Ken Borland

EDENVALE, Gauteng – Maiken Bing Paulsen may come from the hip river city of Drammen in Norway, but she showed on Wednesday why she calls Glendower Golf Club her “home away from home” when she fired a six-under-par 66 to claim a share of the lead after the first round of the Jabra Ladies Classic.

Russia’s Nina Pegova also shot a 66, but there was little doubt Paulsen was the club favourite. That’s because whenever the 27-year-old is in South Africa playing on the Sunshine Ladies Tour, she bases herself in Johannesburg and uses the scenic Glendower course for training purposes.

“This is my home away from home, I have spent a lot of time here at Glendower,” Paulsen said after her round of six birdies, an eagle and two bogeys. “They have been really nice to me over the years, letting me practise here on this beautiful and tough course.

“So I know the members well and the staff have been very good to me. And it was a really enjoyable round today, I was really steady off the tee and I didn’t miss any fairways. And my putting was exceptional, I can’t remember when last I holed so many, but that’s something you can’t always count on,” Paulsen said.

In her fifth year on the Ladies European Tour, Paulsen began her round at Glendower on Wednesday on the 10^th and produced a scintillating front nine with five birdies and no dropped shots.

The front nine was more testing for her as she started with three pars and then went bogey-birdie-bogey. The turning point, and the shot that ultimately put her top of the leaderboard, came on the seventh tee.

“They moved us up this morning and the flag was 215 metres away. I wasn’t sure whether to use a three-wood because I thought that may have been too long, so I just hit a high fade instead and it landed a metre-and-a-half from the flag, then I made the eagle putt,” a delighted Paulsen said.

She only had a lease on the sole lead, however, because about 20 minutes later, Pegova joined her on six-under after making a birdie on the par-three 17^th. It was the 30-year-old’s eighth birdie of the day, and she also had two bogeys, on the fifth and 10^th holes, both par-fours.

England’s Gabriella Cowley was alone in third after shooting a 67, while South Africans Cara Gorlei and Nadia van der Westhuizen shared fourth on four-under-par. Fellow South Africans Tandi McCallum and Bronwyn Doeg were tied in sixth place after making 69s.

Greater Flamingo flying over the Chatty Saltpans

The Swartkops Estuary in Port Elizabeth is well-known as one of South Africa’s 112 Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) and while the river and mudflats have the greatest density of birds and hog the limelight as the most natural areas, my sunset visit on December 30 was to the salt pans and threw up a special that is often difficult to find elsewhere.

The Chatty River flows from the west into the Swartkops River and alongside it, next to the R367 main road, there are commercial saltpans which can provide quality foraging opportunities for many birds, especially when the salinity and water level are just right for a host of invertebrates to be crawling around in the benthos.

The elegant flamingos – both Greater and Lesser – immediately catch the eye and I was also drawn to the Pied Avocets, one of my favourite birds, sweeping and scything around in the water.

But dotted around the pan were smaller birds – the Blacknecked Grebe.

The Chatty Saltpans hold globally significant numbers of this uncommon nomad, which has the propensity to suddenly colonise a flooded area and start breeding. There are usually good numbers of this cute little diving bird at Swartkops though, and I did not notice any birds in breeding plumage, so perhaps they were moulting, with the widely-distributed Blacknecked Grebe known to utilise saline lakes overseas for this purpose.

Another special that can be picked up at the Swartkops Estuary is the Hartlaub’s Gull, which has a recently-established breeding colony in the area. It was previously considered a bird of the Western Cape, its distribution tied to that of Kelp, with only vagrant birds moving east of Cape Agulhas, and it interbreeds with Greyheaded Gulls in this river valley. Being omnivorous, it seems to have adapted to new foraging opportunities around human settlements.

Nicely built-up embankments between the pans allow one to approach the vulnerable Flamingos and their friends reasonably closely as they continue their search for invertebrates, and other birds that have adapted well to man-made wetlands were also busy foraging for their dinner in the gathering gloom – Blackwinged Stilt, African Spoonbill, Cape Cormorant, Kelp Gull, Egyptian Goose, Blacksmith Plover, Cape Wagtail and Sacred Ibis.

Where are the Chatty Saltpans?

Sightings list

Greater Flamingo

Kelp Gull

Pied Avocet

Blacknecked Grebe

Blackwinged Stilt

Lesser Flamingo

Egyptian Goose

Cape Cormorant

Blacksmith Plover

Hartlaub’s Gull

Cape Wagtail

Sacred Ibis

African Spoonbill

Settler’s Park Nature Reserve – view from the main parking lot.

The Settlers Park Nature Reserve is situated in the Baakens River Valley in Port Elizabeth and while there are steep cliffs on the northern side of the river, the opposite side provides the opportunity to climb a path into the Eastern Cape Fynbos.

I was making my way up one of the steeper sections when I heard a strident kek kek kek kek repeatedly coming from nearby, which I presumed to be the alarm call of a francolin. So of course, once I had stealthily approached the area the call was coming from, I began looking on the ground, amongst the grasses and shrubs.

And yet I could not spot any francolin … so I began casting my eyes higher up and there, in a low tree, sat the most unexpected source of the ongoing call, continuing to badger me for daring to invade its space.

A Peregrine Falcon which had possibly flown across from the cliffs on the other side of the river on a hunting foray and was now complaining at me in persistent fashion, perhaps because it had not been a successful trip. After some minutes the magnificent, endangered predator gave me one last glare with its large, ruthless eyes and then took off to head back towards the cliffs.

The Peregrine Falcon is often seen along the valley but it was still a very pleasant surprise to see one perched and being so vocal.

Plenty of other birds frequent the pools, reeds and bush around the Baakens River and, upon descending from the main car park there was lots of activity around one of the drifts across the river. Cape Wagtail and Streakyheaded Canary were bathing and then flew into the protection of a tree next to the water, while Malachite Kingfisher disappeared down the river in a flash of ultramarine blue.

Southern Red Bishop and Southern Masked Weaver were busy in the reeds, while Levaillant’s Cisticola was more secretive but present in good numbers. Bronze Mannikin were also attracted to the water, while the deeper pools boasted Reed Cormorant, Egyptian Goose, Grey and Blackheaded Heron.

Being the Eastern Cape, there is obviously valley bushveld around and these thickets held Olive Thrush, with a juvenile deeply concealed, Speckled Mousebird, Blackeyed Bulbul, Barthroated Apalis, Knysna Lourie and Sombre Bulbul.

The more open areas on the hilltops feature clumps of bush and Fiscal Flycatcher, Fiscal Shrike and Pintailed Whydah can be seen here, while Kelp Gull and Cape Crow fly overhead.

A Small Grey Mongoose was seen darting across one of the paths on the hillside and, on the return back up the hill to the main car park, just waiting quietly brought a Forest Canary at close quarters.

Where is Settlers Park Nature Reserve?

Sightings list

Olive Thrush

Reed Cormorant

Laughing Dove

Forktailed Drongo

Southern Red Bishop

Southern Masked Weaver

Cape Wagtail

Streakyheaded Canary

Malachite Kingfisher

Fiscal Flycatcher

Peregrine Falcon

Kelp Gull

Fiscal Shrike

Cape Crow

Speckled Mousebird

Blackeyed Bulbul

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Barthroated Apalis

Small Grey Mongoose

Knysna Lourie

Egyptian Goose

Grey Heron

Bronze Mannikin

Sombre Bulbul

Blackheaded Heron

Pintailed Whydah

Forest Canary