Birding Trip Report: Rooiwal

September 11, 2013July 9, 2015 re5511K African Fish Eagle, African Green Pidgeon, African Grey Hornbill, African Jacana, African Pipit, African Purple Swamphen, African Reed Warbler, African Snipe, African Wattled Lapwing, Amethyst Sunbird, Bar-throated Apalis, ben fouche, Birding, Black Crake, Black-backed Puffback, Black-crowned Night Heron, Black-headed Oriole, Black-winged Stilt, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Brown-throated Martin, Burchell's Coucal, Burnt-necked Eremomela, Cape Shoveler, Cape Teal, Common Greenshank, Common Waxbill, Giant Kingfisher, Green-backed Heron, Ground-scraper Thrush, Hammerkop, Hottentot Teal, Kurrichane Thrush, Lesser Striped Swallow, Lesser Swamp-warbler, Little Rush-Warbler, Little Stint, Long-creasted Eagle, Magpie Shrike, Nest, Northern Black Korhaan, Orange-breasted Waxbill, Pied Avocet, Pin-tailed Whydah, Purple Heron, Rattling Cisticalo, Red-billed Firefinch, Red-breasted Swallow, Rooiwal, Ruff, South African Cliff-swallow, Southern Pochard, Spotted Thick-knee, Squacco Heron, Thick-billed Weaver, Trip Report, Wattled Starling, White-fronted Bee-eater, Wood Sandpiper, Zitting Cisticalo

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,

Ground-scraper Thrush — Groundscraper Thrush, Gevlekte Lyster, (Psophocichla litsitsirupa)

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).

Juv Black-winged Stilt (L) and Common Greenshank (R)

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