15/02/2013

The sanctuary is looking quite shoddy as we head into late summer,all the wading areas in front of all the hides are covered in grass and waist high weeds,coupled with very high water levels there are no waders at all. I did manage to see a flock of little stints as they flashed past and head towards the smaller water pans at the back of the reserve. This area is supposedly out of bounds to folk but i see no harm in taking a walk up next to the boundary fence east of hide number one.The few visitors to this area will not impact at all and some good sightings are common. In fact ruff,three banded plover,african snipe,black crake are common around these shallow ponds which are seasonal.

Black Crowned Night herons are common here and there are a few breeding pairs so young are regularly sighted.

 The african reed warbler pictured here are continually flitting around.

 This little egret has been hanging around hide number one for over a month and i got some good pics in my last visit here.

 Little stint. starting to gather before they migrate.

 Yellow billed duck

Visit www.birdsouthafrica.co.za for more pics by Warren. Also try out www.birdsouthafrica.blogspot.com for trip reports for South Africa.

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.