Trip 1 - March 2010
About a third minute drive north of the town of Brits lies the Vaalkop Dam Nature Reserve (chapter 45 in Birding Gauteng) - a spot always assured to produce something of interest. It took a little bit of effort to convince the security guard of the water purification plant to get me an audience with a manager who gave me permission to bird the settling ponds before entering the nature reserve - it was well worthwhile! On my first trip to this spot I saw the following birds:

Trip 2 - November 2010
On Monday the 29th November 2010 I made a second trip to Vaalkop Dam about 50 kilometers north of Brits. On the road towards the reserve I noticed that the bird life was prolific (Black-shouldered Kite, White-winged Widowbird, Southern Masked Weaver, Cape Turtle Dove, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Yellow-billed Duck, Pin-tailed Whydah, Southern Red Bishop, Red-billed Quelea, Common Myna, Fork-tailed Drongo and Cape Glossy Starling. I screeched to a halt when I saw this Steppe Buzzard:

Instead of turning into the reserve I continued past to road to the bridge over the Elands River and saw Little Swift, Woodland Kingfisher, Greater Striped Swallow and Dark-capped Bulbul.

Just before the bridge there is a little wetland where I saw Yellow-crowned Bishop, Cattle Egret, Egyptian Goose, White-faced Duck, White-winged Widowbird, Red-billed Quelea and Wood Sandpiper.

I paid the R25 entrance fee and headed along the road to the northern section and immediately I heard the bird that I have been trying to photograph for week - Black Cuckoo. It was calling from a tree in the shadows not far from the road and I finally got a pic of one of my bogey birds!!! The pic won't win any prizes, but it is a treasured possession to me!

I stopped at the bridge below the dam wall over the Elands River and birded the area including the thickets below the dam wall seeing Common Sandpiper, Yellow-fronted Canary, African Darter, Common Waxbill, Green-backed Heron, White-breasted Cormorant, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Red-chested Cuckoo, Blue Waxbill, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Lesser Striped Swallow, Black-throated Canary, Diderick Cuckoo and Reed Cormorant.

I then made my way towards the picnic areas and stopped on top of the hill next to the dam wall and walked down to the waters edge where I saw Reed Cormorant, White-bellied Sunbird, Little Egret and Blacksmith Lapwing.

The picnic area was my next stop and here I saw Little Egret, Red-knobbed Coot, Pied Kingfisher, Squacco Heron, Helmeted Guineafowl, Southern Masked Weaver, House Sparrow and Southern Grey-headed Sparrow.

At one point I saw a Green-backed Heron walking next to the shoreline, stopped my car and walked towards the water's edge to take a pic - when suddenly a water monitor came running right towards me - not towards the water but towards me! Fortunately it suddenly veered off and hid under some rocks to to my right. It was wild! The pics are all blurred because I was in shock!

Anyway, I did still manage, somehow, to get some pics of the Green-backed Heron which mysteriously did not fly off with all the commotion that was taking place:

The rest of my time spent along the shoreline involved exploring coves and trying to get as close to the waters edge as possible to scan for special waders - nothing extra-ordinary was appearing apart from: Reed Cormorant, Pin-tailed Whydah, African Jacana, a bird I am yet to identify, Squacco Heron, White-breasted Cormorant, Black Heron, Grey Go-away-bird, White-faced Duck, Blacksmith Lapwing and White-winged Tern.

I really enjoy the section at the end of the road (near the fence that goes into the water) which produced a good number of Whiskered Tern, White-winged Tern as well as Ruff, Three-banded Plover, African Pipit, Common Greenshank, African Darter, Common Waxbill,

This sequence of pics of Ruff interacting with each other caught my eye:

The road back towards the North West Bird Sanctuary produced Woodland Kingfisher, Dark-capped Bulbul, Cape Bunting, Cape Batis, Chestnut-vented Tit-Babbler, Spotted Flycatcher,

I phoned to get permission to enter the private area and was given permission to bird as long as I avoided the private dwellings. I was also told to look out for the Buffalo that had crossed the river to the sanctuary. Here are some scenery pics from this part of the route:

Here is a list of bird species that I saw as I drove through the sanctuary stopping as often as possible to walk down to the waterline from the road: African Jacana, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Magpie Shrike, Greater Striped Swallow, Blacksmith Lapwing, Reed Cormorant, Grey Heron, Burchell's Coucal, African Fish Eagle, Diderick Cuckoo, Black Heron, Pin-tailed Whydah, Helmeted Guineafowl, Cape Bunting, Spur-winged Goose, White-breasted Cormorant, Great Egret, Goliath Heron, Curlew Sandpiper, Long-billed Crombec, Lesser Grey Shrike, Common Ostrich, Ruff, Klittlitz's Plover, Common Ringed Plover, African Spoonbill, Lesser Flamingo, Greater Flamingo, White-winged Widowbird, Black-winged Stilt, Tawny-flanked Prinia, White-faced Duck, Fork-tailed Drongo, Lilac-breasted Roller and Grey Heron. Here are some pics that I took:

In this area I saw an Osprey flying over the water and hoped to get some really good pics - they are a bit better than I got before, but not quite what I was hoping for:

On my way back to the nature reserve I saw 4 birds fly off from the edge of the road and thought they may have been Swainson's Spurfowl - but they made a very different sound which I struggled to identify until I saw my pics - I believe they were Double-banded Sandgrouse:

One of my goals was to visit the Southern section of the dam which is closed to the public and after some sweet talking was given permission. I realised why it is closed to the public - it is not exactly well maintained and some of the roads looked like they had not been driven for weeks. There was a section which was really muddle and all churned up and it did not look like I would find a way through - but I managed to get through in the end and this scene that I found made it all worthwhile:

Here are all the birds that I saw in this area: Black Heron, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Reed Cormorant, White-faced Duck, Black-winged Stilt, Three-banded Plover, Blacksmith Lapwing, Malachite Kingfisher, Squacco Heron, Little Egret, Southern Masked Weaver, Barn Swallow, White-breasted Cormorant, Speckled Pigeon, Sacred Ibis, African Fish Eagle, Pied Kingfisher, Marsh Sandpiper, African Pipit, Purple Heron, Cape Bunting, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Spur-winged Goose, Hamerkop, Glossy Ibis, African Jacana, Amethyst Sunbird, Black Heron, Magpie Shrike, Yellow-billed Duck and Red-billed Quelea.

I then made my way back towards the dam wall and found a deserted picnic spot with a place where boats were once launched into the dam:

I then headed back towards the dam wall to return to the entrance and noticed that there was a road leading further south into the reserve that I had missed on my way in. It crosses a canal where I spotted two Hamerkop and looking at my pics at home realised that there was another monitor near to the Hamerkop!

I then spent the next hour exploring the rest of the southern section of the reserve and the scenery was amazing! Here are some pics that capture what I was experiencing!

Near the end of the southern section - at a boundary fence - there were two sights that i marvelled about: one was of a group of seven or eight Black Heron and then some birds in the distance shores that I wish I could have approached to identify!

The birds in this pic are yet to be identified:

This African Jacana nearly got me thinking I was seeing Lesser Jacana - but clearly it is a juvenile!

On my way out of the reserve I spotted these Red-billed Quelea on a wire - both male and females!

I briefly paused at the little dam before the turn off to Vaalkop Dam but it was midday and not much was moving:

I stopped at the bridge over the river flowing from the Roodekopjes Dam and spent a while trying to photograph the Little Swift - only one or two pics were even close to being in focus. Here is one:

Oh, here are some pics of the mammals that I saw in the reserve: