In the October school holidays during 2010 while on holiday at Mabalingwe Nature Reserve we drove through to Polokwane for the day to visit the Bird Sanctuary and the Game Reserve. The Bird Sanctuary is situated just north of the city along the banks of the Sand River - oh, I sneakily omitted to tell my wife and kids that it was also part of the water purification plan! That kind of information is not exactly helpful when you are getting up at 4:30 in the morning to head off to paradise!!!

Armed with directions from Birding Gauteng (Chapter 88) we explored each of the three large dams, visited all the hides and even wandered into the adjacent purification plant to check out the settling ponds. Here are some scenery pics (the bird hides are great, some needing a bit of work done on them, but unfortunately the reeds have become so over grown that at least three were really disappointing as far as bird viewing is concerned):

I wish I could proudly present amazing pics that I took - but I think I was having an off period (if that is possible for birding photographers!). There is not a perfect pic in the whole bunch - but hopefully it does at least give you an idea of what is available in the Sanctuary. In total we saw 43 bird species and apart from the birds in the pics displayed below, we saw African Hoopoe, Black Crake, Black-chested Prinia, Black-fronted Waxbill, Blacksmith Lapwing, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Cattle Egret, Common Fiscal, Common Moorhen, Crested Barbet, Egyptian Goose, Hadeda Ibis, Helmeted Guineafowl, Lesser Striped Swallow, Little Swift, Long-tailed Widowbird, Namaqua Dove, Natal Francolin, Pied Crow, Rattling Cisticola, Red-faced Mousebird, Speckled Mousebird and White-bellied Sunbird.

Here is a section of birds that we saw around the dams and in the thickets:

One of the highlights of the time at the Sanctuary was the nesting pair of Yellow-billed Kite that flew around the whole time that we were there - and joined forces at one point to teach a Pied Crow a lesson about territory. The Yellow-billed and Black-shouldered Kite and juvenile African Fish-Eagle were the only raptors that we saw:

The only Heron we saw on the day was Black-crowned Night Heron! The sight of a juvenile flying off for cover was a first for me:

We expected to see many different waders but saw nothing out of the ordinary. I made a special effort to capture a flying shot of the waders which I am realising helps immensely with identification. They are not great quality but they do help solve the mystery!

We had spent about three hours at the place - the smell was getting a bit much and so we decided to head off to the Polokwane Game Reserve. Look out for that trip report - it is a great spot too!