Trip #1 - November 2010

On Monday the 15th November I spent the first page of the day chasing after the illusive African Finfoot (my report will be up soon) around the Pienaar's River at the start of the Zaagkuildrift Road and then at around 10am I arrived back at Roodeplaat Dam (covered in chapter 37 of Birding Gauteng) to bird the spot for the rest of the day. The weather was TOTALLY overcast and light was terrible so I certainly did not expect to get anywhere near the 100 birds that Niall got on the weekend - 50 would have been just fine (given the late start and the dismal light conditions). I ended on 78 and had some amazing experiences along the way - including nearly having my legs broken by a vicious (or scared) Water Monitor, an amazing sighting of European Honey-Buzzard (a lifer for me), and Black Cuckoo which I heard and saw (but sadly can not record on my list as I never got a photo).

I arrived and headed down the road towards the Zeekoegat camp and hide. Along the way I spotted European Bee-eater, Diderick Cuckoo, Southern Red Bishop, Southern Boubou, Brown-backed Honeybird , Grey Go-away-bird, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Red-chested Cuckoo, Rattling Cisticola, Southern Masked Weaver, Laughing Dove, Helmeted Guineafowl, Crested Barbet, White-bellied Sunbird and Common Waxbill.

As I approached the Zeekoegat Camp I took the dirt track that leads down to the Pienaar's River - and did the loop (there were worked pulling water hyacinth (s?) out of the water most productively) but fortunately their presence had not scared off all the bird life. An African Fish-Eagle perched in a tree on the other side of the river watched me take a few pics before flying off, Little Egret and Common Moorhen did their thing and some Reed Cormorants were praying for the sun to come out (their prayers were never answered - certainly not on that day!). I also spotted Hadeda Ibis, Squacco Heron, Grey-go-away bird, Burchell's Coucal, Speckled Mousebird, Pied Kingfisher and Cape Turtle-Dove. Oh, and a raptor flew over that I can't id due to the poor quality of my pics. A park inspector arrived and she told me how hard they are working to deal with the water hyacinth problem in the river.

I made my way to the bird hide at the Zeekoegat Camp and was met by White-browed Scrub-Robin, Squacco Heron, White-faced Duck, Little Egret, Laughing Dove and Cape Robin-Chat. And the coffee I had brought along with me was awesome on such a miserable day!!!

I then continued down the road to the Groups Camps (point 5 in Birding Gauteng) where I parked and walked down to the shoreline (past the NG Church guest house). I saw White-breasted Cormorant, Reed Cormorant, Lesser Striped Swallow, Crowned Lapwing, Grey-headed Gull, Yellow-billed Duck, Egyptian Goose, Red-knobbed Coot and Southern Red Bishop.

On the road to the office I saw Cape Glossy Starling, Common Fiscal, Barn Swallow, African Fish-Eagle, Black-shouldered Kite, African Grey Hornbill, Green Wood-Hoopoe and Crimson-breasted Shrike:

I made my way past the office to the Eastern Bird Hide where I spotted Pin-tailed Whydah, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Black Crake, Cattle Egret, Great Egret and Black Cuckoo (that I chased around the area before after hearing it - and even saw it fly right at me and over my head, but forgot to take a photo, so for me it is a Lifer that got away as I need photo proof of all my lifers for them to count! Sad but true!

I then took the road past the Eastern Bird Hide (marked Private on the map as it at a homestead - but the road is not marked or restricted). This proved to be an amazing spot to bird. I don't know my trees but I am sure someone will know what it is based on the flowers in my pics that the various Sunbirds are enjoying (Amethyst, White-bellied and Marico)! There were Lesser Striped Swallows and African Palm Swift flying around as well as White-winged Widowbird, Red-faced Mousebird, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Yellow-fronted Canary, Southern Boubou, Blue Waxbill, Black-collared Barbet, European Bee-eater and dozens of Weavers (I think all my pics labelled "Weaver" are Southern Masked Weavers - I have tried to turn them into Cuckoo Finch or something else, but they won't budge).

I have a heart stopping moment when I took a walk down to the water line and while trying to get a pic of a Swainson's Spurfowl that was in the area I just about stepped onto the biggest Water Monitor that I have ever seen. Either he was cross with me or scared at having been discovered but he swung his body around violently (I think he tried to hit me with his tail - I don't know how it missed because he was right at my feet) before desperately trying to get traction to get away from me. Every single hair on my body was standing upright, my heart was absolutely pounding in my chest and when I felt my skin it was like rubber. Totally weird and spooky moment!!! But did it deter me? Not at all!! Although I probably did take a closer look at where I was walking for the rest of the day. My wife asked me if I took photos of the Monitor - I was too busy wondering whether I had to throw my camera at the monster to save my life or sacrifice myself and save my camera for someone else to use! (Update - Dave Shedman from Simply Birding posted a pic that from the spot taken a week later - this is the beast...a Nile Monitor!!!)

On the road back to the office I was driving up the hill towards the office grounds and stopped to take some pics of Red-backed Shrike and Fork-tailed Drongo and as I approached the grounds I saw a raptor perched on a tree close to the road. As I stopped it took off and I got a pathetic shot of it flying away that I knew was going to be impossible to id from. I saw that it landed about 50 meters away and I backed up and fired off some shots, again, I know that at that distance in the poor light my pics were going to be pretty lame, so I set off on foot (forgetting all about the Water Monitor experience in the moment of the hunt) and managed to get a few more pics and one of it flying away. I had wasted a lot of time trying to find the Black Cuckoo so I decided to move on and not carry on chasing it. This raptor was identified as the rare European Honey-Buzzard - a lifer for me!

I spent a few minutes around the Office area birding seeing just Speckled Pigeon, Southern Red Bishop and Fiscal Flycatcher, before heading down the road towards the picnic site. I heard and then spotted a Rufous-naped Lark calling from a bush and then a beautiful Lesser Grey Shrike which got me all trigger happy with the many poses that it gave me.

At the picnic spot I made my way straight to the shoreline as I was needed to scope out the spot for waders and here I saw Little Egret, Common Greenshank , Black-winged Stilt, Three-banded Plover, and Groundscraper Thrush.

I followed the instructions in my birding Bible, Birding Gauteng, and took a walk to the east of the picnic site to check out the sandy bay. As I arrived I saw Sacred Ibis, Lesser Flamingo (two of them), Grey-headed Gull, Common Greenshank, Red-billed Teal, Cape Shoveler, Wood Sandpiper, Little Grebe and Three-banded Plover.

I continued past the sandy bay and then decided to return as the day was passing quickly, but first explored the dam shoreline to the west of the picnic site where I saw Common Greenshank, Grey-headed Gull, Yellow-billed Duck, two Mallard, White-faced Duck, Reed Cormorant, White-breasted Cormorant, Cape Wagtail, Egyptian Goose and African Darter.

On the way back to the picnic area I snapped these scenery pics and left the reserve - stopping briefly on the tar road to scan the Pienaar's River bridge where I saw African Black Duck - but no Finfoot! One day!

Trip #2 - June 2011

On Thursday 16th June 2011 (a public holiday in South Africa) my family and I headed off to bird the Roodeplaat Dam just north of Pretoria. We entered the main gate at around 7:30 and headed for the Pienaars River near to the Zeekoegat Camp. We stopped off at the bird hide at Zeekoegat Camp and by this time had already recorded significant sightings including: White-breasted Cormorant, Reed Cormorant, African Darter, Common Moorhen, Yellow-billed Duck, Hadeda Ibis, Crowned Lapwing, Cattle Egret, Squacco Heron, African Black Duck, Helmeted Guineafowl, Blacksmith Lapwing, Egyptian Goose, Common Fiscal, White-browed Scrub-Robin and Purple Heron.

We then made our way towards the office area and were amazed to see a massive flock of Wattled Starling in trees next to the road:

We then stumbled across one of the 2 new bird hides in the reserve. This one over looks a small dam in the veld. Here is a list of birds we saw in the area: Southern Boubou; Cape White-eye; Speckled Mousebird; Dark-capped Bulbul; Neddicky; Rufous-naped Lark; Tawny-flanked Prinia; Southern Masked Weaver; Wattled Starling; Cape Glossy Starling; Laughing Dove; Black-collared Barbet; Crested Barbet; Common Myna; African Grey Hornbill; Karoo Thrush; Crimson-breasted Shrike; Speckled Pigeon; Streaky-headed Seedeater; Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird and Red-faced Mousebird.

Next we headed past the office block to the bird hide on the edge of the dam - seeing Spotted Thick-knee on the way that tried desperately to pretend it was invisible! The other birds we saw in this area include: African Jacana, Fork-tailed Drongo, Blacksmith Lapwing, Burchell's Coucal, Sacred Ibis, White-bellied Sunbird and Pied Crow.

We headed back up the hill towards the office block, seeing Crested Francolin, Pied Crow and African Grey Hornbill on the way and then found a dirt track that leads off to the right and up on a hill that overlooks the dam. Some Zebra were surprised to see tourists on this seldom used track and begrudgingly gave way for us. The road looped back to the dirt road near the bird hide and we once again made our way up the hill to the office.

We then spent about an hour birding the area around the Office block which added a good number of species to our growing list for the day, including: Cape Turtle Dove, Blue Waxbill, Groundscraper Thrush, Long-billed Crombec, Dark-capped Bulbul, Streaky-headed Seedeater, Black-headed Oriole, Crimson-breasted Shrike, African Hoopoe, Fiscal Flycatcher, Southern Masked Weaver and White-browed Scrub-Robin.

The highlight in this area was spotting a immature Greater Honeyguide that was not too easy to identify - the yellow wash on the throat led me to the id!

We headed down to the dam at the main picnic spot but apart from Grey-backed Camaroptera, Grey-headed Gull and Little Grebe did not add anything new to our list for the day. Here are a few scenery shots that we took - you can see the second of the two new hides in the reserve overlooking the dam.

We headed back to the Office block area where the bird life seemed to be more prolific and had our early lunch at our car. I did a bit more birding around the property and added a good number of new species to the list including: Southern Red Bishop, Chinspot Batis, Red-winged Starling, Green Wood Hoopoe, Cape Sparrow, immature Greater Honeyguide and Cape Weaver. A highlight was seeing a Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird looking for lunch in a tree right in front of me:

Here is a selection of pics that I got in this area:

Another great day of birding - this time we saw 62 bird species - another decent total as winter starts to take root in Gauteng!

Trip #3 - March 2012
Today was a BIG day in my birding life. Very soon after I started birding 2 years ago, I stumbled across a strange looking group of birds - the Nightjars - and started reading about them and anticipated seeing them at dawn on the various roads I have driven - in the Kruger, along Zaagkuildrif, at Borakalala, etc, etc, etc... But...NOTHING! Not a single sighting. A friend invited me to join him on a Friday morning outing to Roodeplaat Dam but it looked difficult to squeeze into a busy day - and I was so frustrated to hear that he saw not one but three Nightjars at the place. I spent the whole of Monday at Roodeplaat and sadly only got to see Spotted Thick-knee, Hare and Black-backed Jackal between 5am and 6am. I am thrilled to say that I joined up with him this morning for another try and we got to see 3 Nightjars on the tar road towards the Zeekoegat Bird Hide - we could not get closer than about 30 meters to the birds as they would take off and disappear in the darkness. But my bogey bird is no more! These shots were the best of what I managed in the low light conditions of what we suspect, from the calls we were hearing in the area, is Fiery-necked Nightjar! Now that the "drought" is ended I can start to get closer to birds in this species:

Some other highlights were seeing Serval Cat on the same loop road, Black-backed Jackal and Black-crowned Night-Heron at the bird hide - sadly there was no sight of the Grey-headed Kingfisher (the dam in front of the bird hide behind the office block was alive with dozens of White-breasted Cormorant, Grey-headed Gull, Grey Heron, Squacco Heron, Black Heron, Little Egret, Black Crake, ect - involved in a fish-feeding-frenzy - it was dark and misty but amazing to experience!):