Gusts of the wildest wind scorch across acres of exposed sand, whipping it up into tiny, stinging tornadoes, garnished by the skimming salt of the sea.
Offshore, a slate-grey curtain of rain merges with the squalling ocean, surging right to left before veering shore ward. Out there near the blurred horizon, a distant ant-line of tiny flickering shapes appears and disappears over the spray-strewn rollers. A wavy formation of oncoming birds gradually resolves from the storm.
Flying perilously low over the water, they are obscured by a violently crashing breaker before miraculously cresting the next towering swell. There is something profoundly heroic about this dark squadron of cormorants, stoically returning to land after a day of foraging, a day spent exposed to the warring sea. Just before they make landfall, a searchlight of sun probes through the scudding clouds and smudges a watery rainbow across the sky, a fitting tribute to their safe return. Close now, their wings pumping powerfully in rhythmical symmetry, they pull in behind their leader, finally bringing them home. The formation endures an awkward transition as it flutters to the ground, each bird stumbling and pitching on arrival.
Almost before they are still, another skein of heroes hammers home over the coast, followed by more, each settling behind the other in an ongoing sequence of clumsy landings. Night is approaching and the cormorants form a spreading fluid swarm of straining bodies; a bulging black stain, big enough to blot out most of the sandspit at the river’s mouth.
This story is from the July/August 2018 edition of African Birdlife.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July/August 2018 edition of African Birdlife.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
