In July 2010 while birding with my son and Justin from the Global Bird Trekkers forum we stumbled across a "little" dam on the R550 that leads towards Nigel from Heidelberg. I included that trip report with a Marievale trip report at the time, and visited the site again yesterday. I have decided to repost the precious report here and add the new sightings from yesterday to keep a record of the spot. I have also included GPS sightings in this report. There are also pics from others dams in the area.
Directions: To find the spot you would travel from Johannesburg on the N3, take the turnoff to Nigel (also the Suikerbosrand offramp) and turn left towards Nigel on the R550. When you pass the R23 road intersection (a 4-way stop) reset your odometer and travel for 2.3 kilometers when you will see a tar road leading off to the right (the signboard says Driemanskap)- and you will see the large dam on the left hand side of the road. Here are GPS co-ordinates to the entrance to the dirt road that leads down to the dam: 26°24'20"S 28°21'34"E. My Nokia GPS also displayed the following text: 1494 Nigel - I am not sure if that is relevant.
Visit #1 - July 2010[br] On the way back from Marievale along the R550 towards the N3 highway we spot a dam off to the right and some large white birds grab out attention. It turns out to be an amazing spot. We see dozens of birds on the dam and want to get to them but get side tracked by a Marsh Owl and Rock Kestrel for a few minutes:
We then approach the dam and on the dam we see 29 Greater Flamingo; 6 Pied Avocet; 25 Hottentot Teal; 16 Black-crowned Night-Heron; 5 Black-headed Heron; Cattle Egret; Little Grebe; Sacred Ibis; Southern Pochard; Cape Shoveler; Red-knobbed Coot; Red-billed Teal; Hadeda Ibis; Black Crake; Glossy Ibis; Common Moorhen and a Lifer for me - White-backed Duck.
Around the dam on the burnt land we see White-winged Widowbird; Crowned Lapwing; Brown-throated Martin; African Pipit; Capped Wheatear and Cape Longclaw but the light is low and the images are not great!
Visit #2 - September 2010
I arrived at the dam at 6:30am and found the rising sun somewhat of a hindrance to taking pics from the western side of the dam (I am yet to explore whether there is another road in to the dam via private property on the eastern side of the dam). I did what I could photo wise and then returned to the spot later that day after my trip to Marievale. The main surprise was finding that the Flamingos were missing. I checked out four other dams in the surrounding area but did not find them.
Here are photos that I took during the morning and afternoon visits (notice the large numbers of Ruff behind the flamingoes):
The other species recorded on this trip include: Yellow-billed Duck, Red-knobbed Coot, Little Grebe, Glossy Ibis and Blacksmith Lapwing.
I also spent a bit of time looking at other dams in the area - one is about a kilometer closer to Heidelburg on the R550 opposite some grain silos, and there are two more a few kilometers further along the R550 towards Nigel. Here are some pics that I took at these dams:
