12/01/2013

Good weather for the first few hours and then the clouds rolled in and the light got to bad to take pics.Water levels are still very high and the smell at hide number two is pretty bad.Sightings this morning produced nothing new. The water at hide number one has not retreated which is good news. Got some pics of a little egret hunting in front of hide number one. Really interesting fact is that there has been no water here for over 18 months and yet this egret was catching fish at a furious rate.I have some pics with the fish in the egrets beak,not sure if they are very large tadpoles or baby barbel[catfish]the one pic under enlargement shows a flat head with long body looks like a barbel but not sure. I know barbel will bury themselves deep in the mud as the water dries out and then come out when the water has come back.Not sure if this is the case here.
                                                                            Little Egret

 Hottentot Teals

                                                              Cattle Egret Juvenile

                                                           Little Egret Hunting

                                                             Little Egret with Lunch

                                                          Malachite Kingfisher Juvenile

                                                          Little Egret Hunting

                                                  Pin Tailed Whydah Female

                                            Breeding Reed Cormorant

 White Throated Swallows

                                          White Faced Duck

 White Throated Ducks.

Hooked up with Chris Speight and Johan Nel. These guys specialise in bike racing photography and where paying there first visit to the sanctuary. I got the impression that they really enjoyed themselves and where full of praise for the work done here and the condition of the sanctuary. Really good to get positive feedback from new folk visiting. Showed me some settings on my camera and really gratefull to them for there help.

27/12/2012

Spent a few hours here this morning,water is clean although the levels are very high.Hide no 1 has water for the first time in 18 months,now just some time for the weeds to die down and it should be a productive hide once again.The trash from xmas and boxing day is an eyesore,even though huge bins are supplied for refuse they are not utilized by visitors .From what i understand you are not allowed to consume alcohol here but from the amount of bottles lying around this is not enforced.

Once again i must recommend that visits over public holidays should be avoided as the hooligan brigade are always there and make a visit a tad uncomfortable.

     

17/11/2012

Very quite today,the water levels have risen quite substantially since my last visit.The water is clean but there is a little smell around of rotting vegetation. I counted 13 greater flamingos which consisted of adult and juvenile.all the normal ducks expected to be found here during summer.Very little warbler activity in fact heard and saw the cape reed warbler only.List for this morning are.
Burchells coucal,white faced,yellow billed duck,Grey,Black Headed and Black crowned night heron,whiskered tern,red billed teal,southern pochard,cape shoveller,greater flamingo,levaillants cisticola,white throated and greater striped swallows,african purple swamp hen,little bittern,spur winged goose,all three ibis,bishops,myna and the doves.

                                              Hottentot teal female left and male right

                                                        Female Red Billed Teal

                                                  Southern Pochard Breeding Male

                                               Whiskered Tern Breeding Male

                                              Male and Female White Throated Swallow

06/10/2012

It was very hot when I left at 06.30 a warm 20 degrees c.I wanted to see if the Flamingos where still around.Most of them have moved on leaving about 20 Juveniles and Immature behind.Water levels continue to drop which obviously suits the Photographers as they are hoping more sandbanks will bring the birds closer to the hides.This is not an ideal situation from a pure bird point of view because a lot of the food bearing mud banks are now exposed to the hot spring weather which will dry out the mud and send the birds away in search of food. A trade off I suppose but we must remember it is actually a Bird Sanctuary and not a photographers Mecca and we need to be careful we do not end up with the scarcer species not disappearing.Not a bad two hours birding giving me a count of 32 species.The best for me was the fact there are a breeding pair of Red Necked Wrynecks in the picnic area giving me a lifer for Rondebult taking my count to 135 species for the BS.
                                                African Purple Swamphen

                                            Red Throated Wryneck

                                            White Throated Swallow

                                         Wood Sandpiper

 Red Throated Wryneck

              Red Knobbed Coot those feet are just huge.

                                           Grey Headed Gull

 Greater Striped Swallow

                             Immature Greater Flamingo

                                                    Black Headed Heron

                           Displaying African Purple Swamphen

 Yellow Billed Duck

                                              Grey Heron

                                   Female Pin Tailed Wyhdah

                                                         Three Banded Plover.

24/09/2012

This Morning was really chilly.The wind blowing was hand numbing but did not lesson the good birding the sanctuary gave up.A lot of Greater Flamingo where on hand in fact the most i have ever seen here at least 70 individuals where present in a mixed flock of juveniles and adults.The ever present Swamphens and Little Bittern where seen at hide number 2. The White Throated Swallows are back as well as Squacco, BlackCrowned and Black Headed Heron.Water levels are very very low, I suppose this is the result of the water been turned of or diverted for the photographers.This in itself is not a problem but the resulting stench and huge amounts of thick green algae in front of hide number two is really not pleasant

01/09/2012

Have not visited at all this winter,other places to explore.A flying visit this morning on a rather warm morning which is surprising as spring day is normally quite cold on the highveld.Water levels are very high for this time of the year but the water is clean and devoid of the green seeds from last year.A lot of work has been done over the winter with new pathways laid out and paved to the hide number two. Part of the expanded works program I must say that the council has done good work here.The wooden path to hide number three is still dodgy and care must be taken when using it, a few of the slats are missing and some of them feel quite rotten and unsafe.

The picnic area is much as it was at the end of winter last year a dust bowl with the grass having been grazed by the resident wildlife and domestic geese.Hopefully the grass will recover in the months to come.The guard house at the entrance has been enlarged and modernised with an electric gate installed. The old house was rather small and pokey. No dumping signs have been erected at the entrance but dumping is obviously still taking place.

Not much in the way of birds today but a surprise where the flock of Greater Flamingoes, my first sighting of these birds in 18 months at Rondebult.