Links
Leaving Middelburg just after 04:30, we drove through drizzle that remained after an early morning thunderstorm. At the Olifants river bridge we picked up the usual suspects like Thick-billed weaver, Lesser striped swallow, Little swift, Black crake, Grey heron etc, while Red-chested and Diderick cuckoos provided background noise. For only the second time we spotted an otter fishing in the stream and then definitely a new one - a decently sized crocodile, only about 50m away from someone's back garden fronting on the river. It was still drizzling a little as we entered the reserve at 6am but the birds were sensing the skies clearing and were out hunting and foraging. Bar-throated apalis, Rattling cisticola and Black cuckoo now took over from the other two cuckoos with some other nice calls in between like Orange-breasted bush-shrike, Chinspot batis, Grey tit-flycatcher and White-browed scrub-robin. Our main aim for the day was to test my new Canon Powershot SX50. It was amazing how we're now for the first time able to take full-frame shots of birds, even ones that are a fair distance away. It even helped to identify far-off silhouettes against the dark grey sky like Spotted flycatcher and Southern black flycatcher. We paid a visit to the brand now Lily pond hide just before the picnic site and got absolutely fantastic pictures of Little grebe and Green-backed heron. By 10:00 we've had a good morning's birding and as the sun had now burned through the clouds, it started getting hot. On our way out we added one last nice sighting - Western osprey carrying brunch. We were back in Middelburg by lunch time and enjoyed our pictures from the new camera!
No comments:
Post a Comment