Neil Gray's birds and other wildlife
Atlasville, 21 Dec 2008 Paid a visit to the Marievale Bird Sanctuary this morning, my first visit there in 4 months. Although it was a relatively short visit it was still disappointing to only record 27 species. For mid-summer with the expectation of many migrants as well as the resident species it should be more. …
Atlasville, 09 Nov 2008 Back from another weekend in the Kruger Park but this time based at the Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge near Pilgrim’s rest, about 75 mins by road from the Phabeni Gate into Kruger. I did no birding at all at Crystal Springs as that driving time meant pre-dawn departures and late returns …
Atlasville, 31 Aug 2008 Decided to combine an early morning visit to the Marievale Bird Sanctuary with a visit to Leeupan some 50 km to the south-east in the Kinross area. Like Marievale this is a waterbird haven in the shadow of old mine workings, in this case in the Evander Goldfield. The water level …
Atlasville, 30 Aug 2008 Just back from Zambia to find that the birding talk is all about the Franklin’s Gull that has been seen at the lake at the Centurion Shopping Mall between Johannesburg and Pretoria. This is only Southern Africa’s 2nd ever inland record for Franklin’s Gull – oddly the first was some 22 …
Atlasville, 06 Jun 2008 I finally took the plunge and upgraded my Canon EOS 20D. The camera of choice is the EOS 40D. So off to the Kruger Park for the weekend 31 May -1 June where I put the new camera through its paces. Although based at Ngwenya Lodge just outside Crocodile Bridge Gate …
Atlasville, 28 Apr 2008 Paid a visit to the Marievale Bird Sanctuary to see if there were still any migrant stragglers around. Found a single Common Ringed Plover and three Little Stint already in breeding plumage that seemed to be all that remained of the large numbers of summer migrants seen there over our southern hemisphere summer months. …
Atlasville, 02 Mar 2008 Just back from a week away, having taken up our timeshare week at Sobhengu Lodge on the Nibela Peninsula at the northern end of Lake St Lucia from 22-29 February, for the first time since 2004. That year saw the level of Lake St Lucia at the lowest level in living …
Atlasville, 09 Feb 2008 Today, I decided to combine a drive along the Zaagkuilsdrift Road to the Kgomo-Kgomo floodplain with a visit to Borakalalo National Reserve. My last visit to Borakalalo had not been too good a day given the very wet conditions and the fact that the Klipvoor Dam was full to overflowing. So …
Atlasville, 08 Feb 2008 All good things come to an end! Got back this evening from a third overnight trip this year to Umtu. The project moves on to the next phase but my involvement is now complete. So no more time spent in the trailer under a camelthorn tree on a game farm on …
Atlasville, 18 Jan 2008 Just back from our annual timeshare week at Ngwenya Lodge, on the Crocodile River near Komatipoort in Mpumalanga. This the 9th consecutive year that we have been at Ngwenya from the second Friday in January and I have not before seen the level of the Crocodile River so high as this …
