Trip 1
Another day and another opportunity to get some quality birding done saw Drew and I tackle the Buffelsdrif Conservancy (Birding Gauteng, chapter 38). It is an area of privately owned smallholdings about 20 miuntes north of Pretoria near the Roodeplaat Dam. We left home (in Joburg) at 5:30 and arrived as the sun was rising. We followed the route recommended in Birding Gauteng and immediately started to recording bird sighting on the dirt roads. It was a bit frustrating on the main access roads as residents on the way to work would create huge dust trails, but as soon as we hit Boskok and Renoster Roads in the conservancy it was most pleasant. Here is a pic of my son on the main road - inside the conservancy:

We made our way to the electricity substation via points 1,2,3,4 and 5 and on the way we saw: Dark-capped Bulbul, Lourie, Cape Turtle Dove, Black-shouldered Kite (on the electricity lines), Natal Spurfowl, Blue Waxbill, Helmeted Guineafowl, Speckled Pigeon, Long-billed Crombec, Blacksmith Lapwing, Hadeda Ibis, White-faced Duck, Kalahari Scrub-Robin, Cape Sparrow, Scaly-feathered Finch (the most common bird in the area it seems), African Hoopoe, White-backed Mousebird and Common Mynah. A real selection of Gauteng birds. We spent a bit of time around the electricity substation where we saw Village Weaver, Marico Flycatcher, Laughing Dove, Southern Masked Weaver, Yellow Canary and White-browed Scrub-Robin.

We then headed off to the Orange Orchard and at the small dam on the plot next to the orchard we saw Green Wood-Hoopoe, Egyptian Geese and Pied Kingfisher and Arrow-marked Babbler.

Further down the road and past a private residence we found the wetland (point 11 in Birding Gauteng) and got permission to check out the small dams on the home next to the orchard. There we saw White Geese, Grey Heron, Burchell's Coucal, Reed Cormorant, Cape Wagtail, Crested Barbet and African Grey Hornbill. We nicknamed this spot Lourie world because there it seemed like there was always a Lourie flying around us.

It was still really cold out at this time (around 7:30) so we decided to head off to the two small dams at point 8 and return to do the wetland and the Pienaars river a bit later when it had warmed up a bit. On the way we saw Spotted Thick-Knee and Crowned Lapwing.

We spent a good hour at the 2 little dams trying to get decent pics of the Pearl-breasted Swallow flying around the dams (good luck!) and we saw: Black-chested Prinia, Chestnut-vented Tit-babbler, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Magpie Shrike, Red-billed Firefinch and as I would discover only later when I processed the pics I had gotten Cut-throat Finch (a lifer for me). I thought they were one of the waxbills and finally gave up chasing them from acacia thornbush to thornbush. Oh, the dams are used by cattle, so of course there were Cattle Egret around.

We headed back to the wetland and made our way down to the Pienaars River - seeing African Darter, Little Grebe, White-breasted Cormorant, Brown-hooded Kingfisher (no Half-collared on the day unfortunately for us!). We made our way South along the Pienars River hoping to catch sight of a Finfoot but with no luck.

On the way back to the car we saw a male African Stonechat, Swainson's Spurfowl, White-fronted Bee-eater (there were 2 on the powerlines - I though they had all migrated by now!), Common Waxbill and Black-shouldered Kite hunting over the grassland.

On the way out of the conservancy we saw the following birds: Southern Boubou, Sacred Ibis, Pied Crow, Common Fiscal and Southern Red-bishop.

Then the first of two highlight of the day happened. I was photographing the dozens of Southern Red Bishop on a tree next to the road outside the entrance to the conservancy and suddenly realised that one of the little birds had a bright yellow colour on it's head and had black-streaking on it's head. Some time back I chased down a weird call at Kloofendal Nature Reserve and got some shots of a Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird. Here it was right next to the road and what was really baffling at first was that it regurgitated two white foamy balls and stuck them onto the branch where it was perched. Before it flew off I saw that it ate one of the berries from the bush (see the last pic in the sequence) - and I assume that it was spitting out the indigestible bits of it's meal. Here are some shots of the whole process:

The final sighting of the day was our first real raptor (sorry, Black-shouldered Kites but you don't quite qualify according to my 5 year old son!). It was soaring above us and we got some in flight shots that we believe identifies it as an immature Black-chested Snake-Eagle.

What an amazing morning of Winter birding. We saw 65 bird species and came away with 2 Lifers.

Trip 2
On Monday the 27th August 2011 my wife and I headed off before the sun was up to bird the Buffelsdrif Conservancy. When we were already on the freeway I realised that I had left my binocs at home - and in hindsight wished that I had gone back to get them. I was amazed at how frustrated I was without them and wondered how I did so much birding in the early days without dependency on binocs. It was my second time visiting the area and we spent most of our time along the Pienaar's River looking for Crakes and the African Finfoot which I had not seen before then - with no luck on the day!

Here are some scenery pics that we took on the day:

Here are some shots of birds around the water:

Here are some shots of bushveld birds that we saw: