Bird Watching

Phone: 039 681 2733 ~ Cell: 073 993 4008 ~ E-Mail Us

Birding in and around our premises is extremely prolific.
Species found here will appeal to the experienced, but also to the novest birder and eco-tourist.

The Barn Swallows

Thousands of European Swallows (now called Barn Swallows) takes bird watching at Dieu-Donneé to a higher level.

Watching them circling and darting down at dusk to the reed beds in our Umhlangamkulu river to settle for the night. Their taking off the next morning at dawn is even more spectacular, when they as if at a given signal, take off and circle above Dieu-Donneé and then fly away up to 60km inland to feed and drink in flight. Just to return again at sunset where up to eight birds roost on a single reed.

These summer visitors find their way to Southport every year from October to April.

The swallows do not breed in the southern hemisphere, but have one or two broods during their European summer sojurns.

These extrodinary little birds weigh up to 30.5g when they leave Southport for their gruelling journey to Europe. On arrival there, males might weigh only 11g and females 14g.

According to recapture data, the greatest distance travelled, as the crow flies, was 11660km, but as they fly hugging the east Coast of Africa, their flying distance is probably nearer to 15,000km

The fastest migration recorded is that of a swallow ringed in Umhlanga and recaptured in Whitney Bay, Britain, just 27 days later. These birds make their migratory flight non stop. Living on insects and rain water as they fly. Scientific studies have revealed that one half of their brains shut down in a sleeping state as they fly. When that half comes to life the other half retreats into sleep.

Come and watch as a little miracle of nature unfolds every evening as between 30,000 and 40,000 Barn Swallows head to their roosting places in our prestine river.