Trip 1 - June 2010
My son and I grabbed an opportunity in the school holiday period to go birding and having heard about the little spot near Northgate Shopping Centre called Golden Harvest Park we thought we'd check it out. There is no entrance fee at the spot at present and security is rather low key, although there were Jhb park workers around all morning. We headed for the dam right away and saw Little Grebe, Common Moorhen, African Darter, Cattle Egret, Grey Heron, Reed Cormorant, Hadeda Ibis, Greylag Goose and Egyptian Goose.

We then explored the area above the dam where we saw: Crowned Lapwing, Cape Sparrow, Common Mynah, Southern Masked Weaver, Common Fiscal, Dark-capped Bulbul, Red-faced Mousebird, Crested Barbet, Black-collared Barbet, Lourie and Amethyst Sunbird.

In the area below the dam wall and along the stream we saw Blacksmith Lapwing, Sacred Ibis, Helmeted Guineafowl, African Wattled Lapwing, White-bellied Sunbird, Amethyst Sunbird, African Hoopoe and Pied Crow. At the smaller dam we saw Sacred Ibis, Egyptian Goose and African Black Duck.

In the area just to the north of the exit/entrance gate we saw Cape Robin-Chat, Common Waxbill and Green Wood-Hoopoe.

We ended up seeing around 32 bird species in the 2 hours that we spent in the park - for anyone new to birding or new in Gauteng this would be the ideal place to start!

Trip 2 - September 2011
In September 2011 I visited the park with a birder who is heading towards seeing 800 birds in this year and walked through the park from 6:15 to 7:15. We managed to see the Ovambo Sparrowhawk and the young African Harrier-Hawk. It was like night time birding with the lack of sunlight in the park. Anyway here are the pics I took of the 2 raptors we saw (I doubt I am going to win any awards for these pics!)

The other birds I recall seeing were Crested Barbet, Dark-capped Bulbul, African Olive Pigeon, African Green Pigeon, Amethyst Sunbird, Sacred Ibis, Common Moorhen, Mallard, Palm Swift, White-rumped Swift, Thick-billed Weaver, Southern Masked Weaver, Cape Glossy Starling, Helmeted Guineafowl, African Reed Warbler, Grey Heron, Black-headed Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Egyptian Goose and African Black Duck. We heard Black Sparrowhawk but did not get to see it.