Follow the signs to the Bird Hide which offers a wide panoramic view of the Lagoon. The lagoon itself is home to a large variety of water birds during the summer months. Caspian Tern, Cape Teal, Goliath and Grey Heron, Western Osprey and the occasional African Fish Eagle, Reed Cormorant, Cape Shoveler, Red-billed Teal, African Spoonbill, Greater and Lesser Flamingo, Sacred Ibis and Egyptian Goose and other Waders are often seen. Difficult to see waders often congregate among the rocks and pebbles at the water’s edge below the hide. These often include Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone as well as the Kittlitz’s, White-fronted and Three-banded Plovers.

Walking west along the river bank, heading upstream from the hide, there are some reed beds that conceal Lesser Swamp Warblers. You then reach a pontoon/raft on a cable on which you can pull yourself across the Swart River (unless the river is very dry) to a 3km hiking trail on the central island. Be warned that you may have to wait, or swim back across the river, if someone has already taken the raft back. Here you could have the opportunity to see bush birds, including the Southern Tchagra, but these birds are not plentiful on this walk.

To have a closer view of the birds on the south side of the Seekoei River, it is advisable to drive back to the main gate and turn right across the causeway to Paradise Beach side of the estuary. Here you could find Black-winged Stilt, Common Greenshank, Little Egret, Purple Heron, Blacksmith Lapwing, Giant and Pied Kingfisher on the banks, and in the short grass and shrub you should see Levaillant’s Cisticola, Cape Wagtail and Cape Weaver.

Key species:

African Fish Eagle, Caspian Tern, Southern Tchagra, Karoo Scrub-robin