Marievale - December 2018

Marievale is always a great place to visit to catch up on your waders for the year. I went there on the 19th December after our country had experienced quite a serious drought for a few years and had just had some rain the night before. There hadn't been much rain and the water levels were very low which is normally good for the waders. Oh, and did I mention that a rare Black-tailed Godwit had also been seen here...not that I am a twitcher by any means.

I don't often see Pied Avocet here but conditions must have been perfect for them as there were quite a number, wading belly deep and picking up insects in the mud..

Pied Avocet (2)

The open areas allowed some good views of the other birds as well. Glossy Ibis foraged fairly close to the road and proved friendly enough to pose for a photo.

Glossy Ibis

The rain had left a few puddles next to the road which made a nice bath for some of the smaller passerines. Here a Red Bishop was busy cleaning himself up for some serious displaying..

Southern Red Bishop enjoying a puddle bath

There were nice Palearctic waders around, the usual Ruff and Little stint and a local in the form of a Kittlitzs Plover which are always nice birds to photograph as they stick around for a quick pic. Not like the others that are always on the move..

Ruff or it it a Reeve on the rough road

Ruff in breeding plumage

Kittlitz's Plover

Little Stint

Blackwinged Stilts were also around in smaller numbers with their bright pink legs and pied plumage.

Black-winged Stilt

At the Kingfisher Hide next to the picnic site we heard the raspy call of an African Reed -warbler and with a bit of patience, got to see it and get a dodgy photograph for the record.

African Reed Warbler

Squacco Herons are always quite common here as they stand out in the open waiting for prey to make a mistake and show themselves within striking distance. You can see they are so successful, as they face towards you the profile is extremely narrow and probably hard to see from under the water.

Squacco Heron

Finally into the gated area, with some nice wader habitat to the left of the road. We searched for the Black-tailed Godwit and luckily enough got to see it at a distance. It wasn't going to come any closer so I had to get out the longer lens and get some record shots..

Black-tailed Godwit with Ruff for size comparison

Black-tailed Godwit

My last photographed bird for the day and a new tick for the year, this Great Crested Grebe is always a nice bird to see..

Great Crested Grebe

With that in the bag and total list of 96 species for the morning, we headed the 100km back home to Pretoria feeling rather satisfied with having the rare Blackwit on the year list!

Rietvlei Nature Reserve - June 2018

Rietvlei is another great place to visit. Not only can one see 100 plus species of bird in one day in summer and 80 plus species in winter but there are a number of mammals as well. They have large herds of antelope and zebra as well as bushpig and small predators like serval and genet to see.

Zebra foals at play

These zebra foals were quite tame and allowed me to pass quite close to them, I couldn't resist touching one only to find that his baby fur was full of static and instead of being soft and fluffy, felt like a thousand pins pricking my fingers. Quite a disappointment.

Cape Buffalo with Blesbok in the background

There is a large herd of about 70 buffalo on the reserve, but it is amazing how elusive they can be and remain hidden most of the time. It took me a while to see my first one but once you know their movements they can be found quite often. They mainly move along the dam inflow and sometimes appear at the Otter Bridge especially late in the afternoon.

Otter Bridge is a great place to sit and watch birds, mainly ducks and other water related birds. On this particular day, I found a small flock of Whitefronted Bee-eaters and spent hours trying to get shots of them in flight or with wings flared to land.....needless to say...I failed..

Egyptian Geese

Yellow-billed duck enjoying the last rays of sunlight

Black-winged Kite

Close up of a Speckled Mousebird

White-fronted Bee-eaters (4), last one with a captured Honey Bee

Pied Starlings silhouetted against the golden sunlight

And so ended the day! Winter offers the chance of heading to the gate after sunset and so the chance of an owl or nightjar on the road...

Marsh Owl

Stay healthy everyone!

The Aloe Farm - June 2018

Well its been a while since my last post, but what better time to try and catch up than during a 21 day lockdown.

I thought that I would start with a few nice trips that go all the way back to June 2018. It's not that I haven't been doing any birding, its just that I haven't been doing any blogging. In fact I have qualified as a Regional Bird Guide (Savanna Biome), registered with the South Africa Tourism Board and started Galimi Guides. Most of my guiding has been volunteer guiding for the SAN Parks Honorary Rangers, which has taken me to some really great places. I will send details of these trips in the next few days.

So, back to The Aloe Farm...this is a nursery out near the Hartebeespoort Dam which specializes in...you've guessed it...Indigenous Aloe plants. The nice thing for us birders is that in the winter months when the plants are in bloom, a plethora of nectar eating birds seem to gather here for the feast which gives us a great opportunity to photograph them from quite close distances.

 This Brown-hooded Kingfisher allowed a close approach. I don't believe that he was here for the nectar but perhaps inspecting the abandoned White-fronted Bee-eater nests for a possible future home..

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

The sunbirds here are amazing with quite a number of species visiting, here are a few..

Marico Sunbird, full of nectar to pollinate the next flower

White-bellied Sunbird drinking nectar and having pollen deposited on his forehead

White-bellied Sunbird Female with a light dusting of pollen

Amethyst Sunbird

It is always difficult to capture the colours of this bird as it appears completely black until the light hits it at a certain angle. Here you can see the "amethyst" nicely under the chin..

However sunbirds are not the only ones who are attracted to the nectar, the bulbuls, weavers and canaries also come in for an energy drink..

Cape Weaver in a Highveld Coral tree - Erythrina lysistemon

Yellow-fronted Canary

So, I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. I will continue to post some more as the days go on. Happy Lockdown and may you all stay well during this time! Greetings G..