Gull, gull, goose!

After a walk on the ‘Seagull nursery’ at Robberg Mark reported some startling news, the birds are getting ready to breed and are scraping out nesting cavities. But I’m not ready yet! Slow down birds slow down! So I decided to take a trip out to the two Keurbooms colonies to see what their breeding status was. It was a solo recon trip to the peninsula and so I decided to take the paddle ski that I brought with from home (more for the kids to play with than for me to actually use!) because it is the only flotation device that I can carry and use entirely alone. Thank goodness for a waterproof bag! In the canoe, you feel relatively safe, there are sides. The paddle-ski feels treacherous in comparison! Trying to balance is ridiculous, the added weight of my wet-bag behind me didn’t help, and the tide was going out, bad timing. There are rip currents in that area that are well known, there have been drownings in the outlet to the sea, and today I experienced their full force, not pleasant. I made land at the last possible moment and dragged my soaked self and paddle-ski from the water, under the watchful eye of the cormorants, hopefully the only spectators! I pulled myself together and started the walk to the colony, dragging the paddle-ski behind me to launch the trip back further up river. Before I had even entered the vegetated area which marks the start of the colony I found a beautiful nest scraping, that should have tipped me off. Quite pleased with the find I pulled out my GPS, took photos and was off again, into the vegetated area of the colony. Pandemonium erupted, well a sedated version of the full mid-season response of hundreds of disturbed breeding gulls erupted. It has begun. Birds are pairing up, scraping out their spot on the ground, preparing nests and getting ready to lay. These, thankfully, are the early birds and the full breeding season is closer to October but these nests need to be monitored, adults caught and colour-ringed. An interesting find while wandering through the colony looking for the super early birds that may have eggs, was an Egyptian Goose nest! Quite chuffed with that I decided to head on back before the tide was so low that I would have to drag the paddle-ski back. By this time the wind had picked up and there were wind waves to contend with along with the current. Launching up river helped as the current pulled me along towards my destination in some ways, but it was not a pleasant trip. In all honesty it must have looked ridiculous, I was too nervous in the rough water and so hung my legs in the water as stabilisers and paddled along (not a professional, competent image!). I got to a sand bank where I could sit and touch the floor and spent some time giving my very unconditioned arms some time to recover. Onward I continued, until the water was so shallow the keel was scraping sand, and then I took my paddle-ski for a walk pushing it along using the paddle (crazy lady that’s not how you meant to do it!). I arrived back at the beach, pulled and carried everything back to the car, loaded up, tied down and sat down. I felt like I should giggle hysterically, it must have been pretty entertaining for an onlooker, but I just sat there in awe. I did it, I made it, and I was EXHAUSTED! I will plan things a little more carefully next time, and work on getting more muscley!

A gull nest, getting ready for eggs.

An Egyptian Goose nest, quite a surprise to see!