On Saturday the 30th October 2010 we set out for Pretoria from Johannesburg to bird two bird sanctuaries: Bishop and Chamberlain. We arrived at Bishop Bird Sanctuary in the suburb of Centurion. There is no entrance fee but the guard did say that we could contribute towards his breakfast expenses if we wanted to! It was R10 well spent on the day! It is a beautiful little spot nestled within the development that has taken place in the suburbs - and there are really interesting information boards at strategic points in the park.

As we entered the sanctuary it seemed like the whole place was alive with birds - it was hard to know where to look. We saw Dark-capped Bulbul and Tawny-flanked Prinia and realised we were struggling to do any positive ids due to the frenetic activity all around us. The first key sighting was of a bird that had a great song and unfortunately no matter how hard I tried I just never felt like I was getting a decent pic. Looking at all the pics later, and with confirmation from the birding forum, I was able to conclude that it was White-browed Scrub-Robin (and I hear that Faansie Peacock saw it for the first time in the Pentad the day before - so I guess I am the second sighter!).

A few other birds were snapped in the next minutes: Cape Sparrow, Helmeted Guineafowl, Cape Turtle-Dove, Laughing Dove, Karoo Thrush, Black-throated Canary, Crested Barbet, Red-headed Finch and Southern Masked Weaver:

We then made our way around the outer perimeter path which I nearly stayed away from as it did not look like it would yield any significant sightings - but luckily we did it as we saw Crowned Lapwing, Spotted Thick-knee and Common Fiscal.

The highlight of the walk around the perimeter path took place when we heard a commotion coming from a tree - there were a number of Louries in the tree and also a loud sound that was unfamiliar to us (we believe that it was a sound that the Lourie were making). I spotted a shape that I immediately knew was an Owl and tried to sneak up a bit closer to get a better shot. That did not work because the Louries and the Owl flew out of the tree. It was frustrating because I was not sure that I would be able to id the Owl with the pics I had taken.

We tried to see where they went and followed into the center of the sanctuary. It took a while before we almost stumbled across the Lourie's and the Owl again and this time it sat around allowing us to walk to within ten meters - we realised that it was Spotted Eagle-Owl and watched it change position before taking off. We let it go in peace and continued our time in the sanctuary.

We spotted Black-shouldered Kite flying overhead (and watched it get hassled by a Pied Crow) and finally got to see a male Southern Red Bishop (after all, the place is called Bishop!). We saw African Paradise Flycatcher fly in front of us and disappear into a tree like a ghost. Drew saw and got a pic of a Black-collared Barbet. We also wanted a male Pin-tailed Whydah displaying for a female - I missed the action but at least got a pic:

The only mammal we saw on the day was this Bontebok:

As we left five Cape Glossy Starlings wished us a safe journey home. By the time we left, we had been there for just over 2 hours and had seen 27 different bird species.