THE BIRDS: 2016

Sunday, 10 July 2016

AFRICAN BIRD OF PREY SANCTUARY

"The African Bird of Prey Sanctuary is a working facility dedicated to the conservation of indigenous raptors and is base to ongoing research, breeding and rehabilitation projects for birds of prey. The majority of these projects .run ‘behind the scenes’ to ensure that the integrity of the wild birds is not compromised and that a high release success rate is achieved. The sanctuary is also, however, home to a wide selection of captive-bred or ‘non-releasable rehabilitation’ birds of prey. These raptors can be viewed in their ‘micro-environment’ enclosures by anyone who wishes to visit and learn about South Africa’s magnificent aerial predators.
The African Bird of Prey Sanctuary opened quietly in June 2006, but was an amalgamation or a variety of projects that have been ongoing in KZN for the previous five years. Headed up by Shannon Hoffman, the sanctuary cares for over 180 different birds of prey of 50 different species. Partnering this project is the Mayibuye community, who owns the land on which the facility is built and shares a percentage of all gate takings"
I am a fan of these places as you can get so close to birds that you normally not see at all. The enclosures here are immaculate, large and contain living plants and trees so they are as close to nature as can be. Sadly most of the birds here are unable to be released as they were too badly injured or fully imprinted by idiotic human sapiens.

Some species of note are their Pels Fishing Owl, Palm Nut Vulture and Bearded Vulture but there is a huge range of beautifully maintained birds to stare at.

CAMPERDOWN VALLEY, MARKWELL

PYGMY FALCON, MARKWELL

PYGMY FALCONS, MARKWELL

BATELEUR, MARKWELL

TAWNY EAGLE, MARKWELL

VERREAUXS EAGLE, MARKWELL

CROWNED EAGLE, MARKWELL

MARTIAL EAGLE, MARKWELL

PEARL SPOTTED OWLET, MARKWELL

GRASS OWL, MARKWELL

MARSH OWL, MARKWELL

WOOD OWL, MARKWELL

VERREAUXS EAGLE OWL, MARKWELL

PELS FISHING OWL, MARKWELL

BOOTED EAGLE,MARKWELL

BROWN SNAKE EAGLE, MARKWELL

HOODED VULTURE, MARKWELL

PALM NUT VULTURE, MARKWELL

WHITE HEADED VULTURE, MARKWELL

CAPE VULTURE, MARKWELL

BEARDED VULTURE, MARKWELL

SPOTTED EAGLE OWL, MARKWELL

LONG CREATED EAGLE, MARKWELL

CAPE VULTURE, MARKWELL

ENSURING THE PALM NUT DOESN'T DISAPPEAR...

Wednesday, 8 June 2016

WHAT IT IS ....

THE BIRDS

We have created this page to catalogue the development of our birding "life list" and to help keep record of the amazing sights, sounds, creatures and plants we encounter on our various ramblings through our amazing land. I'm sure a lot of this will end up as incoherent nonsense but for the rest I trust this will allow for good memories and maybe even inspiration to some who may want to visit some of our odd spots..
There are so many amazing places in our wee land, from mountains to grasslands, deserts to evergreen woods, steamy tropical forest to the endless beaches and so much of it all remains to be seen..

The page is a bit of a collaboration between the 3 Markwell brothers, of which I am the eldest and best and our wives, girlfriends, parents and close family friends (who could probably be credited with getting us birding in the first place)

For me the beauty in birding is setting out on your feet and getting into the birds world, you see and experience so much more than you could from a viewing deck, hide or car. All the little extra details become as relevant as the quarry.. The different biotopes, climatic conditions, insects, mushrooms, mammals, reptiles all in your face (and in your skin.. literally)

We sadly do not own any serious photographic equipment so we do our best with what we have... Phones and a glorified Point and shoot. The images are really just to get an idea, not to win competitions or whatever. If anyone has an image they would like to add (with credit to the photographer) please send it.

Basically If anyone who sees this would like to contribute, leave a message and we will add your stuff..

ps. I have no idea what im doing here so please navigate via the Post headings to the right of the page....

04/04/2016
Ok, so as for the other week we now have an upgraded Canon DSLR which i am learning to use, hopefully this will result in slightly better pics going forward, its a learning curve though so fingers crossed.
CANON if you should ever chance across this and wish to invest in a few amateur twitchers I will spread you wonderful branding all over the place ;)

Kiff.

CLICK HERE FOR THE BUBO LIFE LIST

THIS LINK WILL TAKE YOU TO OUR COMBINED AFRICAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN BIRD LISTS

MARKWELL 01

MARKWELL 02

MARKWELL 03

AFRICAN SPOONBILL,DURBAN, MARKWELL

WHITE FRONTED BEE-EATER, MARWELL

DARVIL

Darvil is a waste water treatment plant situated just outside of Pietermaritzburg. It is a large site consisting of 3 main dams as well as several sludge dams and ponds. Due to the nature of the place the odor can be a little challenging at first but it seems to disappear as you become accustomed. We left early in the morning and it was absolutely freezing with a very thick fog over the entire site, visibility was almost zero and photographs equally difficult. The first thing that does strike you is simply the mass of birdlife at this site, its actually quite intimidating at first and at least until you get your bearings.

There have been several rare bird sightings at this site and we were particularly interested in the Lesser Jacana which was recently spotted at one of the larger dams. I would imagine that in summer this site must be something else. We confirmed over 50 species and missed as many more, few new ticks too including:

Spur winged goose, zitting cisticola, red faced cisticola, lazy cisticola, yellow throated longclaw, common moorhen, streaky headed seed eater, common fiscal, black winged stilt, cape grassbird, dark capped yellow warbler, african snipe, african rail, fulvous whistling duck, souther pochard, african swamphen, tamborine dove, common waxbill, malachite kingfisher, pied kingfisher, cape teal, hottentot teal, red billed teal, yellow billed duck, blacksmith lapwing, three banded plover, african jacana, lesser honeyguide, yello throated longclaw, long crested eagle, red knobbed coot, black crake, crested barbet, hammerkop, fork tailed drongo, african fish eagle, burchells coucal, hadeda ibis, african stonechat, black headed heron, goliath heron, yellow fronted canary, egyptian goose, lesser jacana

I will also add that this was even more challenging in terms of photography than some of the deep forests we have investigated. If you have anything less than a decent 500mm telephoto lens this place will drive you mad. My 300mm was found to be seriously wanting. Nonetheless here come some shots.