Trip 1 - January 2010
In January 2010 before I stumbled across the world of birding my family and I visited the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve in Mondeor, South of Johannesburg (covered in chapter - we had heard about the site as a great spot to hike and we sent the morning completing the main hiking trail along the river - seeing Bontebok and rock hyrax along the way. I notice from my pics that not a single shot was taken of birds - clearly I did not have my birding eyes on (as my 5 year old always says when we start to look for birds). Until I visit the spot again and bird it properly all I have to show are these scenery shots. The last shot is my favourite - got behind a Bontebok and as I approached it, it charged at my family - you can see them in the background - they got a little nervous as it got closer, but fortunately changed course well before it got to them:

Trip 2 - August 2011
On Tuesday the 9th August 2011 (a public holiday to honour women in South Africa) my wife and I headed off to hike through the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve near Mondeor just south of Johannesburg. We arrived at the spot around 11:30 not exactly an ideal time to start birding, but we still keep our eyes wide open and recorded everything we saw. We completed the Bloubos Trail (the blue one) and then decided to complete the rather long Easter Perimeter Trail (the silver one) as well which led us back past the Maritz Street entrance and along the Beacon Trail and Western Scenic Trail. All that to say we covered pretty much every inch of the reserve.

Here are some scenery shots we took along the way:

Here is a selection of bird pics that I took - it is never easy taking pics during the high sun periods of the day (I am trying to find some reasons why every pic taken on the day was pretty lousy!):

Here is a selection of pics that I took of mammals on the day:

Here is a full list of the birds that we saw on the day: Speckled Mousebird; Southern Masked Weaver; Brown-throated Martin; Cape Robin-Chat; Dark-capped Bulbul; Grey Go-away-bird; Neddicky; Common Fiscal; African Black Duck; Cape Turtle Dove; Red-faced Mousebird; Laughing Dove; Black-throated Canary; Tawny-flanked Prinia; White-throated Bee-eater; Cape Sparrow; Red-eyed Dove; Fiscal Flycatcher; Cape Longclaw; Southern Red Bishop; Cape White-eye; Pied Crow; Helmeted Guineafowl; Red-throated Wryneck; Crested Barbet; Cape Glossy Starling; Black-shouldered Kite; Cinnamon-breasted Bunting; African Stonechat; African Hoopoe; Chinspot Batis; Cardinal Woodpecker; Black-collared Barbet; Common Myna; Red-headed Finch; Long-billed Pipit; Karoo Thrush; Cape Bunting; Jameson's Firefinch and Crowned Lapwing.