WALLY'S BLOG

A diary of a retired South African Water Ranger.

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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Birds breeding in mid winter

Horse Trails 17-June-2009



Sunday, June 14, 2009

Rietvlei 10 June 2009


10 Jun 2009
A super day.
I planned a long walk to the hides but had to cut my walk short because spider webs were covering the whole area.
Going to the hides would have meant that I would have been covered with spiders.
The birds seem to congregate south of the new bird hide
  • 10 Red-billed Teal
  • 8 Yellow-billed Ducks
  • African Darters
  • 5 Red-knobbed Coots
  • Egyptian geese
  • Cormorants
  • Cape Shoveler

Rietvlei 9 Jun 2009

9 Jun 2009

Birds spotted

Saturday, June 13, 2009

9 June 2009


A pair of Southern Pochards was spotted flying over the South-lake.

Rietvlei 1-6-2009



01-06-2009
We watched how a Black Sparrowhawk was trying to get to a dove he dropped on the other side of a fence while the Hartlaub’s Gulls were dive-bombing him.
He gave up and flew away.
Later we saw him return to when the coast was clear to collect his prey.

Pied Kingfisher -- Rietvlei


26-May-2009 14:07
Three Pied Kingfishers
Young birds.
Two of them look as if they are mating.

Owl Moth


Atlantis 2009-05-26




Photograph Leonard Wolhuter

The best website on this topic: http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_noctuidae/index.html

See more photographs: Http://images.google.co.za/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=moth+owl&btnG=Search+Images&aq=f&oq=

Pelican ring no. H1257

26 May 2009

Pelican found -- died about four days ago.
Ring number H1257. Ringed on Dassen Island in 2005. (4 Years ago)
It has been seen on a pig farm near Tygeberg about ten times.

Bush for ID

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Male and juvenile Pelicans -- Darters


23 May 2009

Morning walk:
I spotted 50 Flamingos at the South vlei
I managed to photograph a male and juvenile Pelican together with a group of Darters.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

18 May 2009 Rietvlei


18 May 2009
  • The pan is full of Cape Shoveler about +/- 200
  • 50 Lesser Flamingos
  • 100 Pied Avocets
  • 20 African Spoonbill
  • 10 Little Stints


(photograph by Wally: Flamingos)

Fish-Eagles

Fish-Eagles
Birds eye view from the island at Rietvlei. Photogrash taken 2002