Birding in the Rain at Marievale

White-throated Swallows

 Last week we had enough rain to make up for all the hot, dry weeks and months that have consisted  our wet season this year so far......  But that didn't discourage me and my visiting friends from Germany.

On an extremely wet Thursday morning we squelched our way through the East Rand to visit the Marievale Nature Reserve just outside Nigel, which is renowned for it's water birds, and what an amazing day it turned out to be.

I'm just showcasing my best photographs in this blog posting, but we saw so many birds I didn't bother to really keep count after the first hour or so.

As an excellent opening we started with Greater Flamingo, followed by the ducks.... South African Shelduck, Southern Pochard, Yellow-billed, Cape Shoveler, Red-billed Teal......
And so many Red-knobbed Coot! Some of the others:- Common Moorhen, a juvenile Black Crake, Great-crested Grebe, Little Grebe (Dabchick); White-breasted and Reed Cormorants, Hadeda, Glossy and Sacred Ibis. An abundance of heron:- Goliath, Purple, Black-headed, Black, Squacco.....

And the list goes on!  It was extremely difficult to drag ourselves away and a planned morning turned into a full day excursion.  I will definitely not leave it for another 7 years before I visit again.

So here are my best pics, I hope you enjoy them!

From 2 of the bird-hides we had excellent views of the White-throated swallow. They kept us entertained, and challenged, as we tried to get decent photos of them flying.

Dirk, my friend, had much better success at this.

Yellow-crowned Bishop

The reeds around the pans were alive with Red and Golden Bishops amongst the other weaver birds.

Red-billed Teal

It was fascinating to watch the rain bounce off the backs of the various ducks, or just sit in shiny droplets on top of their feathers.......

Yellow-billed Duck

Reed Cormorant

This Reed Cormorant had to keep fluffing itself to shake off the rain......

Malachite Kingfisher

I couldn't believe my eyes when we spotted this tiny, brilliant kingfisher, perching on the fence to fish the puddles in the adjacent grassland.......

Black-headed Heron

A common sight in the grasslands, but looking stately among the summer flowers......

This fresh-water crab was totally unexpected and I almost ran it over.

The very handsome Squacco heron.

 Mid-afternoon the skies started to lighten up a little!

And a last view of the Greater Flamingo on our way out.......