West Coast Wild Flowers

Driving out to the West Coast is always a good idea for those lucky enough to live close by. The wildflowers that bloom during this time were as a good reason as any to hop in the car and start adding to my observations in iNaturalist for the Great Southern Bioblitz.

The fields surrounding the M58 road out of Durbanville are covered with grapevines in a dormant state, and rolling hills of green with fields marked out for cultivation. Alongside the road grows purple Paterson's Curse, arum lilies, Cape weed and yellow surings in the long grass.

Further fields of canola have Cape Weavers and wind breaks of bluegums which are not indigenous (the bluegums). We spotted a Yellow-billed Kite bothering some Cattle Egrets along the road and Red Bishops bobbed around the reed beds outside of the little town of Philadelphia.

Further along there were tiny white tulips in the roadside grass, yellow lupins in the fields and Rain daisies. We spotted a Blacksmith Lapwing and a Sacred African Ibis in the fields. Unfortunately while noticing all these things, we took a wrong turn and took a dirt road outside of Abbotsdale where we spotted Pale-winged Starlings and two Blue Cranes on a small farm dam, accompanied by Yellow-billed Ducks and Red-knobbed Coots.

Finally approaching Darling where their Darling Wildflower Show was in full swing, the fields were absolutely dotted with white arum lilies and delicate orange tulips. A short drive outside of Darling is the Tienie Versfeld Nature Reserve that never disappoints; it was an absolute riot of colour. I logged my finds on iNaturalist but as there was no signal I could not upload them on the Great Southern Bioblitz project immediately, something to rectify when connection was re-established. Red-knobbed coots paddled around on the dam and we spotted a red locust. To see a list of what has been found there and reported on iNaturalist, click here.

Driving further down the N7 we spotted two giraffes at the Buffelsfontein Private Nature Reserve. We arrived around 12h30 at the West Coast National Park and stood in queue to get in, so many visitors had the same idea as ourselves! The honorary rangers were out in numbers assisting the queuing vehicles and electronic payments for entrance into the park. There was no pensioner discount but different prices for SA, SADC and international visitors. We had a SANParks Wild Card which allowed us free entrance.

I noticed all the green shrubbery along the main route, the bush is as high as myself and the only colour is the brown of the brown sage. Only when you look down at the low grass along the road would you notice some yellow from Capeweed and other low-growing flowers. 

We drove past the bird hide which is usually our first stop, past the small beach at the lagoon which was in low tide - the beach stretched further than I have seen it before, the turquoise blue water dotted with yachts and boats anchored around, which was very popular with the visitors. We went directly to the Postberg wild flower reserve, which is only open August and September (ending 30 September). The main road is lined with brown sage and green shrubbery which gave way after the Postberg fence to fields of purple which ran into a wash of yellow with spots of orange amongst them. The fields of flowers are vast but not not well marked or protected so that we spotted many people in amongst the flowers which was really disheartening. The paths that were being walked have been there for such a long time that no flowers grew there. To see an iNaturalist list of species found in Postberg, click here.

I wondered why the Postberg is the only spot to have the waves of colour in the park, what soil conditions existed there or if the dispersion method kept the flowers only in that location?

There are dirt roads in the park, some marked by water erosion and potholes so remember to drive carefully - you do not need a 4x4, just some on the spot attention to detail.

The tapestry of colours reminded me of quilting, where you create a large surface area that is a blanket of colour but when you look closer each piece of colour is actually an individual, each quilt hexagon would be represented by an individual flower.

After the flower viewing we did visit the Abrahamskraal bird hide near a water hole. To see a list of birds spotted over time, click here. This is eBird.org's list not ours. Driving from site to site to view the fields of spring flowers was such an active experience that sitting quietly in the bird hide was a pleasant break. Our bird viewing was only interrupted by a pair of White-throated Swallows. One was sitting on a tiny nest set against the beam inside the hide and the other swallow would site on a wooden bench dedicated to Brian and make sure we were not disturbing the nest.

I wondered why we only spotted one African oystercatcher? We usually see them in pairs, did we just not explore enough to spot the mate?

We drove out of the park around 15h44 and the flowers were beginning to close already.

Some of the West Coast National Park spring flowers we spotted were:

• Livingstone daisy

• Rain daisy (Dimorphotheca pluvialis)

• Hongerblom

• Meaty saladbush

• Gazania

• Yellow-eyed wood-sorrel

The animals we spotted were:

• bontebok

• small snake, unidentified

• mountain zeba

• field mouse

• lizard, unidentified

The birds we spotted were:

• African Black Oystercatcher

• Southern Double-collared Sunbird

• Kelp Gull

• Cape Spurfowl

• Korhaan

• Lesser Flamingo

• Little Grebe

• Cape Shoveler

• White-throated Swallow

• Bar-throated Apalis

• White-backed Mousebird

• Cape Bulbul

• Hartlaub gulls

• Grey Heron

• Egyptian Geese

• Red-knobbed Coot

• Cattle Egret

• Blacksmith Lapwing

• Ostrich

See the post why I use eBird post and the post about the GSB.