A Birdless Birdwatching Tree-t.

Adjoining the swatting-fields at Umdoni shown in my previous post, one finds a patch of what the Natal coastline used to be full of until the early settlers cleared most of it in seeking the sweet life. Soon there were boring swathes of sugar cane rippling in the breeze for mile after mile (yes, Smart Alec, this was South Africa, but in those days we had a decent measure of distance which it took an hour’s brisk stroll to do four of). Only indentured labourers and sugar mills broke the monotony of the scene.

The patch of what there used to be consists of trees of all shapes and sizes. This particular coastal forest remnant is known as a Bird Park rather than a Tree Park, and one is supposed to stroll through in order to view the avian residents. You could fool me. We see a heck of a lot more feathery flutterers in our own back yard than appeared during our hike. One fairly distant eagle was about it.

Anyway, I didn’t mind the lack of bird activity. The trees were pleasant enough.

I must admit we only covered about four kilometres, with kids and all. Come to think of it, there is something to be said for the shorter measure. That was a lot easier than four miles would have been.

© Colonialist October 2015 (WordPress)