AFTER HAVING SPENT a large part of winter inside, wrapped in blankets and longing for warmer days, for birders living in Gauteng the promise of spring brings with it a tangible sense of excitement. They relish the thought of the arrival of summer migrants and more daylight hours in which to enjoy them.
So where best to welcome this change of seasons? Surely Gauteng, the sprawling conurbation that encompasses Johannesburg and Pretoria, can’t be all that exciting as a birding destination? Well, many birders would argue otherwise and the six destinations included here – chosen and rated on a combination of their productivity, quality of birding, levels of safety and accessibility – bear out why the province has six of the best mustvisit spots this spring.
RIETVLEI NATURE RESERVE
Estimated spring species count 80+
Cuckoo Finch anyone? Covering 3870 hectares, the Rietvlei Nature Reserve is probably one of the best sites in Gauteng to connect with this often tricky and elusive summer visitor. Spend your time in the reserve’s extensive swathes of grassland where cisticolas and prinias abound and you should strike it lucky. Cuckoo Finches are a parasitic species and soon after they arrive they begin to focus their energy on breeding, shifting their attention from one another to finding potential hosts to incubate their eggs and raise their chicks.
Other star attractions at Rietvlei include Northern Black Korhaan, Plain-backed Pipit, Red-winged Francolin (on the vlei route) and Dark-capped Yellow Warbler. The skulking and highly sought-after African Finfoot occasionally puts in an appearance along the Grootvlei Spruit.
Good to know
Denne historien er fra September/October 2019-utgaven av African Birdlife.
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Denne historien er fra September/October 2019-utgaven av African Birdlife.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
