Reed Cormorant Feeding Young

High, blue skies and fresh mornings and evenings usually categorise Highveld late autumn and early winter.  The grasses are loaded with seed – and all, some shoulder-high.  Although most of the migrants have left and birds have changed their summer breeding plumage with plain winter colours to blend into the gold and brown winter landscapes to come, there are still plenty of birds to be seen in this area.

At Rietvlei Nature Reserve (near Pretoria), we have had some wonderful sightings.  Reed Cormorants feeding juveniles; Lesser Moorhens (uncommon to locally common summer visitors – and still here); Black-breasted Snake Eagles soaring into the clouds; a juvenile African Darter playing with a stick, throwing it high into the air and catching it.  Wetland birds we have encountered recently include the Hamerkop, with its distinctively-shaped head, Egyptian Goose, Common Moorhen, Pied Kingfisher and White-breasted Cormorant.

Cape Longclaw - in autumn grasses

The grasslands, besides being home to herds of zebra, wildebeest, eland, and other plains animals have revealed Long-tailed Widowbirds in transitional plumage, together with numerous Cape Longclaws.  We have also found Wattled Lapwings, Stone and Ant-eating Chats, Capped Wheatear, Fiscal Shrike, Fiscal Flycatcher and Swainsons Francolin.  Thorn tree thickets have revealed Brimstone and Lemon-breasted Canaries and flocks of Blue Waxbills.  One afternoon, we also found a buffalo grazing near the road (those warning signs we were ignoring all the time weren’t kidding!) as well as a small mongoose.

The picnic area on Rietvlei Dam is home to a large and very mobile flock of White-fronted Bee-eaters (European Bee-eaters seem to have gone off to warmer climes), which we have seen eating bees.  Boubou and a juvenile Malachite Kingfisher have also been seen among the reeds.  The hide there has afforded us wonderful views of African Darter, the occasional Yellow-billed Duck and plenty of White-throated Swallows but not much else. 

Long-tailed Paradise Wydah

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve has been a bit quieter than usual for birds – although we are of the opionion that some of that can be attributed to the very tall grasses, which have grown prolifically after this summer’s excellent rains, hiding a number of the grassland birds.  Until recently, we were still seeing Red-collared Widowbirds in summer plumage but they are now matching the females.  We have also seen Red-wing Francolin, one of the reserve “specials”, together with Eastern Paradise Wydah (still with its long, black tail and bright yellow and orange colours) and several Cattle Egrets.  Streaky-headed Seed-eaters are very much in evidence now, together with the usual plethora of Mocking Cliff-chat, Ant-eating Chat, Common Stone Chat and Mountain Wheatears that favour this area.  Familiar Chats continue to keep their eye on visitors to the picnic area near the car park, flicking their wings and descending close for bread crumbs and food scraps.  Several Cinamon-breasted Buntings still delight us with their striped heads.  On a recent visit to the reserve, we found an entire flock of Wattled Starlings feeding on berries in white stinkwood trees near the ablution blocks. 

Red-headed Finch pair

Our garden in Benoni (east of Johannesburg) has also responded to the changes.  The Miombo Blue-eared Starling is an occasional visitor and we have suddenly found our feeder attracting Red-headed Finches in addition to the usual crowd of pigeons and doves.  The Crested Barbets feed on the apples but are having competition these days from Speckled Mousebirds; we have even seen weaver birds eating the fruit.  Speaking of which, the Thick-billed Weaver (usually a forest bird) has made his appearance again.  Cape Robin-chats, Karoo Thrushes, and Laughing Doves continue to forage on the ground for spilt seed, fruit scraps and insects.  I rather wish the mousebirds would stay out of the remaining tomato plants in our vegetable patch; they eat them before we do!

We often hear the Red-throated Wrynecks at present, both at home and at reserves such as Suikerbosrand, where there still seem to be a number in residence.  Jock saw a Long-crested Eagle at a golf course in north-western Johannesburg earlier this week, together with a Giant Kingfisher at the same location. 

Just because it’s winter does not mean the birds have abandoned us; they’re just a little different.