Atlasville, 14 Feb 2006

Paid a visit today to Nylsvley Nature Reserve near Naboomspruit (now Mookgophong) in Limpopo Province, a 211 km (2½ hours) drive almost due north from Atlasville with over 90% of the journey on the main R21 and N1 highways, so a relatively easy drive. Nylsvley like Marievale is a RAMSAR site, the difference being that where Marievale is a permanent wetland, Nylsvley’s wetland is a seasonally-inundated floodplain. Of course, being well into a summer with good rains the wetland is quite extensive and I encountered quite a number of different ducks and geese – Knob-billed Duck, Fulvous Whistling Duck, White-faced Whistling Duck, Blue-billed Teal, Red-billed Teal, Southern Pochard, Yellow-billed Duck, Spur-winged Goose and Egyptian Goose. Many of the ‘usual suspects’ were present too, such as Red-knobbed Coot, Common Moorhen, African Swamphen, Little Grebe, Reed Cormorant, African Darter and African Jacana. From a photography perspective the best images of the day were of White-winged Widowbird, Lesser Striped Swallow, Greater Striped Swallow, Southern Masked Weaver, Rufous-naped Lark, Brown Snake Eagle and Common Buzzard. There was also a surprise lifer. Surprise in that it was retrospective. Only when I processed the images did I realise that one of my Common Buzzards was actually a European Honey Buzzard!

Butterflies abounded, but I rather ignored them today, only getting a good image of the very common African Monarch. Orb-web spider webs were quite prominent too and I was able to photograph this Banded-legged Golden Orb-web Spider. Looks like a Brown-veined White butterfly is the spider’s supper.

All in all enough to get me to come back for another day at Nylsvley.