Sugarbird Project

15/10/2026

You can be useful on a walk with only a pocketknife! Each seedling gone helps, many hands together can do this! 💪

02/10/2026

Don Pinnock has written a summary of the latest Cape Nature annual report card. It's rather sobering but there is some good news!

Don write, "Plants are in a whole different league: 297 critically endangered, 688 endangered and 981 vulnerable. The province holds nearly half of South Africa’s floral diversity, but an even larger share of its threatened plants. Many grow nowhere else. Lose them here and there’s no backup population waiting across the provincial boundary."

The Western Cape’s environment is one of the most beautiful and biodiverse places on earth, and much of it is cared for – as best they can – by CapeNature. Each year they bring out a detailed report on human impact. It’s hard not to conclude that it would be a lot better without us.

21/09/2026

We did a site visit on Friday to Brodie Link (a nature reserve between Pringle Bay and Betty's Bay) where our teams are currently working.
Indescribably beautiful scenery - the picture below does not even remotely do it justice.
The fynbos has bounced back beautifully after being under dense Rooikrans for 40 years - thanks to the teams removing truckloads of seedlings that have come up after the fire that burned there in 2024.
Our clearing efforts will also release more (much-needed) water to the stream that feeds the Pringle Bay Estuary.

18/09/2026

It is wonderfully satisfying to receive before and after pictures from a team that is working in an area for the second or even third clearing cycle. They have to search for lone invasive plants that have come up, and once they pass through, the landscape is left pristine. This is from the lower slopes of Devils Peak that looked very different a year ago when they came through the first time!

Cost/hectare cleared also dramatically decreases, so we move through these areas faster, meaning we have more capacity to take on new, more heavily invaded areas.

17/09/2026

Global recognition of the incredible treasure that we have devoted ourselves to protecting 🥳

France’s Monnaie de Paris has struck a 2026 collectable coin series honouring Table Mountain and the Cape Floral Region, giving South Africa’s rich floral kingdom an international platform.

15/09/2026

A cold and blustery walk up at Silvermine (east gate) revealed a gorgeous selection of flowers. This growth is post the fire in April 2025. Amazingly a King Protea seems to have missed being burnt even though everything around it is.

12/09/2026

We had a great night out supporting the fundraiser pub quiz. We had a lot of laughs and tried hard not talk about alien vegetation!

09/09/2026

SANParks has welcomed volunteers to help them- exactly the right thing to do when trying to eradicate alien vegetation. No entity on their own can do it, but together we can 💪

09/09/2026

The mountains are alive with beautiful yellow Pincushions (Leucospermum conocarpodendron) at the moment, and it makes us smile every time we see them.

Endemic to the Western Cape and found on most of Table Mountain, this tree (it has a trunk that can grow up to 5 meters tall) is considered near threatened (Source: SANBI).

Birds and insects love it and in particular our namesake, the Cape Sugar Bird, which are vital in the pollination process. The small ‘pins’ carry the pollen on the tips where they are easily rubbed off onto various pollinators that perch on the Pincushion. Ants play a vital role in new growth by carrying off the seeds to their burrows providing the plant with the ideal germination environment. Fire stimulates growth and this is what we are seeing around Table Mountain post various fires over the years. The good news is that we are alsoseeing it growing more and more within urban gardens.

And the best news is that the Silvermine Valley, which burnt last year in April, is already seeing new growth amongst all the Port Jackson that we are diligently removing.

The images attached show the younger plants just starting out and then full size in all their glory.

Read more on the SANBI website: https://pza.sanbi.org/leucospermum-conocarpodendron-subsp-viridum