BoS #12: Familiar Chat
The cache, a small camo-taped tablet pot, is hidden in a rocky outcrop just off the wonderful short trail traversing the northern slopes of Spitskop which starts at the junction at Fat Lady Shelter and ends at the gravel track near the communications installations on the central Steenberg plateau below Lower Steenberg Peak.
Weather permitting, from the trail you will have stunning views, particularly to the north across Constantia and the southern suburbs to Devil’s Peak/ Table Mountain and to the (north)-east across the Cape Flats to False Bay and the Hottentot Holland mountains beyond.
As you pass through this area (and most of Silvermine Nature Reserve), you will be in the home of this conspicuous archetypal ‘little brown job’ bird which you are almost guaranteed to hear/spot once you know what you are listening for/looking at!
To Reach the Cache Location:
Approaching from the west: make your way from parking at Gate 2 via the top of Wolfkop Steps to the west end of the traverse trail at the Fat Lady Shelter @ S 34 5.589 E 18 26.200 and follow the trail heading east (shown simply as View Point on the stone column signpost there) past the location of BoS #13: Red-Winged Starling and on to the cache location.
Approaching from the east: make your way by any chosen route (either circling around from Gate 2 or coming up one of the several routes from Boyes Drive on the eastern edge of the Reserve) to the eastern end of the traverse trail @ S 34 5.742 E 18 26.801 where it joins the gravel jeep track accessing the Silvermine plateau area with its fenced and guarded telecoms installations. Follow the trail as it winds its way upwards to and across the rocky northern slopes of the impressively rugged mini-peak Spitskop.
The Familiar chat (Oenanthe familiaris) is a small passerine bird of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. It is a common resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara in rocky and mountainous habitat and around human habitation.
There are 7 recognised subspecies – the one found here (in southern South Africa) is O.f.familiaris.
It is a plain gray-brown dumpy short-tailed chat 14–15 cm long with rusty ear patches and a rufous rump and outer tail feathers that outline an inverted black “T” pattern on the tail. It has a short straight bill and the legs and feet are black. Sexes are alike, and the juvenile is similar to the adult but with buff spots above and a scaly pattern on the breast.
It lives in a broad range of habitats, but favours rocky areas, gullies, outcrops, and buildings, where it often perches conspicuously. It drops to the ground or into a bush to feed on invertebrates and frequently flicks both wings simultaneously and lifts its tail.
It has a soft ‘shek-shek’ alarm call (listen here) and its song is a warbling trill (listen here).
It is typically seen sitting on a rock, or hopping on bare patches of soil. It has a habit of flicking its wings 
once or twice every time it moves. It is seen in small family groups of up to five birds, and is invariably tame and approachable.
It mainly eats invertebrates, which it catches using a variety of foraging techniques, often pouncing on prey on the ground from a perch or hawking insects aerially. It also gleans food from leaves and branches while hovering or chasing small arthropods on the ground; it may even forage in the intertidal zone, perching on kelps or seaweed. It often associates with Klipspringers (Oreatragus oreatragus), catching the insects they flush or even plucking ectoparasites from their skin. It also eats fruit, animal fat and household or farmyard scraps.
The Afrikaans name for this species ‘spekvreter’ means ‘fat-eater’, and comes from the fact that it had a habit of feeding on the lard used to grease wagon axles by the voortrekkers.
It is monogamous and breeds mainly between October and November in South Africa. The nest is constructed in 2-13 days - an open cup of dry grass, paper and string and lined with finer material, such as fluffy seeds, hair, feathers and wool. It is usually built on an untidy platform of earth clods, small stones and bits of bark, and it can be placed in a wide variety of sites. It most commonly uses a hole in the ground, cavities in walls, buildings or trees, old burrows of bee-eaters or other burrowing bird species, disused sociable weaver nests, rock faces or an artificial structure such as a nest box, shelf, letter box or even a freezer, as seen in the photo.
2-4 greenish-blue eggs decorated with reddish-brown speckling eggs are laid usually from April-June, 
peaking from Aug-Dec, although in arid regions it can breed at any time of year in response to rainfall.
These are incubated for about 13-15 days. The nestlings are fed by both parents and fledge after 13–15 days. Usually only a single brood is raised each year.
See short videos: here (life cycle), here filmed on nearby Muizenberg Peak, here (calling), here and here (in a back yard), and here (fledgling).