Last guided bird walk at Parkview Golf Club for the year

Kingsley, the giant kingfisher, seems to be the newest ‘member’ of the Parkview Golf Club.

He’s been spotted several times angling for lunch from the pond at the club’s 15th hole and is expected to be a major drawcard at the club’s forthcoming spring bird walk, according to Theresa Gibbon of the club. Also seen hovering nearby was a black-shouldered kite.

The giant kingfisher (megaceryle maxima) is 42 to 48cm long, with a large crest and finely spotted white on black upperparts. The male has a chestnut breast band and otherwise white underparts with dark flanks and the female has a white-spotted black breast band and chestnut belly. The bird’s call is a loud ‘wak wak wak’. This large species feeds on crabs, fish, and frogs, caught in the typical kingfisher way by a dive from a perch.

The giant kingfisher is the largest kingfisher in Africa where it is a resident breeding bird over most of the continent south of the Sahara desert, other than the arid southwest.

The bird walk, to be guided by ornithologists of Africa Nature Training, will be open free to all birding enthusiasts on 9 September which will also be the last guided bird walk for the year.

The event is one of several the club has arranged this year to involve local communities in the celebration of the club’s centenary.

Earlier in the year, five groups of 12 birders consisting of local residents and golf club members spotted, among many more common species, a black sparrowhawk, white-breasted cormorant, lesser honeyguide, steppe buzzard, an African harrier hawk, paradise flycatcher, rose-ringed parakeet and bronze-winged manakin.

“Parkview is clearly a rich source of bird life,” said the club’s centenary committee chairman, Franco Pellegrini, a keen birder who lives alongside the course.

Registration is at 6am and breakfast will be available in the clubhouse afterwards. Booking is essential.