Neil Gray Birds

28 April 2008 Paid a visit to the Marievale Bird Sanctuary to see if there were still any migrant stragglers around. Found a single Common Ringed Plover and three Little Stint that seemed to be all that remained of the large numbers of summer migrants seen there over our southern hemisphere summer months.

Much of the activity at Marievale on this Freedom Day holiday seemed to be in the air, with hundreds of Spurwinged Geese flying in anything from tight V-formations to unusually unco-ordinated masses. Reed and White-breasted Cormorant, African Sacred Ibis, Hadeda Ibis, African Spoonbill, Cape Shoveller, Yellow-billed Duck and Red-billed Teal were all quite active. Some photos of some of these can be seen in the STOP PRESS! section.

A pair of South African Shelduck gave me only my second sighting of this species in almost a decade of birding at Marievale, and a single Black Heron put in an appearance. Always good to see this one.

Neil Gray