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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

02/05/2011

Workers day Holiday here in South Africa so slept in this morning.Arrived at BS at 09.45 it is sunny and the temp is 18 degrees and water temp is 14 degrees.A little worried about not being an early worm and miss the birds. Hide number one is a disaster with the pan completely covered in the green seed not even a warbler singing.Hide number two has a little seed around but is not as bad as last week. Will hang around here for an hour and see what pops up.There is a large flock of white faced duck sifting through the seed and the noise is incredible, it sounds like a giant bowl of rice crispies crackling.Good hour spent here as i had good pics of swamphen,red billed teal and black heron.Must say seen no weavers,bishops or cistacolas for awhile.Maybe because the water levels are very high.
There was a report this morning of a green backed heron although i have not seen it yet.Last saw one here in 2008.Also the giant kingfishers i saw in february and march are not around.
List for today
black headed heron,black crowned night heron,red billed teal,yellow billed duck,dabchick,red knobbed coot,little bittern,white faced ducks,common moorhen,spurwinged goose,wattled starlings,myna,common peacock,dark capped bulbul,purple swamphen,olive thrush,sacred and hadida ibis,black smith lapwing,african stone chat,lessor swamp warbler,feral pigeon,speckled mousebird,fiscal shrike,thick billed weaver,reed cormorant.
Sandton cameraclub has a few members here this morning and there are about 11 members from the Klipriversberg bird club here as well.Had a good chat to both groups.

22/04/2011

Chilly today and rather quite as far as visitors go,some people arrived but are not birders or photographers.Temperature is a cool 14 degrees celsius and water temp is 11 degrees.The white throated and greater striped swallows have migrated which is sad as they have always given me great photo oppurtunities.Little bittern and malachite kingfisher flashed past.Spur winged goose and grey headed gulls have given me the best pics for today.
List for this morning
white faced duck,dabchick,myna,olive thrush,reed cormorant,spur winged goose,malachite kingfisher,cape turtle dove,laughing dove,cattle egret,sacred and hadida ibis,dark capped bulbul,black crowned night heron,yellow billed duck,blacksmith lapwing,feral pigeon,greater striped swallow,lesser swamp warbler,grey headed gull,little bittern,purple swamphen,egyptian goose,wattled starling. i only spent two hours here today .