Birding Trip Report: Rooiwal

Spring has arrived and with it a new season for birds and birders.

(Click images  to enlarge)

I would like to thank Dr.Hannes Coetzee, DA councilor and pastor of Harvest Ministries for giving us access to his property. It is also a privilege to have an avifaunal specialist like Rihann Geyser with you on a birding trip.

It is amazing to see the immediate change because of the change in season. Instead of birds flocking together in bird parties, more birds focus on building nests.

Birding in a team (one with a notebook and one with a camera) works like a dream.

Ben Fouche

Birdwatcher.co.za

 

 

BIRDING TRIP REPORT: ROOIWAL PENTAD 2530_2810

 

Ben Fouche and I went birding in the 2530_2810 pentad just north Pretoria, situated within the 2528CA quarter degree grid cell (q.d.g.c.)  to gather data for the Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2 (SABAP2).

 

Atlasing started on Portions 135, 136 and 137 of the farm Grootvlei 272 JR (25°31’48.71” S 28°14’12.49” E). These smallholdings form part of several smallholdings bordering the eastern banks of the Apies River north of Rooiwal Power Station, one of the favourite Gauteng birding spots. 50 bird species were seen during the 1^st hour of birding and the list stood on 70 species at the end of the 2^nd hour. Birds seen includes species such as Ground-scrapper Thrush,

Magpie Shrike,

 

African Wattled Lapwing, African Green Pigeon, Rattling Cisticola, African Pipit, Orange-breasted Waxbill, Zitting Cisticola, a female Northern Black Korhaan, foraging on the bare agricultural cropland in close vicinity of Spotted Thick-knees, Black-headed Oriole, Brown-crowed Tchagra, Thick-billed Weaver, Amethyst Sunbird, Burnt-necked Eremomela,

 

 

Kurrichane Thrush, Red-billed Firefinch, Bar-throated Apalis, African Grey Hornbill, and Black-backed Puffback. Red-breasted Swallow and Lesser Striped Swallow which are both intra-African migrants that has recently returned from their northern migratory range were also seen. The river and riparian vegetation added species such as African Reed Warbler actively calling from the reed next to the river,

 

 

Giant Kingfisher, Black Crake,

Lesser Swamp-warbler, Green-backed Heron, breeding Village Weavers, Little Rush-Warbler, Common Waxbill,

Brown-throated Martin, and stunning views of a Black-crowned Night-Heron.

 

From here we headed to Rooiwal Sewerage Works, which consists of several setting ponds that attract a variety of water bird species throughout the year. Surrounding these setting pond are open lawn areas, exotic trees and old agricultural lands. Rooiwal added species such as African Jacana, Southern Pochard,

 

Squacco Heron,

 

Cape Shoveler, Purple Heron,

 

 

 

Wood Sandpiper (Palearcticmigrant),

 

Pied Avocet,

 

African Purple Swamphen, Pin-tailed Whydah,

Black-winged Stilt, Burchell’s Coucal, African Fish-Eagle calling from a far-off distance, Hamerkop, Wattled Starling,

 

Cape Teal, Little Stint (Palaearctic migrant),

 

 

 

Hottentot Teal,

 

 

 

African Snipe,

 

South African Cliff-swallow (intra-African migrant), a single White-fronted Bee-eater

 

 

a single Ruff and a single Common Greenshank(both Palaearctic migrants).

 

 

A single Long-creasted Eagle was seen in the pine trees west of the settling ponds.

 

 

 

All-in-all it was a great day of birding and nice to see the migrating birds returning from their northern migratory range.

 

 

The day ended on 115 species seen in just over 5 hours of birding, most species seen in one day for this pentad to date. A total of 7 bird species were added to the pentad list which are African Green-pigeon, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Little Rush-Warbler, Black-crowned Night-heron, Common Ostrich, Burnt-necked Eremomela and Bar-throated Apalis.

 

Rihann Geyser.

List of birds observed and submitted to SABAP2:

 

Sequence	Ref   No	Common   name	Scientific   name
1	84	Ibis   Hadeda	Bostrychia   hagedash
2	784	Sparrow   House	Passer   domesticus
3	734	Myna   Common	Acridotheres   tristis
4	392	Mousebird   Red-faced	Urocolius   indicus
5	803	Masked-Weaver   Southern	Ploceus   velatus
6	317	Dove   Laughing	Streptopelia   senegalensis
7	649	Prinia   Tawny-flanked	Prinia   subflava
8	808	Bishop   Southern Red	Euplectes   orix
9	686	Wagtail   Cape	Motacilla   capensis
10	314	Dove   Red-eyed	Streptopelia   semitorquata
11	311	Pigeon   Speckled	Columba   guinea
12	557	Thrush   Groundscraper	Psophocichla   litsipsirupa
13	439	Barbet   Crested	Trachyphonus   vaillantii
14	522	Crow   Pied	Corvus   albus
15	245	Lapwing   Blacksmith	Vanellus   armatus
16	242	Lapwing   Crowned	Vanellus   coronatus
17	339	Go-away-bird   Grey	Corythaixoides   concolor
18	724	Shrike   Magpie	Corvinella   melanoleuca
19	763	Sunbird   White-bellied	Cinnyris   talatala
20	247	Lapwing   African Wattled	Vanellus   senegallus
21	709	Boubou   Southern	Laniarius   ferrugineus
22	323	Green-Pigeon   African	Treron   calvus
23	642	Cisticola   Rattling	Cisticola   chiniana
24	692	Pipit   African	Anthus   cinnamomeus
25	503	Swallow   Lesser Striped	Hirundo   abyssinica
26	545	Bulbul   Dark-capped	Pycnonotus   tricolor
27	100	Duck   White-faced	Dendrocygna   viduata
28	387	Palm-Swift   African	Cypsiurus   parvus
29	838	Waxbill   Orange-breasted	Amandava   subflava
30	431	Barbet   Black-collared	Lybius   torquatus
31	533	Babbler   Arrow-marked	Turdoides   jardineii
32	707	Fiscal   Common	Lanius   collaris
33	385	Swift   Little	Apus   affinis
34	61	Egret   Cattle	Bubulcus   ibis
35	629	Cisticola   Zitting	Cisticola   juncidis
36	402	Kingfisher   Brown-hooded	Halcyon   albiventris
37	288	Gull   Grey-headed	Larus   cirrocephalus
38	714	Tchagra   Brown-crowned	Tchagra   australis
39	517	Drongo   Fork-tailed	Dicrurus   adsimilis
40	1035	Korhaan   Northern Black	Afrotis   afraoides
41	1172	White-eye   Cape	Zosterops   virens
42	275	Thick-knee   Spotted	Burhinus   capensis
43	55	Heron   Black-headed	Ardea   melanocephala
44	581	Robin-Chat   Cape	Cossypha   caffra
45	606	Reed-Warbler   African	Acrocephalus   baeticatus
46	395	Kingfisher   Giant	Megaceryle   maximus
47	203	Crake   Black	Amaurornis   flavirostris
48	604	Swamp-Warbler   Lesser	Acrocephalus   gracilirostris
49	63	Heron   Green-backed	Butorides   striata
50	797	Weaver   Village	Ploceus   cucullatus
51	576	Stonechat   African	Saxicola   torquatus
52	843	Waxbill   Common	Estrilda   astrild
53	1104	Thrush   Karoo	Turdus   smithi
54	804	Weaver   Thick-billed	Amblyospiza   albifrons
55	772	Sunbird   Amethyst	Chalcomitra   amethystina
56	419	Wood-Hoopoe   Green	Phoeniculus   purpureus
57	786	Sparrow   Cape	Passer   melanurus
58	646	Cisticola   Levaillant’s	Cisticola   tinniens
59	509	Martin   Brown-throated	Riparia   paludicola
60	50	Cormorant   Reed	Phalacrocorax   africanus
61	69	Night-Heron   Black-crowned	Nycticorax   nycticorax
62	192	Guineafowl   Helmeted	Numida   meleagris
63	96	Duck   Yellow-billed	Anas   undulata
64	1	Ostrich   Common	Struthio   camelus
65	859	Canary   Yellow-fronted	Crithagra   mozambicus
66	501	Swallow   Red-breasted	Hirundo   semirufa
67	601	Eremomela   Burnt-necked	Eremomela   usticollis
68	552	Thrush   Kurrichane	Turdus   libonyanus
69	424	Hornbill   African Grey	Tockus   nasutus
70	837	Firefinch   Red-billed	Lagonosticta   senegala
71	390	Mousebird   Speckled	Colius   striatus
72	622	Apalis   Bar-throated	Apalis   thoracica
73	588	Scrub-Robin   White-browed	Cercotrichas   leucophrys
74	712	Puffback   Black-backed	Dryoscopus   cubla
75	81	Ibis   African Sacred	Threskiornis   aethiopicus
76	228	Jacana   African	Actophilornis   africanus
77	495	Swallow   White-throated	Hirundo   albigularis
78	89	Goose   Egyptian	Alopochen   aegyptiacus
79	102	Pochard   Southern	Netta   erythrophthalma
80	212	Coot   Red-knobbed	Fulica   cristata
81	210	Moorhen   Common	Gallinula   chloropus
82	62	Heron   Squacco	Ardeola   ralloides
83	57	Heron   Purple	Ardea   purpurea
84	6	Grebe   Little	Tachybaptus   ruficollis
85	47	Cormorant   White-breasted	Phalacrocorax   carbo
86	94	Shoveler   Cape	Anas   smithii
87	52	Darter   African	Anhinga   rufa
88	97	Teal   Red-billed	Anas   erythrorhyncha
89	264	Sandpiper   Wood	Tringa   glareola
90	269	Avocet   Pied	Recurvirostra   avosetta
91	208	Swamphen   African Purple	Porphyrio   madagascariensis
92	860	Canary   Black-throated	Crithagra   atrogularis
93	846	Whydah   Pin-tailed	Vidua   macroura
94	270	Stilt   Black-winged	Himantopus   himantopus
95	4142	Sparrow   Southern Grey-headed	Passer   diffusus
96	149	Fish-Eagle   African	Haliaeetus   vocifer
97	4131	Coucal   Burchell’s	Centropus   burchellii
98	138	Eagle   Long-crested	Lophaetus   occipitalis
99	72	Hamerkop   Hamerkop	Scopus   umbretta
100	735	Starling   Wattled	Creatophora   cinerea
101	98	Teal   Cape	Anas   capensis
102	253	Stint   Little	Calidris   minuta
103	99	Teal   Hottentot	Anas   hottentota
104	250	Snipe   African	Gallinago   nigripennis
105	504	Cliff-Swallow   South African	Hirundo   spilodera
106	409	Bee-eater   White-fronted	Merops   bullockoides
107	256	Ruff   Ruff	Philomachus   pugnax
108	665	Flycatcher   Fiscal	Sigelus   silens
109	83	Ibis   Glossy	Plegadis   falcinellus
110	130	Kite   Black-shouldered	Elanus   caeruleus
111	650	Prinia   Black-chested	Prinia   flavicans
112	607	Warbler   Marsh	Acrocephalus   palustris
113	263	Greenshank   Common	Tringa   nebularia
114	818	Widowbird   Long-tailed	Euplectes   progne
115	609	Rush-Warbler   Little	Bradypterus baboecala