On Friday I went had our friendly taxi driver pick me up early for a few hours birding away from town. The first stop was a patch of remnant vegetation along a creek a few km south of our house. On Google Earth it looked promising but I wasn't able to find tracks through the forest and the terrain was quite steep as the creek flowed down to the lake. I'll try again as I can see buildings on the lake shore so there must be access.
Next we went to a bridge Neil Baker had told me about: 1°28'22.58"S, 31°40'30.61"E. The bridge crosses a large marshy river flat with extensive reeds and papyrus areas and some open water with sandbars. The slopes leading away from the river were rocky with grass and occasional small bush areas. Quite a few birds here. On a sandbar was my first Rufous-bellied Heron - a bit of a skulker so nice to see one out in the open. On the water nearby were African Jacana and White-faced Whistling-Duck. A Malachite Kingfisher and some Little Rush Warblers were in the reedbeds. Overhead was a spectacular Palm-nut Vulture and an African Marsh Harrier quartered the swamp downstream from the bridge.
In the nearby grassland I saw small flocks of Fawn-breasted Waxbills and Fan-tailed Widowbirds and several African Stonechats and Swamp Flycatchers. Lurking in the scrub were Dark-capped Yellow Warbler, Yellow-throated Leaflove and Black-bellied Seedcracker. On the drive home I added White-browed Coucal, Long-crested Eagle and Sooty Chat.
I'll endeavour to visit this area monthly for regular surveys.
Here are a few photos of more birds in our backyard:
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| Black-and-white Shrike-flycatcher |
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| Bronze Mannikin |
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| Eastern Plantain-eater |
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| Holub's Golden Weaver |
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