On Saturday the 3rd of September 2011, to celebrate Spring day and treat our retired neighbours to a morning out birding, we headed off to the Treehaven Waterfowl Trust Bird Sanctuary just outside Vereeniging. It is a spot where domestic and exotic ducks and geese are bred so there would not be any chance of adding to my lifelist, but it turned out to be a delightful time. I felt like I had ADD at one point with so many ducks and then geese to point my camera at - and so many varieties that I was not able to identify and even after extensive internet research still have many species that are yet to be identified.
We arrived at the Sanctuary around 8:30 (officially it opens at 9am) so after a bit of hooting at the gate we were allowed in. We made our way to the coffee shop/reception area, paid to get into the breeding enclosures (R30 for adults and R20 for pensioners). We made our way into the first enclosure and I was immediately stalked by a Blue Crake. Ironically just the previous Monday I had tried desperately to get close to 2 Blue Canes on the Old Verena Spa Road with little success - now this chap kept on scaring the life out of me by appearing like a ghost out of the shadows. Oh, that bag of bird seed that I bought for R8 may have had something to do with the attraction and not my new Brut Alaska deodorant!
The first enclosure was focussed on African waterfowl - and we saw Blue Crane, Grey Crowned Crane, White Pelican, Cape Teal, Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, South African Shelduck, Red-billed Teal, Yellow-billed Duck, Fulvous Duck, White-faced Duck, Spur-winged Goose and Common Moorhen. Here are a few pics:
In an adjacent enclosure we spotted a male Blue Crane trying desperately to impress a female. A pair of Marabou Stork continued with their nesting - clearly courtship is a thing of the past for them.
A great sighting in the next enclosure for more exotic waterfowl was Northern Pintail - sadly they did not fly out of the sanctuary so I could get a photo and tick them off my life list.
In this enclosure (strangely these are not aviaries - and I am not sure what stops these birds escaping - maybe that is why we keep seeing birds like these in other spots around Gauteng) we also spotted Red-crested Pochard, Carolina Wood Duck, Ferruginous Duck, Mandarin Duck, Ringed Teal and Wandering Whistling Duck.
There was also a selection of ducks in this enclosure that I have not been able to identify. Does anyone have any ideas as to their identity?
The next enclosure seemed dedicated to Geese and here we saw Andean Goose, Bar-headed Goose, Barnacle Goose, Canada Goose, Cape Barren Goose, Dark-bellied Brent Goose, Greylag Goose, Hawaiian Goose, Magpie Goose, Swan Goose, Ross's Goose and Upland Goose.
There were also a few Mallard around as well as this leucistic Karoo Thrush that had me guessing when I first saw it:
We ended our time off with tea/coffee and toasted sandwiches at the great little coffee shop where the prices are reasonable and the service great! I wondered down to the impressive river running through the property but did not hang around or notice too much by way of bird life. This Bird Sanctuary is well worth a visit!
