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Friday the 22nd we drove to Nigel in Southern Gauteng via some very confusing roads in Springs. We arrived at Seldre Guesthouse around 6pm and Darrell and Liza joined us shortly after. We went to bed early as we wanted to be up and gone by 05:30. The next morning we got going as planned and started our birding by driving to Marievale Bird Sanctuary, only about 10 minutes away. Expecting a lot from Marievale's reputation for producing rarities, we were not disappointed when Nicola spotted a Little bittern as soon as we entered the wetland area. We notched up a few common water birds but the Otter hide was so covered in grasses that there was much better viewing from the road. African purple swamphen, Black crake, Black and Squacco herons soon followed before we started driving north into the reserve. The area was soaked from good rains in the season and we had to drive slow through the water. Towards and at the Flamingo hide we added Cape shoveler, Great crested grebe, Whiskered tern and Goliath heron. we continued north to the Duiker and Shelduck hides and drove through patches of deep water. Glossy ibises abound along with Yellowbilled duck and Redbilled teal but because of the high water levels, the only wader we added was Wood sandpiper. Back at the Otter hide we met up with Darrell and Liza who left a little later than us. We were sharing our sightings when Darrell spotted a long red beak poking out of the grasses. Excitedly we rushed about and then it came out in full view - African rail! A lifer for all of us! Nicola and I drove to the southern section of the park but only added Common ringed plover before deciding to drive to Grootvaly for lunch. At Grootvaly, we were eating lunch at a picnic table when we spotted a low flying brown bird in the distance. Careful observation and field guide consultation convinced us that it must be Western marsh harrier - quite a rare bird but apparently sighted now and again in the area. For the afternoon we drove to Suikerbosrand and ticked Mountain wheatear, Redcollared widowbird, Anteating chat, Bokmakierie, African redeyed bulbul, Greywinged francolin and Redthroated wryneck among the rest. Back in Nigel, an African olive pigeon provided our last tick for the day to come to a total of 106 for the day - not bad at all considering the poor weather and terrific afternoon showers we had. Over dinner we shared birding and hiking stories with the Newings before heading for bed.
Sleeping "late", we were gone by 06:30. The weather was dark and ominous but we decided to quickly pop into Marievale first. We added nothing new for the trip but were delighted to once again see a Little Bittern and the African rail, and this time managed to get some pictures, despite the distance. Onto Suikerbosrand again we saw more or less the same birds as the previous day and as the weather turned for the worse, we left just before noon to drive back home. Our total tally for the trip was 114 and although the Western marsh harrier was certainly the rarest of the ones we saw, the Little bittern and African rail were far better sightings.
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