Grey wagtail twitch (Walter Sisulu BG, Krugersdorp GR and Bronkhorstspruit dam NR) Jan 2011

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On Thursday 27 Jan 2011 we started getting news of a Grey wagtail having been spotted at Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens. We were planning on doing some birding over the weekend anyway so left early on Saturday morning, picked up Nicola's dad in Pretoria, and drove through to the gardens. Having entered, we spent some time walking the pathways closest to the stream, checking carefully as we went. But having reached Witpoortjie falls and retraced our steps back to the bird hide, by 10am we still haven't seen anything. We made a third trip up past the stream and then when we reached the motor bridge close to the restaurant we could sense some excitement as there were quite a few birders around. One birder showed us a photograph he took of it a short while before and it seemed people were circling a section of the stream between the motor bridge and the falls. We joined a group on the motor bridge and then someone spotted it! We all rushed to the downstream side and sure enough, there it was, on a muddy bank about 20m away! Unfortunately it was just too far away for our camera but we managed to see it very well before making way for the other enthusiasts. We celebrated our sighting with some ginger beer at the restaurant and then drove out to Krugersdorp Game Reserve. Here we added a couple of cisticolas and also two Levaillant's cuckoos before entering the lion enclosure. We duly spotted the cats but they seemed more intent on following a bakkie with some food on the back. Back in Pretoria around 4pm we dropped off Nicola's dad before driving through to Bronkhorstspruit for the night.

We left Bronkhorstspruit early the next morning for a quick visit to Bronkhorstspruit Dam. It was overcast and chilly and not many birds were out and about. Still, we picked up many of the regulars expected on the dam shore, but it being a weekend morning, hundreds of anglers were camped there and chances of spotting any African snipe were slim. However, where the track curves west south-west, following the shore, it became a little quieter and we spotted a couple of Ruffs and Reeves, a number of Black herons and some White-winged terns. A little further along, probably about 150-200m before the track becomes impassable, Nicola saw an indistinct little lump among the grass, about 20m from the shore. Training our binoculars on it, I first couldn't ID it, and had to make sure using the field guides. But they confirmed it - a Black-winged pratincole! Very happy with a lifer for the day, we decided to make a quick visit to Ezemvelo Nature Reserve as well, since we were not allowed to access the southern part of the dam reserve. At Ezemvelo, the best part of the day was unfortunately already over, and apart from lots of Rufous-naped larks, various cisticolas, two Lesser kestrels, a couple of chats and two Bokmakieries calling, we didn't add many before deciding to head home. An excellent weekend though - three lifers added for both of us!