Pigeon Valley

Hikers in Pigeon Valley

Pigeon Valley is a Natural Heritage Park and formally declared municipal nature reserve in Durban, South Africa. It is an unusual example of an urban reserve with very high levels of biodiversity. It was established to provide protection for the Natal Elm (Celtis mildbraedii) and other forest giants of the coastal climax forest.^[1] Another rare tree that occurs here is Natal Forest Loquat (Oxyanthus pyriformis) which is endemic to the Durban area and to oNgoye Forest. Pigeon Valley is about 11ha in extent, and is situated on the Berea, overlooking Durban Bay. Its unusual north-south orientation may contribute to the biodiversity, with the south-facing slope covered in canopy forest, while the north-facing slope has thorny thickets. An adjoining reservoir, previously part of the reserve, provides a patch of coastal grassland.

Animals

Red duiker at Pigeon Valley

Male buff-spotted flufftail in Pigeon Valley, January 2014

The park is home to red duiker and blue duiker. There is a troop of banded mongooses as well as slender and water mongooses. Blue vervet monkeys are constantly present.

Various species of forest birds are found here including; Green Twinspot, Cape White-Eye, Southern Boubou, Spotted Ground-Thrush, Purple-crested Turaco and African Paradise-Flycatcher. The Black Sparrowhawk breeds here annually. Another bird that is seldom seen but that is generally present is Buff-spotted Flufftail.^[2] Unusual sightings of note in recent years include European Nightjar, Knysna Warbler, Lemon Dove, Mountain Wagtail, Black-throated Wattle-eye, Common Scimitarbill, Palm-nut Vulture and Knysna Turaco. The current bird list for Pigeon Valley includes 158^[3] species.

The Spotted Ground-Thrush is of particular note, as Pigeon Valley is one of the places where this endangered bird can be most reliably found in winter. It arrives typically in late March or early April, and is present until August or September; in 2015 it was present until 5 October. Summer migrants include, occasionally, Black Cuckoo, Red-chested Cuckoo and Red-backed Shrike.

Bird list for Pigeon Valley

Number	Family	Species	Status	Notes
1	Apalis	Barthroated	Breeding resident
2	Apalis	Yellow-breasted	Breeding resident
3	Barbet	Black-collared	Breeding resident	Recent decline in numbers
4	Barbet	White-eared	Breeding resident	Increasing in number
5	Barbet	Crested	Occasional visitor
6	Batis	Cape	Breeding resident
7	Batis	Chinspot	Breeding resident
8	Bee-eater	Little	Occasional visitor
9	Boubou	Southern	Breeding resident
10	Brownbul	Terrestrial	Breeding resident
11	Bulbul	Dark-capped	Breeding resident
12	Bunting	Goldenbreasted	Occasional visitor	April 1992, 30 March 2013
13	Bush-Shrike	Gorgeous	Rare visitor	Recorded 2007
14	Bush-Shrike	Greyheaded	Occasional visitor	2012; winter 2014
15	Bush-Shrike	Olive	Occasional visitor	Spring 2014, Winter 2017
16	Bush-Shrike	Orange-breasted	Occasional visitor	Not seen 2012-2017
17	Camaroptera	Green-backed	Breeding resident
18	Canary	Brimstone	Regular visitor
19	Canary	Yellow-fronted	Regularly present
20	Cisticola	Zitting	Rare visitor	April 2015; first sighting in recent years
21	Coucal	Burchell's	Occasional visitor	August 2015; winter of 2016
22	Crested-Flycatcher	Bluemantled	Rare visitor	Female present 2014-6
23	Crow	Pied	Occasional visitor
24	Cuckoo	Black	Occasional summer visitor
25	Cuckoo	Diderik	Regular summer visitor
26	Cuckoo	Emerald	Occasional summer visitor
27	Cuckoo	Common	Rare visitor	Record from 1979
28	Cuckoo	Jacobin	Rare visitor	October 2016
29	Cuckoo	Klaas's	Breeding resident	Breeding 2014
30	Cuckoo	Redchested	Occasional summer visitor	Juvenile February 2015
31	Cuckooshrike	Black	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter
32	Cuckooshrike	Grey	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter
33	Dove	Redeyed	Breeding resident
34	Dove	Laughing	Breeding resident
35	Dove	Rock	Occasional visitor
36	Dove	Tambourine	Breeding resident
37	Dove	Lemon	Rare visitor	Seen 2012
38	Drongo	Forktailed	Breeding resident
39	Drongo	Squaretailed	Breeding resident
40	Duck	White-faced	Infrequent visitor	November 2017
41	Eagle	African Crowned	Occasional visitor January 2014, 2016, 2017
42	Eagle-Owl	Spotted	Occasional visitor
43	Falcon	Lanner	Occasional visitor
44	Firefinch	African	7
45	Firefinch	Red-billed	Breeding resident	First sighting January 2015; now established
46	Flufftail	Buffspotted	Breeding resident	Seen regularly
47	Flycatcher	Ashy	Breeding resident
48	Flycatcher	Dusky	Breeding resident
49	Flycatcher	Fiscal	Regular winter visitor
50	Flycatcher	Spotted	Uncommon summer visitor	Present late 2014
51	Flycatcher	Southern Black	Breeding resident
52	Goshawk	African	Breeding resident
53	Greenbul	Sombre	Breeding resident
54	Greenbul	Yellowbellied	Occasional visitor	Often present in winter and spring
55	Ground-Thrush	Spotted	Regular migrant	April to September; November 2014; January 2016
56	Hamerkop		Occasional visitor
57	Harrierhawk	African	Regular visitor
58	Hawk	African Cuckoo	Rare visitor	Present June 2014
59	Heron	Black-headed	Occasional visitor
60	Hobby	Eurasian	Rare visitor	March 2015
61	Honeybird	Brownbacked	Occasional visitor
62	Honey-Buzzard	European	Rare visitor	First sighting January 2015
63	Honeyguide	Greater	Rare visitor	Not seen in recent years
64	Honeyguide	Lesser	Usually present
65	Honeyguide	Scalythroated	Occasional visitor
66	Hoopoe	African	Occasional visitor
67	Hornbill	Crowned	Rare visitor	2015
68	Hornbill	Trumpeter	Rare visitor	2011
68	Ibis	Hadeda	Breeding resident
69	Kingfisher	Brownhooded	Breeding resident
70	Kingfisher	Mangrove	Rare visitor	2011, March 2016, 8 October 2017
71	Kingfisher	Pygmy	Occasional visitor
72	Kite	Yellowbilled	Breeding migrant
73	Malkoha	Green	Infrequent visitor	2010, 2017-8
74	Mannikin	Bronze	Breeding resident
75	Mannikin	Redbacked	Breeding resident
76	Martin	Rock	Occasional visitor
77	Mousebird	Speckled	Breeding resident
78	Myna	Common	Frequent visitor
79	Nightjar	European	Rare visitor	2013; 2014 18 December 2014
80	Nightjar	Fierynecked	Occasional visitor
81	Oriole	Blackheaded	Breeding resident
82	Owl	Barn	Record from 1979
83	Palm-Swift	African	Regularly present
84	Paradise-Flycatcher	African	Breeding resident
85	Parakeet	Rose-ringed	Regular visitor
86	Pigeon	Green	Record from 1979
87	Prinia	Tawnyflanked	Breeding resident
88	Puffback	Blackbacked	Breeding resident
89	Pygmy-Kingfisher	African	Occasional visitor
90	Quelea	Red-billed	Rare visitor	December 2017
91	Robin	White-Starred	Rare visitor	Not seen in recent years
92	Robin-Chat	Redcapped	Breeding resident
93	Robin-Chat	Cape	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter
94	Robin-Chat	Chorister	Occasional visitor	Mainly winter
95	Saw-wing	Black	Regular visitor
96	Scimitarbill	Common	Rare visitor	11 November 2016
97	Scrub-Robin	White-browed	Breeding resident
98	Seedeater	Streaky-headed	Breeding resident
99	Shrike	Fiscal	Occasional visitor
100	Shrike	Red-backed	Infrequent summer visitor	Present Nov 2015
101	Sparrow	Southern Greyheaded	Occasional visitor
102	Sparrow	House	Occasional visitor
103	Sparrowhawk	Little	Occasional visitor
104	Sparrowhawk	Black	Breeding resident
105	Spurfowl	Natal	Occasional visitor
106	Starling	Blackbellied	Breeding resident
107	Starling	Violetbacked	Occasional summer visitor
108	Starling	Redwinged	Regularly present
109	Starling	Glossy	Breeding resident
110	Stonechat	African	Rare visitor	Not seen in recent years
111	Stork	Woollynecked	Occasional visitor
112	Sunbird	Grey	Breeding resident
113	Sunbird	Amethyst	Breeding resident
114	Sunbird	Olive	Breeding resident
115	Sunbird	Purplebanded	Regular visitor	Winter
116	Sunbird	Collared	Breeding resident
117	Sunbird	Whitebellied	Breeding resident
118	Swallow	Barn	Regular visitor	Summer
119	Swallow	Lesser-striped	Regular visitor
120	Swallow	Whitethroated	Occasional visitor
121	Swift	Black	Rare visitor
122	Swift	Whiterumped	Occasional visitor
123	Swift	Little	Regularly present
124	Swift	Palm	Regularly present
125	Swift	Alpine	Rare visitor	Not seen in recent years
126	Tchagra	Southern	Rare visitor	2017
127	Thrush	Olive	Winter visitor	Present March 2014
128	Tinkerbird	Redfronted	Occasional visitor	October 2017
129	Tinkerbird	Yellow-rumped	Breeding resident
130	Tit	Southern Black	Breeding resident
131	Trogon	Narina	Occasional visitor
132	Turaco	Knysna	Rare visitor	September 1991; 1 October 2017
133	Turaco	Purple-crested	Breeding resident
134	Twinspot	Green	Regular visitor	Breeding record 2014
135	Vulture	Palm-nut	Rare visitor	22 October 2017
136	Wagtail	Cape	Occasional visitor
137	Wagtail	Mountain	Rare visitor	Seen once in 1990s, again in 2013
138	Warbler	Barratt's	Infrequent winter visitor	June 2014, 2017
139	Warbler	Garden	Rare visitor	Present winter 2015
140	Warbler	Knysna	Rare visitor	Seen and recorded 20th August 2017
141	Warbler	Marsh	Summer visitor	Several 2017-8
142	Warbler	Willow	Rare summer visitor	December 2014
143	Wattle-eye	Black-throated	Rare visitor	2013; present in 2015
144	Waxbill	Common	Regular visitor
145	Waxbill	Grey	Breeding resident
146	Weaver	Yellow	Rare visitor	Winter 2015
147	Weaver	Darkbacked	Breeding resident
148	Weaver	Village	Breeding resident
149	Weaver	Spectacled	Regularly present
150	Weaver	Thickbilled	Breeding resident
151	White-eye	Cape	Breeding resident
152	Wood-Hoopoe	Green	Regular visitor
153	Woodland-Warbler	Yellowthroated	Rare visitor, winter	13 August 2016
154	Woodpecker	Goldentailed	Breeding resident
155	Woodpecker	Cardinal	Breeding resident
156	Woodpecker	Olive	Rare visitor	2009, 2017
157	Wydah	Pin-tailed	Irregular visitor	2015, 2017

Plants

A Natal elm, showing its extensive buttressing, Pigeon Valley, May 2013

There are over 110 species of trees occurring in Pigeon Valley, almost all of which are locally indigenous.^[4] Pigeon Valley is also notable for large stands of Buckweed (Isoglossa woodii) which grow in more open areas under the forest canopy and in forest glades. In recent years there have been a few discoveries of plants not previously identified.

Pigeon Valley is unique in having large numbers of the rare Natal Elm, and of Natal Forest Loquat. A Cryptocarya specimen found adjacent to the main track has so far not been definitively identified; it may be a species seldom found in the area or alternatively a hybrid.

A Spotted Ground-Thrush, a migrant to the urban reserve, Pigeon Valley, Durban

Public access

The reserve is open from 07:30 to 16:00 daily throughout the year. The entrance is in Princess Alice Avenue, Glenwood, opposite Rhodes Avenue.

Community

An active grouping, Friends of Pigeon Valley, undertakes clearing of invasive alien plants, ensuring that the park is unusually free of alien species. It also liaises with the municipal managers of the reserve to address relevant issues. The Friends operate a monthly walk open to the public on the second Saturday of each month, at 07h30. There is a Facebook page, Friends of Pigeon Valley, at https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfPigeonValley/.

References

↑ Bodenstein, J. (2009)
↑ Birds in Reserves, ADU
↑ http://birp.adu.org.za/site_summary.php?site=29523059
↑ Hemson, C. (2014)

Bibliography

Pooley, T. and Player, I. (1995). KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife Destinations. ISBN 1-86812-487-8.

Coordinates: 29°51′52″S 30°59′19″E / 29.86444°S 30.98861°E / -29.86444; 30.98861

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Bodenstein, J. (2009)

[2] Birds in Reserves, ADU

[3] ttp://birp.adu.org.za/site_summary.php?site=29523059

[4] Hemson, C. (2014)

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