Hotazel, 22 Sep 2006

I’m doing an awful lot of commuting from home to Hotazel and back, a distance of 610 km each way. So for a bit of variety I decided to break the journey down to Hotazel yesterday. I left home earlier than usual and stopped off at the Barberspan Nature Reserve (https://gobirding.birdlife.org.za/north-west-barberspan-nature-reserve/) between Sannieshof and Delareyville, just of the main N14 road.

Main attractions here are water birds, larks, pipits and Orange River Francolin, but I really couldn’t spare more than 3 hours. Not enough to properly bird the reserve, but just enough to decide that Barberspan would be worth a full day to explore it more fully at a future date especially as I ticked off 56 species in the time available.

Best photos were of Great Crested Grebe, White-throated Swallow, Greater Flamingo, African Pipit and Kittlitz's Plover.