South Africa – Marievale and Leeupan

Atlasville, 31 Aug 2008

Decided to combine an early morning visit to the Marievale Bird Sanctuary with a visit to Leeupan some 50 km to the south-east in the Kinross area. Like Marievale this is a waterbird haven in the shadow of old mine workings, in this case in the Evander Goldfield.

The water level at Marievale must have been just right for African Snipe. There seemed to be a snipe convention going on! Many of the usual suspects were there with several sightings of Black-winged Kite, African Stonechat and Cape Longclaw in the grassland areas, and Little Grebe, Red-knobbed Coot, Reed Cormorant, African Swamphen, Pied Avocet and Malachite Kingfisher on or near the water. A major surprise was a single immature Lesser Flamingo. While the Greater Flamingo is a fairly common sight at Marievale, I have not seen too many Lesser here. One single Little Stint marked the beginning of the influx of summer migrants from points north. Apart from the snipe and coots there were no great numbers of any of the species seen, so I moved on to Leeupan hoping for better there.

This was my first visit to Leeupan, a visit prompted by hearing about it from a friend who was there a week ago. Not a single Grey-headed Gull at Marievale but at Leeupan there were hundreds. Another bird not seen too often at Marievale but present here in significant numbers was Cape Teal, along with good numbers too of Yellow-billed Duck and Red-billed Teal. While there was only a single Little Stint at Marievale to announce the arrival of the summer migrants Leeupan boasted a dozen or so each of Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff, which mingled with resident Kittlitz’s Plover. Similarly, only one Lesser Flamingo at Marievale, but perhaps 20 here at Leeupan mixed in with around 80 Greater Flamingo.

Turning my attention away from the water to the grassland around Leeupan’s perimeter I picked up African Pipit, Ant-eating Chat, Long-tailed Widowbird, Helmeted Guineafowl and Black-headed Heron. On the roadside not far from Leeupan as I headed home I was rewarded with my first ever photos of Orange River Francolin.

All in all not a bad day’s birding at 2 very similar venues in the middle of the Highveld winter, with a trip total of 54 species.