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Red Phalarope, Pilanesberg National Park
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Red Phalarope, Pilanesberg National Park
Friday, 23 February 2007 19:00
Written by Neil Gray

21 February 2007 With SABirdnet abuzz with sightings over the past few days of a Red Phalarope at the Ruighoek Dam in the Pilanesberg National Park, I decided to go and see if I could add this lifer to my list.

There is a magnificent hide overlooking this dam, from which you can see virtually every square metre of the dam surface, probably about 1 hectare in all.

I arrived at the hide at 07:30 expecting to see lots of birders, cameras and scopes. I had the hide to myself! The phalarope was the only bird on the water and unbelievably easy to spot. I'd located it before I'd even sat down and unslung camera and binos.

To really make this an amazing experience the phalarope decided that I must be lonely and flew straight toward the hide from the furthest corner of the dam and paddled around only 20m away to make photographing it all the easier. (See STOP PRESS! gallery)

On a day where the temperature in the old crater that is the Pilanesberg was pushing 40C, there was not too much bird activity, except at the dams and in the shade of the big trees at the picnic spots. Nevertheless, I managed to get my first photos of Southern Boubou and Mocking-Cliff Chat, as well as Short-toed Rock-Thrush, which up till now I have seen only at a few localities in the Northern Cape province.

Neil Gray

Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 September 2012 11:01 )