WESSA Coastal Newsletter March 2021

News from Green Coast sites A MEGA wild coast twitch at Kei Mouth Article shared by Dr Deborah Roberston-Andersson

Twitchers are by definition a person or thing that twitches, or in this case birdwatchers . Twitchers are willing to go to great lengths to see any bird species they have not previously recorded, even traveling extensive distances at great expense to see a new lifer. The sooty gull was first recorded in the St Lucia Estuary in Northern KZN on birding big day (28 November 2020). And this is only the second record of this bird in South Africa, so on all the social media its being labelled as a MEGA-find, which means that twitchers will travel from far to see it. After the November sighting several people travelled up and down KZN trying to find it with no success. Kei mouth received a fantastic new year’s present with a sighting in Kei mouth on the 1st of January! The bird moves around the mouth with respect to the tides, at high tide it is on the northern sand bar in the mouth and has also been seen in the Tern roosts. At low tide, the bird has been seen further upriver towards the ferry. There are stories of twitchers traveling from all over to see the bird. Another sighting at Kei Mouth that deserves a special mention is the Broad-Billed Sandpiper ( Calidris falcinellus ) which is on the salt marsh on the northern bank near the ferry at low tide. This sighting is only the second for the Eastern Cape. This bird is identified by the bent tip on its bill and the white strip over the eye.

Ichthyaetus hemprichii - Sooty Gull

So grab your binos and see if you can develop a twitch or three at Kei Mouth!

Broad-Billed Sandpiper (Calidris falcinellus)