Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Feathered Nest - Magaliseberg

Blogging has been a bit slow with the arrival of a baby, however I did manage to sneak off for a few hours birding early one morning when we had a "weekend away" at the Feathered Nest in Magaliseberg (about an hour west of my home in Johannesburg) in June. This is a fantastic spot for observing raptors, like this black sparrowhawk i spotted:


I also followed a group of African Harrier Hawks for a while, these birds are much less skittish than sparrowhawks and let you get quite close:


In two hours of birding i managed to get nice sitings of black and little sparrowhawks, a garbar goshawk, african goshawk, african harrier hawks and many other birds - I also had a most frustrating birding\photography moment. I was trying to get closer to the little sparrowhawks (a notoriously skittish species) but the bird kept eluding me. As I approached a large bush I was using for cover I flushed a hoepoe, suddenly a little sparrowhawk shot out of a tall tree i had just walked past and seized the hoepoe in flight ... while I fumbled with my focus/camera settings missing the shot. Fantastic to see, but i would have really liked to get the aciton on film - oh well - maybe next time!

All in all I really enjoyed the stay. The Feathered Nest also has an Owl sanctuary - while its sad to see these magnificent birds injured and maimed, at least they are well cared for. They had barn, marsh, white faced and spotted eagle owls in care.
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2 comments:

  1. Kai YingJuly 22, 2011 at 1:36 AM

    Hi,

    A team of researchers here in Singapore is currently working on the cities biodiversity index (More information: http://www.cbd.int/authorities/gettinginvolved/cbi.shtml). Of which, birds are part of this critical list to create the index. I came across your old entry on the garden bird list. As we are trying to focus on within the city area, I like to enquire if you have records of bird sightings within the most urbanized area of the Johannesburg city. By 'most urbanized area', we mean areas where you can find only buildings and roads. It would be of great help if you could provide us with the data or anyone who can help us with this data collection I could not find your email, hence I am leaving a comment on your blog.

    I look forward to your reply and Thank you for your time!



    Regards,
    (Ms) Goh Kai Ying,
    kaiying.goh@gmail.com
    on behalf of the City Biodiversity Index Research Team
    National Parks Board of Singapore

    Privileged/Confidential information may be contained in this message. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not copy, distribute or use it for any purpose, nor disclose its contents to any other person. Please notify the sender immediately if you received this in error. Check out our website at http://www.nparks.gov.sg

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  2. FirephishJuly 23, 2011 at 12:19 PM

    Hi Kai Ying,

    Thanks for stopping by. My blog is primarily of the species found in my garden - which is representative of suburban johannesburg. I do however work in the Johannesburg CBD so do have some insight into the birdlife. In the city itself birdlife is somewhat limited, mainly consisting of feral pigeons and housesparrows etc. Some other birds such as hadeda ibis and grey go-away birds are also colonising the CBD. Raptors like Lanner and Peregrine Falcons are also fairly regularly sighted (attrached by the large Pigeon populations). It is also possible to find Little Sparrowhawks in Braamfontien, a stones throw from the CBD. Obviously the further you move from the CBD itself the more diversity there is. But it is possible to find large raptors like the Verraux Eagle nesting within sight of the CBD. If you want more specific information of South African urban birds it would be good to post a request on the Simply Birding Forum - www.simplybirding.com/forum

    Good Luck with you study.
    m

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