After the recent cold front that hit Cape Town, I decided to re-visit the Lower Silvermine River located in Clovelly, a small suburb found next to the popular coastal suburb of Fish Hoek. This time my aunt and uncle joined too and since my uncle is a keen photographer, I was keen to get him onto some of the stunning sunbirds and other species of birds that one can find here. We began the walk just in time for the sun to rise over the mountain peak known as Trappieskop which lit up the Southern edge of the river and that would be where we would spend most of the morning. Our first species for the day was one of the most memorable! A male Southern Double-collared Sunbird was showing off his bright yellow pectoral tufts (or epaulettes) at close range. Our next Sunbird was the Fynbos endemic Orange-breasted Sunbird where a male bird provided us with excellent close viewing, and we were able to see the violet band across the upper breast. Presumably, why it was given the scientific name anthobaphes violacea? We came across a Malachite Kingfisher hunting and we also got excellent views of Karoo Prinia (pictured in top image), Southern Masked Weaver, Cape Robin-Chat, Familiar Chat, Malachite Sunbird, Cape Sugarbird, Cape Grassbird and Southern Boubou. Not a bad two hours of birding at all!

Photos by Gareth Robbins