Atlasville, 12 Aug 2007

Visited Marievale this morning. The veld is still looking awfully black after the fire in mid-June but the reeds are recovering, as well as the vegetation around the fringes of the spruit.  

The Capped Wheatear that seem to prefer these conditions are still quite prominent. Also in good numbers today were Red-billed Teal, Pied Avocet, Little Grebe, Pied Kingfisher and surprisingly, as I’ve only ever seen them before singly or in pairs, African Snipe. A very early migrant from the north was a single Ruff.

The usual large mammal to see at Marievale is blesbok, but this morning I had my first sighting here of Southern Reedbuck.