|
FROM THE HIDE |
Bird numbers are rather
low, considering the little rain which has fallen up until
mid winter. However, the July bird count reached a total of
2091 birds, including 8 Spoonbills, 6 Pied Kingfishers, 6
Purple Herons, 49 Pelicans, 15 Greater Flamingos and 186
Cape Shovellers! 36 species were counted in all. Perhaps the
rain expected towards the end of July will finally fill up
the vlei as well as our local dams.
|
|
A REQUEST |
We have had some reports
from members who are being told, on arrival at the main
gate, that their names are not on the membership list kept
at the gate. If this should happen to you, please ask for
the name of the person at the gate, and email us with this
info, plus the date and time of your attempt to gain access.
Or you can phone Margaret on 557-4990.
|
|
EVENING TALKS AND OPEN
DAYS |
|
Our next evening talk will be on 12 August. Adam Harrower, a
botanist at Kirstenbosch, who seeks out rare plants, will
present a talk on "Strandveld & Dune Vegetation". We look
forward to a good turnout! Please diarise the date and time
- |
Date: Thursday 12th August
Time: 7.30p.m. for 8p.m.
Venue: Rietvlei Education Centre
Enquiries: Margaret on 557-4990 |
|
Thereafter, our next evening talk on "Healthy Rivers", will
be presented by Jo Barnes and will be held on TUESDAY, 14
September. |
Don't forget our regular Open Days at the Education Centre
from 9 am to 12 noon on the third Saturday of every month.
Dates to diarise:
Saturday, 21 August
Saturday, 18 September
|
|
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AT RIETVLEI |
|
With the building of the
new Education Centre at Rietvlei last year, we were in a
good position to be a satellite venue for the YES 2004
Program. YES stands for Youth Environmental School and has
been a successful initiative in Cape Town for six years. The
theme for YES 2004 was "WANTED! Seas and Oceans, Dead or
Alive". The Rietvlei Nature Conservation students, Andrie
and Juan-Pierre took the lead in preparing the program for
the schools who visited Rietvlei. At Rietvlei the focus was
on birds with a program prepared for good (outdoor) or bad
(indoor) weather. |
|
On Monday 31 May, a beautiful sunny day, the first group of
43 grade 6 pupils from Greenlands Primary School, Bishop
Lavis arrived. Andrie, Juan-Pierre, Koos and Pat welcomed
them. The first 20 minutes were spent in the Education
Centre where info on wetlands and birds was given to the
pupils. Different beaks and feet were shown and it was
explained how the birds live in a variety of habitats. Then
it was outdoors for a walk to the bird-hide. On the way the
pupils learnt about alien vegetation. At the hide pupils
used binoculars and the bird sheets to identify the birds at
Rietvlei. The central pan was rather dry but there were
plenty of pelicans and Egyptian geese on the south vlei, and
lots of coot and some herons and cormorants on the north
vlei. After the hide it was back to the amphitheatre where
the children had a picnic. A second group from Danie
Ackerman Primary in Somerset West arrived for their two-hour
slot at 11am, and the program was repeated. |
During the week a total of 9 groups (325 pupils) came to
Rietvlei and during this time Margaret Maciver and Ruby
Briggs were welcome assistants with some of the groups. The
weather was sunny and warm for the whole week so the bad
weather program was never tested. The enthusiasm of the
pupils and teachers was encouraging to see and we hope that
Rietvlei will be revisited by these schools again.
|
|
RAINFALL FIGURES |
|
We are all rather
concerned about the dry winter we have been having and water
restrictions are going to hit us hard if we do not get some
heavy rainfall in the next few weeks. The following table
shows recent rainfall figures for Rietvlei: |
|
Total Rainfall for Rietvlei (mm) for 2000-2004 (updated
01/07/2004) |
| |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
|
January |
- |
16 |
57.9 |
3.5 |
8 |
|
February |
- |
2 |
10 |
6 |
0.9 |
|
March |
- |
0 |
10.1 |
32.2 |
7 |
|
April |
5+ |
18.9 |
29.9 |
10.9 |
79.5 |
| May
|
26.1 |
48.7 |
38.6 |
22.2 |
2.25 |
|
June |
51.6 |
36.4 |
62.8 |
13.1 |
66.8 |
|
July |
46.1 |
175.7 |
69.5 |
27.3 |
- |
|
August |
24.3 |
108.7 |
66.9 |
81.1 |
- |
|
September |
49.3+ |
61.5+ |
19.5 |
53.8 |
- |
|
October |
5.3 |
31.2 |
33.7 |
25.3 |
- |
|
November |
8.8 |
22.5 |
13.2 |
2.8 |
- |
|
December |
2.5 |
10.5 |
20.1 |
15.5 |
- |
|
Total: |
219+ |
532.1+ |
432.2 |
303.7 |
|
|
Note: The open spaces
indicate no data available.
The + sign indicates that there was insufficient data for
that month; therefore the rainfall reading could be higher
for the month.
Please remember the dust problem periods were in February
and March 2001, 2003 and 2004. |
 |
|
PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU
HAVE NOT YET RENEWED YOUR MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION, YOU WILL
NO LONGER RECEIVE OUR REGULAR NEWSLETTERS. |
|
|
| This newsletter comes to you with the kind
assistance of Caltex. |
