26 September 2024

A slightly warmer day after the snowy (aka freezing) weekend. The first noticeable bird was a beautiful Goliath Heron on the waters edge which it later vacated and went to sit in the bushes where it spent the rest of the morning.

Goliath Heron (Tammy Harding)

The fallen down Fever Tree was filled with nesting Village Weavers and a solitary Lesser Masked Weaver (which had been there the last time we did an outing to Umbilo Ponds in August last year). We also saw Thick-billed Weaver and heard Spectacled Weaver.

Lesser Masked Weaver (Tammy Harding)

Black-crowned Night Herons were sparce in their numbers with only 3 adults and one juvenile hiding in the tree, one of the adults came out into the open for a short while before hiding away again. A Striated Heron flew across the water and came for a brief visit before flying off again.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (Tammy Harding)

Adult Black-crowned Night Heron (Tammy Harding)

There were plenty of the ‘usual birds’ around, such as Red-eyed Dove, Dark-capped Bulbul, Hadada Ibis and a family of Egyptian Geese.

Red-eyed Dove (Tammy Harding)

Hadada Ibis (Tammy Harding)

Egyptian Goose goslings (Tammy Harding)

Two species of kingfisher were around – namely Malachite and African Pied. A couple of African Paradise Flycatcher flew over us a couple of time to the island in the middle and back again, while a few Tawny-flanked Prinia entertained in a dry bush and then in the long grass along the waters edge near us.

Malachite Kingfisher (Tammy Harding)

Female African Pied Kingfisher (Tammy Harding)

A few waterbirds flew over without landing, such as Sacred Ibis and Hamerkop. Also flying around were African Palm Swifts and Lesser Striped Swallows that kept coming down to the mud to collect for their nest building.

Hamerkop flyby (Tammy Harding)

Sacred Ibis (Tammy Harding)

Lesser Striped Swallow collecting mud (Tammy Harding)

Some Reed Cormorants were seen around the dam of varying ages and a lone African Darter came to visit.

Reed Cormorant drying its wings (Tammy Harding)

About half a dozen Little Egrets kept moving around showing off their yellow ‘slippers’.

Little Egret showing off the yellow ‘slippers’ (Tammy Harding)

We also had quite a few raptors during the morning with a Black Sparrowhawk being chased by a Peregrine Falcon, Yellow-billed Kites and a single African Fish Eagle were seen flying around and a very high African Harrier-hawk. BUT, the highlight of the day was the Ayres’ Hawk Eagle that circled around a couple of time.

Black Sparrowhawk (Tammy Harding)

Ayres’ Hawk-eagle (Tammy Harding)

Later the wind came up which dropped the temperature again, but we ended up with a very respectable 65 species in four hours.