Ken Borland

Zimbali is unlike most other coastal resort developments in that the estate is a richly-rewarding birding spot and large enough – at 456 hectares – for many hours of twitching.

Amongst the more spectacular gems that can be spotted is a pair of breeding Crowned Eagle; and their mere presence is indicative of a natural environment comprising ecological richness and biological diversity.

Because these magnificent raptors are apex predators, it means all other links in the food chain must be intact, or else the Crowned Eagle would relocate elsewhere and certainly wouldn’t be breeding – as they have since 2001 at the luxury North Coast eco-estate.

Studies of their prey items reveal the rich biodiversity in terms of both birds and mammals found at Zimbali, which conserves patches of coastal lowland forest fringing the golf course, which is an interesting challenge when the wind is blowing.

Other specials which one can certainly expect to see at Zimbali include the endearing Goldenrumped Tinker Barbet and the attractive Redbacked Mannikin, which is restricted to the eastern borders of South Africa.

A pair of African Fish Eagle are the other prominent raptors to be spotted at Zimbali, lording it over the open waters, while there are also a few Yellowbilled Kite around in summer and Longcrested Eagle is becoming more regular at the conservancy.

The Eastern Olive Sunbird is a typical forest bird present at Zimbali, along with Collared Sunbird, White-Eared and Blackcollared Barbet, Natal Robin, Greenbacked Camaroptera, Thickbilled Weaver and Yellowbellied Bulbul.

The secluded nature of some of the walks around Zimbali lend themselves to sightings of the shyer Horus Swift, while the riparian vegetation along the Zimbali River is just to the liking of the Yellow Weaver.

Yellow Weaver in the Zimbali reedbeds

Pied Kingfisher hover-hunt over the ponds on the course, where Goliath Heron also go fishing, while African Jacana strut around the water grasses.

In the woodlands, one may see Plumcoloured Starling, Natal Francolin and Whitebrowed Scrub Robin.

Where is Zimbali?

Sightings list

Yellowbilled Kite

African Fish Eagle

Southern Greyheaded Sparrow

Vervet Monkey

European Swallow

Lesser Striped Swallow

Blackeyed Bulbul

Eastern Olive Sunbird

Blackheaded Oriole

Redeyed Dove

Bronze Mannikin

Forktailed Drongo

Redwinged Starling

Whitebreasted Cormorant

Pied Crow

Feral Pigeon

Palm Swift

Common Myna

Hadeda Ibis

Collared Sunbird

Burchell’s Coucal

Cape Wagtail

Horus Swift

White-Eared Barbet

Blacksmith Plover

Longcrested Eagle

Bushbuck

African Pied Wagtail

Fiscal Shrike

Yellow Weaver

Plumcoloured Starling

Redbacked Mannikin

Egyptian Goose

Natal Robin

Little Swift

Goliath Heron

Blackheaded Heron

Greenbacked Cameroptera

Natal Francolin

Pied Kingfisher

Southern Red Bishop

African Jacana

Crowned Eagle

Blackcollared Barbet

Spottedbacked Weaver

Hamerkop

Speckled Mousebird

Thickbilled Weaver

Goldenrumped Tinker Barbet

Tawnyflanked Prinia

Whitebrowed Scrub Robin

Yellowbellied Bulbul

Being one of the largest specimens of humanity in Pretoria, Trevor Nyakane is not exactly hard to spot. But I was nevertheless very excited to see him at Loftus Versfeld the other day, mostly because of what he was doing.

Bulls coach Nollis Marais said the experience gained from a year of SuperRugby was the major positive of a campaign that ended at the weekend with his team just missing out on a playoffs spot.

The Bulls ended on a high with a 43-17 romp over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, their ninth win from 15 games leaving them on 42 points, in ninth place overall and just one point behind the Sharks, who took the last quarterfinal place as the third South African qualifiers.

“At the end of the day, the Sharks finished with more points than us, but we had 14 players make their SuperRugby debuts this year and 12 of them went on their first tour to Australia. They all came through and guys like Jason Jenkins, RG Snyman and Warrick Gelant are 20/21. The guys now have one Super Rugby season behind them, but we can’t use inexperience as an excuse again next year, we will have to be much better especially since we’ll be playing against the New Zealand teams,” Marais said.

The lack of bonus points picked up by the Bulls was a key factor in their failure to make the playoffs, as they collected only four, all of them from the try-scoring bonus. Home games against the Reds – where they led 27-8 but won 41-22 – and the Rebels – where they led 42-3 but conceded four tries in the final quarter, have come back to haunt the Bulls.

“It actually makes me quite emotional because I remember after the Reds game saying that I hope missing the bonus point doesn’t come back to bite us. And every time we lost a game, we couldn’t get a bonus point either, which is very disappointing, especially when you finish just two points off the playoffs.

“I still believe our best wins were against the Stormers and the Western Force away, although a lot of guys played well against the Cheetahs, the guys pitched because a lot of them are leaving,” Marais said.

It was announced on Monday that Marais will now take the reins of the Currie Cup side, which will basically be the SuperRugby outfit minus Jesse Kriel, who once again showed how good he can be at fullback without his space being cramped like it is in midfield, Rudy Paige, Lappies Labuschagne, Marcel van der Merwe, Adriaan Strauss, Werner Kruger, Grant Hattingh and Francois Brummer.

The qualifying campaign under Hendré Marnitz has been messy with seven defeats fouling their seven wins, but CEO Barend van Graan said the change was more to do with continuity seeing as though most of the SuperRugby side will be involved.

“With almost the whole Bulls squad now available for the Currie Cup competition that is starting soon, the call was made to extend the mandate of Marais, so he will now be coaching the Blue Bulls as well. It just makes sense for him to continue with the group of players that are developing so nicely under his guidance. The call to continue with Nollis in the Currie Cup was made for rugby reasons and is not a reflection on Hendré’s abilities. The progress and growth shown by the team under Nollis is something we want to expand and grow, hence the decision,” Van Graan said.