Trip 1: May 2011
On Saturday the 7th May 2011 I spent the morning completing most of the Vlaklaagte Route described in chapter 54 in Birding Gauteng) - it is about an hours drive east from Pretoria on the N4. I arrived as the sun was rising and probably did the Ndebele Mining road to the Vlaklaagte crossroad about 30 minutes earlier than I should have - all I saw was a lone Black-shouldered Kite and a Cisticola that I could only guess an id for. Boy, the area is certainly flat!!! Incredible grasslands that will certainly come alive in spring.

I made my way down to the vlei on Roger's Loop but it seemed impassable with a 2 wheel drive so I back tracked and made my way to Crake Dam past the small dam that seemed devoid of birds. Along the way I spotted Cape Longclaw, Ant-eating Chat, Pied Crow, Crowned Lapwing, African Pipit, Rufous-naped Lark, Pied Starling, Cloud Cisticola, Glossy Ibis, Common Myna, Long-tailed Widowbird and Black-throated Canary.

The sun was now breaking through the sparse cloud cover and morning mist and it made for a spectacular time at Crake Dam.

Here is a list of birds that I saw on or around Crake Dam: Pied Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Little Grebe, Reed Cormorant, Common Moorhen, Black Crake, Levaillant's Cisticola, Cape Wagtail, Yellow-billed Duck, Hadeda Ibis, Southern Masked Weaver, African Stonechat, Common Waxbill, Red-knobbed Coot, Blacksmith Lapwing, Marsh Owl, Hamerkop, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Cattle Egret and a Warbler that I suspect is Lesser Swamp Warbler.

My next stop was the vlei at point 7 in the book. On the way I managed to photograph a Marsh Owl engaged in a death defying vertical dive. I have no idea how it was able to not slam into the ground:

Here are some scenery shots of the vlei:

Here are a few photos of birds that I took in the area:

The birds I saw in this area include: Namaqua Dove, Cape Sparrow, Burchells' Coucal, African Snipe, Yellow-billed Duck, Common Myna, Brown-throated Martin, Purple Heron, Common Waxbill, Laughing Dove, Sacred Ibis and Pied Starling.

I then made my way back to the cross roads and headed off on the dirt track towards point 9. The weather was changing and rain was threatening and there was an incredible lack of birds along the whole road. At the intersection I did spot a pair of Lark - that just might be Fawn-coloured Lark - as well as Cloud Cisticola:

I made my way to Melodious Road and as I approached the wetland where I would spend the last hour of the morning and saw a large bird take off not far from the road and fly off. I pulled over and managed to snap a few shots - and remember dreading that it just might have been the Denham's Bustard that I had been looking for the whole morning. And my suspicions were confirmed when I processed my pics and saw the distinctive markings on the wings and tail. A great lifer for the day!

In the valley there is a great vlei - here are some shots:

Just beyond the stream there is a great little quarry - with bird nests a plenty:

Here are a few shots that I took in this area:

The birds that I saw on Melodious Road included Common Fiscal, Black-headed Heron, Yellow-billed Duck, Common Moorhen, Egyptian Goose, Pied Starling, Red-eyed Dove, Greater Kestrel, Speckled Pigeon, Blacksmith Lapwing and Common Myna.

A great day out - a lifer and 50 bird species were spotted. I know that I need to do this route again at the start of spring later this year.

Trip 2: September 2011
On Monday the 26th September 2011 I headed back to Vlaklaagte and this time headed straight to Melodious Road off the R25 - to complete the route in the reverse order. I sadly missed out on the 2 specials that I was targetting, Melodious Lark and Dark-capped Yellow Warbler. It was still a good time our, although the area is seriously dry and we need our first rains in Gauteng for this Spring season! Some of the highlights include two Blue Crane at the wetland on the far north section of Melodious Road (2.6km past the T-Junction where the school is); African Rail at the same wetland, Lots of Swallows including Red-chested, Greater Striped, Barn, White-throated and Brown-throated Martin. A Great Crested Grebe was also seen at Crake Dam. A few sightings of Fawn-coloured Lark were special! Hearing the sound of African Snipe doing their diving displays was incredible!

Here is a full list of the 60 odd birds that I saw on the trip: African Grey Hornbill; African Pipit; African Rail; African Snipe; African Stonechat; African Wattled Lapwing; Ant-eating Chat; Barn Swallow; Black-chested Prinia; Black-headed Heron; Black-shouldered Kite; Blacksmith Lapwing; Blue Crane; Brown-throated Martin; Cape Crow; Cape Longclaw; Cape Robin-Chat; Cape Turtle Dove; Cape Wagtail; Capped Wheatear; Cattle Egret; Common Fiscal; Common Moorhen; Common Waxbill; Crowned Lapwing; Fawn-coloured Lark; Fiscal Flycatcher; Fork-tailed Drongo; Glossy Ibis; Great Crested Grebe; Greater-striped Swallow; Groundscraper Thrush; Hadeda Ibis; Laughing Dove; Lesser Swamp Warbler; Levaillant's Cisticola; Little Grebe; Long-tailed Widowbird; Malachite Kingfisher; Pied Crow; Pied Starling; Plain-backed Pipit; Purple Heron; Rattling Cisticola; Red-chested Swallow; Red-knobbed Coot; Red-winged Starling; Reed Cormorant; Rufous-naped Lark; Secretarybird; Southern Grey-headed Sparrow; Southern Masked Weaver; Southern Red Bishop; Speckled Pigeon; Spur-winged Goose; White-throated Swallow; White-winged Widowbird; Yellow-billed Duck; Yellow-billed Egret and Zitting Cisticola.

Here is a selection of photos that I took on the trip:

Trip 3: October 2011
On Monday the 10th October after birding the Wilge River Valley I tried my luck again driving Melodious Road hoping to find and photograph Melodious Lark. This is seriously becoming my bogey bird as once again I came away empty handed. Fortunately there were many other photographic highlights along the way and the outing was certainly not a waste of time. I started at the wetland near the start of the road and managed to photograph a few warblers (sadly I also looked in vain for Dark-capped Yellow Warbler - another bogey bird of mine):

I then snapped a Pipit that I believe to be Long-billed rather than African Pipit:

On my way back to the tar road I spent some time in a field trying to get decent shots of Banded Martin flying around me:

A Lark had me interested for a while (but sadly not Melodious):

A close sighting of Zitting Cisticola happened next - this little chap came and perched on the fence not more than 3 meters away from me:

Another Lark that had me stumped (presumably Rufous-naped):

A few other sighting came next:

Then one of the highlights of the day happened as I stopped really close to a pair of Red-chested Swallows and they engaged in some passionate interaction:

My next stop was to bird the Grootspuit Wetland and Dam that I had not visited before - it is point 21 in chapter 54 of Birding Gauteng. Some of the sightings included Yelow-billed Duck, African Grey Hornbill, Purple Heron, Red-knobbed Coot, African Darter, Egyptian Goose, a wader I did not get to identify before it flew off and Reed Cormorant. Here are some scenery shots of the spot: