduation ceremony by Trevor Manuel in April 2010,
at the Cape Technicon University. She graduated Cum Laude and top of her class.

9. 13/04/2010 - Cassy reports "Today we finally were able to burn the Bath Road block of vegetation. It was very successful and we were able to have it finished by 1pm. We moved 9 Striped Field Mice, 2 Vlei Rat, 1 Marble-leaftoed Gecko and 1 Cocktail Ant nest to safety during the burn. It surprised me today that we didn’t find any snakes at all, which is alarming seeing as the reptile and rodent population seem healthy as a food source.

• Siphelele Sontundu (Working on Fire foreman), Working on Fire team: awesome!

• Mark Arendse, Eddie Moses, Margit van Heerden, Ranger team for bakkie swaps etc

• Tamaryn Allen and Asieff Khan for support with bakkie sakkies and fuel

• Lakeside Fire Dept (thanks for coming to check if we needed assistance and offering back up)

• Norman Alexander (Fire Dept permits and site inspection)

• Margate, Bath and Clifton road residents for your understanding and support".

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

All the trained people were there with the eqipment.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Everything is under control.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

All over by lunch time.

8. 12/03/2010 - A group of Youth with a Mission were photographed by David Muller at the Thesen's Bridge cleaning up along the vleis edge. They are based in Muizenberg. Well done you are an inspiration!

photograph by David Muller                                                            photograph by David Muller  

Sarah Lunn with this notice on her back.

photograph by David Muller  

Collins Kasono, Totun Adeoye and Hannah Goswich have found a cows head in the water!!

photograph by David Muller  

Drogo Seibert, Abel Santos and Kathy Gooch filling bags with litter from the waters edge.

photograph by David Muller  

It was a team effort well appreciated by the Zandvlei Trust and the staff of Zandvlei Nature Reserve.

7. 28/02/2010 - The Open Day at the Reserve - We had a visitor from Alaska, who wanted to know whether the songs he was hearing were from a black-eyed Bulbul. My knowledge tells me they were a Cape Bulbul, and while standing in the parking lot under the shade of that palm tree, we spotted one, upon which he immediately hauled out his little notebook and made an entry. Wonder if you get bulbuls in Alaska.

Another couple a retired German teacher and his partner had a wonderful walk through and came across the juvenile Fish Eagle but on returning found their car wouldn't start. Even with Leif's jumper leads the battery was just to old to accept the power.
Finally Marisa and Margit, her student towed them to harder ground where it caught and they returned home safely. (story by David Muller)

photograph by David Muller                                                         photograph by David Muller

Margit and Marisa sensibly staying out of the sun.    The "manned" information desk was there to
                                                                            meet the visitors.

photograph by David Muller                                                        photograph by David Muller

Leif Petersen, Vanessa and Sally de Jager (Petersen).  The stuck bakkie with no battery power.

6. 18/02/2010 - The chameleon relocation from Bokmakierie Park was successful, as we had many hands, eyes and torches to help.

A group of about 25 local residents came to help with the exercise.

See what it was all about.

5. 10/02/2010 - The reed cutter was seen working at Zandvlei today. Most people will not have seen it yet as it is used extensively at Rondevlei, which has a large reed over growth problem.

photograph by Lucia Rodrigues

Marisa and Eddy of to cut weed and reeds in the Sand River mouth.

4. 05/02/2010 - Cassy reports "Thank you to everyone who helped us get it right to fell the Eucalyptus trees at the bottom of Henley Road! Clifford, you’ll be proud to know that they have finally been dealt the final blow.

Thanks to the following people for making this happen;

Rob Erasmus for doing the climbing and lumberjack work! This was very well executed!
Marisa de Kock for organising the site inspection with Rob,
Dalton Gibbs for donations to Zandvlei Nature Care Fund,
Nicky Atkinson for organising amazingly quick payment for the operation,
Tamaryn Allen for letting us use Rondevlei’s chainsaw,
Louise Stafford for letting us use the IAS chainsaw,
Myrna Scholtz and Eric Bunu from Bracken for giving us some of their Chopper herbicide,
Eddie Moses for just being the most awesome foreman ever and doing all the hard slicing work on the ground,
Margit van Heerden for being so willing to help and learn – well done on the chainsawing!
Mark, Corinna and Kersten for all your moral support after the school groups in the morning and moving branches.

You are the reason this worked so well, thank you all – you’re fantastic!

Here are some pics from the operation:

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

First few cuts: this shows how massive these trees were.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Going, going...

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Going, going...

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

TIMBERRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Margit learning to chainsaw with Mentor Eddie Moses.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Cassy delivers the final blow.

We left some branches on the last tree which was ring barked for raptors as we know there is an owl in the area.

And the adjacent residents like it too, they can now see the whole area from their houses with no obstructions"!

3. 05/02/2010 - Cassy reports "Today marked the release of the 4 month old Rock Kestrel (Falco rupicolis), who was brought to us on 28th November 2009 after being kicked out of the nest of a Capricorn factory when his 2 siblings fledged.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

He looked very shabby and still had a lot of baby fluff when I got him.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

I taught him what food looked like and he got the idea very quickly. Soon he was eating rodents on his own. About 2 weeks after he was brought in, he had replaced all his baby down with proper feathers and was flying around confidently.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

In January I decided that he should be ringed so that I could release him in Feb. Anthony van Zyl was kind enough to come through to Zandvlei and do the ringing. Rupicolis was extremely unimpressed with this idea and gave us quite a few good bites in reprimanding us!

In January he was moved to the Rondevlei enclosure where Do was fantastic at helping to feed and look after him.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

He was then moved back to Zandvlei in preparation for his release. A hacking cage was built so that he would still have shelter and food if he needed it.

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

Today I was very proud to be able to say goodbye and watch him take to the skies above Zandvlei. He was able to fit in a good nip just before I let him go!

photograph by Cassy Sheasby

He looked confident as he left to perch in a tall tree.

Please look out for him. He has a metal ring on his right leg and a green colour ring on his left.

Please report any sightings to the Zandvlei office or to the Avian Demography Unit.

Many thanks to all the people that contributed to the rehabilitation and release of this raptor. Let’s hope that he goes off to find many a rodent and hopefully a female as gorgeous as he is".

2. 02/02/2010 -  David Muller recorded this sighting of this seasons juvenile African Fish Eagle on the platform at Zandvlei.

photograph by David Muller

Juvenile African Fish Eagle.

1. 28/01/2010 -  Rosemary Barson recorded this sighting of an African Openbill Stork at the Rutter Road Pond. This is a first and a new species for the list.

photograph by Rosemary Barson

African Openbill Stork.

In and around the Reserve in 2009.

In and around the Reserve in 2008.

In and around the Reserve in 2007.

In and around the Reserve in 2006.

In and around the Reserve in 2005.

In and around the Reserve in 2004.

In and around the Reserve in 2003.

In and around the Reserve in  2002.