Friday, January 2, 2015

1st Photos of 2015–Rietvlei Nature Reserve–New Year’s Day

Well, who would’ve thought that I’d start this year with photographs from Rietvlei Nature Reserve (RNR)? To tell you the truth, I hoped that the opportunity would come up, and it did! Initially I wasn’t going to be in a position to go do a photoshoot. The day started off a little gloomy and the plan was to go visit my mom for New Year’s Day at the Alzheimer’s home where she is being cared for. We packed a picnic and arrived there at midday. We had a lovely time, but because we were up on New Year’s Eve through to 01:30 on New Year’s Day (NYD), we were somewhat tired.

Originally, we were going to have an evening braai (barbecue) at our home when we got back from visiting my mom, but on the way home my wife said that she was too tired to bother with the braai and that she was going to have a nap when we got home. Did you hear that? That was opportunity knocking and I grabbed it with both hands. Even though I was awake before everyone on NYD, I just couldn’t let this opportunity go! Sure I was also tired, but “hey!,” I had an opportunity to go hang at RNR for a couple of hours. So, I spent more than two and a half hours there from 16:00 to around 18:40.

I didn’t get to see or photograph a lot of birds or animals, but I enjoyed it nonetheless! So, without further delay here they are…

D20150101T163212_WGD_S

European Bee-eater

 

Rietvlei Nature Reserve

Pied Starling

 

Rietvlei Nature Reserve

Unknown bird – Any ideas?

 

Rietvlei Nature Reserve

African Wattled Lapwing

 

Rietvlei Nature Reserve

Zebra shaking its head

 

Rietvlei Nature Reserve

Diederik Cuckoo

 


Created with flickr slideshow.

2 comments:

Ansa said...

William
It is a great place to visit if you get a chance! We also found it a bit quiet species-wise when we visited just before New Year, only managed about 50 bird species. Your unidentified bird is a fiscal shrike. Also, your greenbul is actually a Cape White Eye. Greenbuls are more bulbul-sized and can be quite secretive. We usually track them down by following their call.

William Dicks said...

Ansa,

Thanks for the bird IDs. I recently, at my mom's Alzheimer's home, saw many of the Cape White Eyes (CWE). Somehow I ID'd them easily.

BTW, I tried to find the CWE you mentioned in the current album and I was thinking, "I don't have such a bird in the album!" But then I looked back at earlier albums and found it.