Ken Borland

Blue Duiker

Amidst the suburban bustle of East London, the Nahoon Estuary Nature Reserve is a small oasis in which majestic Crowned Eagles can be spotted side-by-side with the more prosaic Hadeda Ibis.

In fact, when I visited the reserve in Beacon Bay, I was fortunate enough to see a Crowned Eagle, flying majestically low over the coastal forest, although it was seemingly being chased by a Hadeda, which was following right behind it!

Considering that Hadedas are actually amongst the Crowned Eagle’s favourite avian prey, it is way more likely that it was just an illusion of perspective and the Ibis would have been keeping its distance from the powerful raptor.

The favourite prey of the Crowned Eagle is Dassies and Blue Duiker, and there were lots of the little antelope around, easily spotted on the various paths through the forest.

The 77km long Nahoon River is the centrepiece of the reserve and an excellent boardwalk allows one to explore the tidal flats as well as Africa’s southern-most mangrove forest.

The river bank no doubt provides breeding sites for Black Saw-Wing Swallow, and a pair of these summer visitors were sailing above a clearing in the coastal forest, along with Lesser Striped Swallows. Forktailed Drongos stand guard on prominent perches, one of them having a weird double tail moult.

Forktailed Drongo with double tail-moult

Whitebreasted Cormorant fly over along the estuary, with Tawnyflanked Prinia in bushes on the flats, Spottedbacked Weavers in the reeds and Goliath Heron and Little Egret patrolling the water’s edge.

There are rocky areas as well, while pristine forest is tightly packed on the dunes bordering the river and the Indian Ocean. Trails criss-cross this enticing habitat and a pair of Greenbacked Camaropteras were jumping around next to the path, while Terrestrial Bulbul kept to themselves in the thicker stuff.

Where is the Nahoon Estuary Nature Reserve?

Sightings list

Blue Duiker

Sombre Bulbul

Bronze Mannikin

Whitebreasted Cormorant

Forktailed Drongo

Laughing Dove

Redeyed Dove

Tawnyflanked Prinia

Black Saw-Wing Swallow

Crowned Eagle

Hadeda Ibis

Goliath Heron

Little Egret

Greenbacked Camaroptera

Terrestrial Bulbul

Lesser Striped Swallow

Spottedbacked Weaver

Cape White-Eye

Cape White-Eyes having a bath

There will be practically two different Titans teams in action this weekend as the defending champions look to get their Momentum One-Day Cup campaign back on track with matches against the Knights in Benoni on Friday and versus the Warriors in East London on Sunday.

While the Titans are currently in fourth place on the log, there are only five points – the equivalent of a bonus point win – between them and the competition-leading Cape Cobras. The Warriors are second with the same number of points as the Cobras, while the Highveld Lions are third, two points ahead of the Titans. The Dolphins are, like the Titans, on nine points and the bottom-placed Knights are on eight, so there is a real logjam in the 50-over standings.

While current Proteas Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Farhaan Behardien and Chris Morris will all be playing in Benoni, getting some valuable white-ball cricket in before the series against England starts on Wednesday, SA A players Dean Elgar, Qaasim Adams, Theunis de Bruyn, David Wiese and Marchant de Lange (called up on Friday) won’t be there for the Titans at all this weekend as they are playing a day/night match against the tourists in Kimberley on Saturday.

Coach Rob Walter said on Thursday that the Titans were inconsistent in the first five games of the competition, which won’t be helped by the raft of changes he will have to make between their sixth and eighth games, by when the SA A quintet should be back.

“It’s not going to be easy, we’re losing a lot of players so it will test our squad strength, but it provides opportunities for some quality cricketers. We’re under a bit of pressure to get the job done this weekend, we need points if we’re going to push for a home final.

“Of course we’ve been down this road before and we just have to make sure we get on a roll. We’ve been a bit inconsistent with both bat and ball and have struggled to put both facets together in the same game. But we have a strong side to play the Knights, who are always tough and offer very strong resistance,” Walter said.

The likes of Grant Thomson, Graeme van Buuren, Heinrich Klaasen and Rowan Richards, who were all successful in the first half of the competition, should be in contention to fill in on Sunday in East London.

Titans squad v Knights – Henry Davids, Quinton de Kock, Heino Kuhn, Faf du Plessis, Farhaan Behardien, Grant Mokoena, Mangaliso Mosehle, Albie Morkel, Chris Morris, Tabraiz Shamsi, Junior Dala, Grant Thomson, Ethy Mbhalati.

The top two teams on the RamSlam T20 Challenge log lost to the also-rans on Friday night as the bizhub Highveld Lions went down to the Unlimited Titans at Willowmoore Park and the Chevrolet Warriors beat the Knights in East London.

In Durban, the Nashua Cape Cobras beat the Sunfoil Dolphins by seven wickets with three balls to spare in a match reduced to 10 overs a side by rain.

Jon-Jon Smuts was the hero of the Warriors’ eight-wicket win with three balls remaining over the Knights, taking one for 21 in four overs as the visitors were restricted to 146 for four and then also excelling with the bat as he breezed to 73 not out off 56 balls to anchor the successful run-chase.

The Titans were also triumphant in a rain-affected match, beating the high-riding Lions by 27 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method for their first victory in six attempts.

The inclement weather around Benoni no doubt caused the Lions to decide to bowl first, but the Titans were off to a blazing start thanks to Henry Davids stroking 75 off 42 balls. The umpires took the players off the field when the Titans were cruising on 117 for two in the 12^th over and then again on 132 for four in the 14^th over, leaving the home side with just 2.1 overs to bat when they returned to complete their innings.

Heinrich Klaasen, replacing regular wicketkeeper Mangaliso Mosehle, hit successive sixes off Lonwabo Tsotsobe but the Titans were not able to substantially add to the good work of Davids and Theunis de Bruyn (30) up front, finishing on 161 for six.

The unorthodox Eddie Leie was not easy to handle, taking two for 17 in his three overs, and fellow spinners Chris Gayle (2-0-19-1) and Jean Symes (1-0-5-1) were also good.

Ethy Mbhalati bowled superbly up front to remove Alviro Petersen (1) and Chris Gayle (11) and with fast bowler Junior Dala coming into the side and also impressing, the Lions were unable to keep up with the required rate of 10.50 after the Duckworth/Lewis recalculation.

Symes went to a 30-ball half-century but it was not enough to deny the Titans as the Lions finished on 140 for five.

Richard Levi’s bold 54 off 27 balls carried the Cobras to their target of 85 in 10 overs against the Dolphins, who succumbed to the clever bowling of George Linde and Ferisco Adams.

The Dolphins were unable to administer the killer blow to the Warriors due to bad weather in their four-day domestic series match at Buffalo Park in East London on Sunday.

The Dolphins declared their second innings on their overnight total of 257 for eight, a lead of 356, meaning it was all about survival for the Warriors, who had 96 overs to bat out on the fourth day.

And with Robbie Frylinck taking three for 20 in eight overs with the new ball, the Dolphins looked about to run through the home side when lunch was taken with the Warriors on 70 for three.

But rain began falling during the interval and at 2pm what seemed a rather rushed decision to call off the game was made.

Opener Michael Price (37*) and Colin Ingram (12*) had batted most sensibly to take the Warriors from 30 for three to their lunchtime total.

The Dolphins shaded the bonus point battle by 8.78 points to 6.80, which has allowed them to seize third place on the four-day domestic series log from the Highveld Lions.