South Africa – Marievale Bird Sanctuary [14]

Atlasville, 07 Dec 2011

I paid another visit to Marievale today, arriving at 07:00. I headed for the north end of the reserve and spent just over 4 hours working my way back to the southern end of the reserve, finishing with a species count of 70 – probably about right for the time of year.

The larger waterbirds were represented by Purple Heron, Squacco Heron, Grey Heron, Black-headed Heron, Goliath Heron and Black Heron, but no sign of Purple Heron and Black-crowned Night Heron. Good numbers also of Glossy Ibis and African Spoonbill, plus a single Yellow-billed Stork.

As expected, duck and geese species were numerically dominant, including Spur-winged Goose, Egyptian Goose, Southern Pochard, Cape Shoveler, Red-billed Teal, Blue-billed Teal, Yellow-billed Duck, White-faced Whistling Duck and Fulvous Whistling Duck. The ever-present Reed Cormorant was also noted, as were Red-knobbed Coot and Common Moorhen.

There was a good mix of resident and migrant waders, with African Snipe, Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper, Pied Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Little Stint and Three-banded Plover all present.

The smaller passerines noted included White-throated Swallow, African Pipit, Cape Longclaw, Cape Wagtail, Long-tailed Widowbird, Southern Red Bishop, Yellow-crowned Bishop, Southern Masked Weaver, African Stonechat, Cape Sparrow, Black-throated Canary, Common Reed Warbler, Little Rush Warbler and Lesser Swamp Warbler.