Are the Oyster-catcher birds of Bigbay still allive. If they are not, shame on all Bigbay beach goers and BCA. Your disinterest killed them.

We left Cape Town in 2012.     Even then, we stopped going to the beach because it became too sad to watch the last two Oystercatchers struggling to remain on their nest while beach goers and their dogs walk over the dunes.

During the breeding season, even the male could not go to the rocks to get food, because continuous interruption from passers by kept them alert.      When the chicks were born, it was even worse because every one and his dog wanted to go and photograph them.   They were driven further and further into the bushes, just to be driven out again by dogs or other predators.

I was glad in a way that we left before we see one of the birds, after so many years surviving under the most difficult conditions, dead on the beach.  Mauled by dogs, or watch a lone bird looking for his mate.

We recorded the last days of the oystercatchers and plovers on Bigbay beach, in a hope that it would shake the conservation department of Rietvlei Cape or The BCA to arrange and monitor volunteer teams to protect the birds during breeding season.


Secondly, the fate of these birds will soon be the fate of all the birds along the coast from Melkbos to Bigbay, as this is becoming a popular sunbathing and beach-walking strip.

Have you ever compared the footprint of a human to that of an animal?   Humans cause so much damage to nature.



A new era of Oyster-catcher blogging is to start on these pages.


The Oyster-catchers of the most southern point of Africa.      Here the birds can still live as nature intended.    Happy birds!


The black Oyster-catcher reminds me of the many black children in South Africa who cannot grow up in safety, have enough food to eat or the education love and support that is the birthright of all children.

There is so much suffering among animals and birds by the hands of humans:  Canned lion hunting, cruel farming practices, rhino poaching, canned lion hunting, intolerance and misunderstanding when baboons clashes with  people who made their homes of their territory and much more ....


Therefore, for the remainder of this blog we will write happy Oyster-catcher posts.

030 Nowhere to hide.

The safety of the dunes or high-water mark does not exist on this beach.
There is nowhere for the Oystercatchers who have been visiting this beach long before people became interested in it.
Long before the decision was made to change the face of Big Bay 'The people's beach'

If these birds are to breed here in the future, we will need volunteers who will protect them during the summer months of November - February.
We need someone, over the weekends and public holidays, which will make sure the public does not disturb them while they are breeding.

Perhaps a fund can be created for this.

We should be proud of our last two Big Bay Oystercatchers.
There are no other breeding Oystercatchers between BCA and Blouberg strand.

004 Letter to the Blaauwberg Conservation Department

The following letter was sent to some conservation personnel in the area.   Perhaps it is already too late to do something this year.
We had one of the hottest days, in Cape Town, that I can remember.
As I write this; people must be storming the beach to cool down.

THE LETTER

Would you kindly pass this email on to the person concerned?

Last Saturday I noticed that the Oystercatchers are breeding again, halfway between Big Bay and Horse Trails.

There is only one pair that uses this beach for breeding.  They have been breeding there for a very long time. (I guess over 10 years).

Last year their nest got trampled by walkers and dogs.   They got chased by dogs and people picnicked near their nest.

Is there not something you can do to protect their nests over weekends and high tide times?

When a foreign boat goes aground we are flooded by people standing around to protect it.

The least we can do is to try and help these birds to get their chicks hatched and raised.

We should be proud of them.

I hope someone can find a solution as last year their attempt to nest failed.  They only have one attempt to breed per season.

I do not know if they are still around, because I tried to phone BCA on several occasions but could not get through.

 Yours faithfully,

R W

003 Oystercatcher on the nest - Summer of 2010

Another attempt to breed at Ploverbeach - Near Big Bay, Cape.

She is not in a good condition.  She seem to have bold patches  where she lost feathers.

001 ABOUT

We decided to separate our Oystercatcher posts from our Plover posts.   They both share the same beaches and the same fate; that of facing extinction on the stretch of beach between Cape Town and Melkbosstrand.

We can not stop progress, but we can record their last fight for survival in Cape Town.


 Years ago I picked up an Oystercatcher egg on the beach.  I took it home, never thinking how precious that egg was to the bird.  I never even saw the Oystercatchers; neither would I have recognized them.  In those days my classification of birds was: large white, small black, little gray........

Most people using our beaches today are still ignorant about our precious feathered beach dwellers.   They do not even notice them when they picnic on the bird nests.

We shall search our photo database for photographs of Oystercatchers and post the old photographs alongside newer ones.