South Africa – Marievale Bird Sanctuary [12]

Atlasville, 29 Mar 2009

I arrived at Marievale just after 07:00 this morning, my first visit there this year, to find a mist still lifting, exceptionally high water levels and impregnable reed stands 3m high, so was not expecting a great morning. However, what was lacking in quantity and variety was certainly made up for in quality.

The first bird of the morning just short of the power-line road, having entered from the R42 through the southern gate, and still with the last of the mist making photography tricky was an African Crake standing in the middle of the road. This was my first South African record for this species and only my second ever for Southern Africa.

I turned onto the power-line road and hadn’t gone more than 200 m or so when out popped not one, not two, but three African Rail – one of which let me get out of the bakkie and paraded around in the road for me to get a super photo.

Next to be ticked was a Little Bittern and then a warbler fest. In the space of 50 m I heard and saw African Reed-Warbler, Little Rush-Warbler, Lesser Swamp-Warbler and a lifer (quite a shock) with a Sedge Warbler that even let me photograph it.

After only 45 minutes I thought of going home, job done, but stuck around and got some decent shots of some of the usual suspects, including Yellow-billed Duck, a sub-adult male African Stonechat, a Reed Cormorant drying his wings, a Little Stint and a Common Ringed Plover – both of which should be heading north again very soon – and a very obliging Purple Heron.