Strandfontein Birding Area #1: Bird Info Centre
Note: the given coordinates are for the entrance to SBA
The cache is the 1st of 9 caches placed within this special place - regarded by birders as the one of the best birding sites in the Western Cape. Thanks are due to the Supervisor of the False Bay Nature Reserve for kind permission to places caches here.
The cache, a screw-capped, camo-taped mayo pot, is hidden at this centre which is located at the centre of the complex of water treatment pans (ponds) at the plant.
To reach the cache location (note: these waypoints can also be used, together with additional ones specific to each cache, for all the other SBA caches):
Take the M17 Strandfontein Road to the junction with Dollarbird Road @ S 34 03.198 E 18 31.771. Turn west here and follow the road around the traffic circle and on to the False Bay Nature Reserve (Zeekovlei section) entry gate @ S 34 03.198 E 18 31.771. This is open 07:30-19:30 in summer and 07:30-18:00 in winter - entry is free.
After completing brief formalities follow the road for some 4km or so alongside and around the end of Zeekovlei and then south and between two large primary pans P6 & P7 (see site map in Gallery) to the entry gate of the Strandfontein waste water treatment works @ S 34 04.766 E 18 31.167.
After reporting at reception, head down the jeep track heading south-west between P5 & P6 as far as the multi-track junction/info centre @ S 34 04.968 E 18 30.805 adjacent to the cache location.
To find the cache:
Step 1: at S 34 04.953 E 18 30.806 you will be standing close to the green False Bay Nature Reserve Bird Information Centre board on which there is person's name. The number of letters in the first name = A
Step 2: move around to S 34 04.955 E 18 30.813 the south side of the building on which there is an impressive large mural. At the bottom left of this is the artist's name and the year it was painted which is 200B
Step 3: at S 34 04.952 E 18 30.817 on the right-hand side of the same mural you will notice a creature partially hidden in the grass in the lower corner eating a fish. There are C letters in its name.
Step 4: now go the short distance to S 34 04.949 E 18 30.822 where you will be in front of an info board on Nesting Walls which have been installed in the Reserve. The sections of PVC pipes used are D m long
Step 5: finally move over to S 34 04.948 E 18 30.819 from where you will have a clear view of the equally fine but smaller mural on the eastern side of the building. On this you will spot E steenbok (note the huge ears!) staring at you just to the left of the water.
The cache is hidden at:
S 34 04.(B+D)C(A-1) E 18 30.B(C-A)E
Strandfontein Sewage Works (or more correctly Strandfontein Waste Water Treatment Works) has long been the worst-kept birding secret in Cape Town. Part of a larger nature reserve, its 306 hectares (750 acres) of open water pans, reed beds and indigenous strandveld vegetation lie just a few metres away from the Indian Ocean. The result is an amazing diversity of birds (around 170 species) living there in serious numbers – over 30 000 individual birds on one occasion.
See here for an excellent introduction to the site - including a site map - and where to look for particular species. Go here for a list of the bird species recorded at the SBA. See Gallery for an annotated site map showing geocache locations.
See here for an interesting blog page covering several visits to the SBA with some good photos including of some rarities.
Like many wetlands around South Africa's major cities, Strandfontein is almost entirely man-made. Before 1922, the only wetland habitats at the site were the small and temporary Maccoavlei and Tamatievlei. A small sewage works was built in 1922 and additional water was channelled into the system from nearby Zeekoevlei. Over the years the complex was enlarged and by 1976 the Tamatievlei had been converted into 34 settling ponds. The Birdlife South Africa website provides a detailed site description, detailed information on the birdlife to be seen and a summary of the conservation challenges at the site.
It is an official RAMSAR site (an international wetland conservation body) and home to mongooses and snakes, the Cape grysbok (a small antelope) and even a caracal, a medium-sized cat similar to a lynx. There are frogs and chameleons and two endangered butterflies, found only in the immediate area.
Rewarding at any time of year, Strandfontein can easily yield 60-70 species in a day but the best time to visit is during summer when large numbers of wading birds arrive from the northern hemisphere – sandpipers, turnstones, stints and terns. There are often exciting vagrants and oddities – the African jacana for example, more associated with the Okavango Delta – as well as several regional rarities like the Cape longclaw and African black oystercatcher.
But it’s the flamingos that really catch the eye. Both greater and lesser flamingos occur at Strandfontein, usually in squabbling, fussing flocks that take off in an explosion of pink when you get too close. Flamingos have returned to Cape Town in large numbers in recent years leaving everyone a bit puzzled as to why. Especially as it’s a mystery where they go to breed - it certainly doesn’t happen at the sewage works.
Early morning tends to be the least windy time of day and the mirrored waters of the pans are something to see when covered in birds. Prepare for strong winds in summer - Strandfontein is the first bit of land hit by the pumping south- easterly wind after swooping across False Bay, making bird watching and photography somewhat challenging. But whatever the weather, there’s always something to see at Strandfontein Sewage Works – 'paradise with a purpose'.