After having lived and worked in the Middle East with my family for 15 years, I returned home permanently to Midrand in December 2020. During the time away, I didn’t man age much local birding because most family holidays were spent exploring other countries, and as a consequence my South African bird list hardly grew.
Being back home has given me the opportunity to rediscover many old birding haunts as well as a number of new sites, and get re-acquainted with old birding friends and make new ones. In many instances I am seeing birds I haven’t seen for more than 15 years, so it’s a little like starting afresh, which is incredibly rewarding.
There are two reserves close to my home in Midrand: Beaulieu Bird Sanctuary and Glen Austin Bird Sanctuary. The latter is steadily becoming my favourite birding spot and I try to visit it at least once a month. I have seen many of the more common and resident species, but there are still many that I need to connect with, like Greater and Lesser flamingos, Black-necked Grebe, South African Shelduck, Lesser Blackbacked Gull and Lanner Falcon.
The Midrand area is typical Highveld, characterised by gently sloping plains and deep valleys carved out by the Jukskei River, Kaalspruit, Olifantspruit, Modderfontein Spruit and smaller watercourses. The landscape is broken up in places by large granite boulders, rocky outcrops and hillocks. Except where humans have settled, the plains are generally treeless. Vegetation occurs in clumps on many outcrops and hillocks, but in the river valleys it becomes dense.
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