Marievale Bird Sanctuary—2014-12-21

I finally got to visit the Marievale Bird Sanctuary (MBS) which is an Important Bird Area (IBA SA021). I heard about the place earlier this year when my wife—who is a teacher of grade 4 to 6—taught her pupils about it. In one of the subjects she teaches, the lesson was on the Blesbokspruit RAMSAR site. MBS lies in the southern half of this RAMSAR site.

Ramsar sites—of which there are 20 currently in South Africa—are wetlands of international importance and are classified according to certain important criteria:

• their conservation of biodiversity
• support of endangered species
• support of plant or animal species during critical stages in their life-cycle
• provision of a food source, nursery and spawning ground for fish.

BirdLife South Africa has recorded at least 286 species, 78 of which are waterbirds in the Blesbokspruit wetlands.

With the December holidays coming up I decided to plan to pay MBS a visit. With all the rain we’ve been having that didn’t happen until 21 December 2014 (this past weekend). I invited my wife to join me, and to my joy, she accepted. I usually don’t take the family on photo shoots with me, since they could become long extended times of sitting in a spot waiting. This tests patience severely.

We woke up at 05:30 and left home in Pretoria between 06:30 and 06:45. I had to first feed the animals, before we left. The distance is about 95Km (59mi). The road is fairly fine up until just before Delmas where it starts deteriorating. From there to MBS there are potholes every now and again on the road. It is really not that bad that you should rather take another route. The driver must just not be a sleepy head!

What was annoying, though (and I use annoying as a euphemism here), is that there was no road sign to indicate where the turn off was towards MBS (R42 Nigel). So, I ended up driving about 15Km past Delmas when I decided to turn back. I was sure that the R42 wasn’t that far after Delmas. From the Leandra side there was a sign indicating R42 Nigel.

We eventually arrived at MBS at around 08:00! The place is big, especially considering that you do not travel fast inside MBS. The speed limit is 30Km/h. I don’t know whoever reaches that speed! We were there slightly more than four hours, and I think we only covered about half of the place. There are little roads all over the place. There are sections that they close every now and again due to flooding, but this time all roads were accessible. There are bird hides at regular intervals. It is possible to stop the car somewhere and then to walk wherever you want to go, but on a hot and sunny day like Sunday, you could get burnt to a cinder!

The bird hides are well set out and at some of them it is like being in paradise! The water is clear in most places and you can even see the water plants under the water level moving with the movement of the water.

It is free to enter MBS (donations are welcome) and you can even plan to overnight there. They have chalets for R60-00 per person per night. This would be ideal! You could get up and be out among the birds, water and reeds as early as you want. You could also then be there till fairly late.

I have been told by other visitors to MBS that it may not be a good idea to go there during the week if you plan to go alone. There have been a few incidents of robberies in the past, and I stress FEW! During the weekends there are usually more people around, and would then be considered safe.

I hope that whoever reads this blog post, and has the means, would visit MBS! I am planning to go back! Directions from Pretoria East can be found here.

Here are some photographs I took while there:

Rietvlei Nature Reserve–2014-12-20

This morning I was up at 05:30 in order that I could get ready, feed the animals, and then to leave for the Rietvlei Nature Reserve, which is only 7Km (4.35mi) from my house! Having arrived at the reserve, I started doing what photographers do at reserves…, take photographs! Having taken about 25 photographs, I realised that the battery of my camera was dying. So, I did what any photographer would do at this point. Open the equipment bag and get out the second battery. It was at this point that I realised that my second battery wasn’t charged! How it came to this point I do not know. I have been very good at keeping a charged backup battery! All I can think of is that somehow at some previous shoot, I use the backup battery and forgot that I did. Then when I got home I only charged the battery that was in the camera, thinking that it was the only battery I used.  Here are a few of the photographs I shot.

Yellow-billed Duck

 

Zebra

 

Little Egret

 

Blesbuck calves

 

Springbuck

 

Created with flickr slideshow.

Austin Roberts Memorial Bird Sanctuary–2014-12-19

I visited the Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary yesterday morning. The birds were unusually quiet, but I had time on hand, so I could sit and wait. Here are some photos I shot.

Pied Kingfisher

 

Black Heron

 

Little Bittern

 

Thick-billed Weaver

 

Created with flickr slideshow.

Cat dragged in a Crested Barbet

Yesterday, my daughter came screaming into the study where I was. “There’s a bird in the spare room!” she exclaimed! I thought that the cat had dragged a bird into the house and she wanted me to take the bird out and throw the carcass away. Women are like that!

However, when I walked into the room, the bird was still alive, flying all around the room, trying to stay away from the cat. I picked up the cat and put it outside the room and closed the door. I didn’t want the bird to start flying throughout the house, because it would take so much longer to catch it and then to release it outside. I opened one of the windows as wide as it could go, and grabbed a towel to throw over the bird and then to take it outside. I didn’t just want to grab the bird, since that would probably hurt it. It was sitting on top of the curtain rail at the far end to the open window. Since, from that vantage point, it could not see the open window, I walked towards the bird and it flew to the opposite side of the room. This gave it a straight view of the window.

At this point I changed my tactics. I knew that if only I could make it realize that the window was his opportunity to escape, he’d fly towards it. So, to make sure that it didn’t just fly over my head towards the same old spot on the curtain rail, I opened the towel and held it above my head. When I got close to the bird, I gave him only one direction to fly…, towards the window. It worked! He flew towards the window and landed on one of the crossbars. He was still facing into the room. I thought that by now he would’ve flown straight out. I kept the towel up and walked towards the bird. For a moment he kept flying into the open end of the window, but as I got too close it forced him to change direction and he was free!

We’ve seen this bird in our backyard before.

This morning, this same bird woke me up. He was sitting in the tree outside our bedroom making a type of rapid “tok, tok, tok” sound. He made the same noise yesterday while he was stuck in the room. I opened the curtain and tried to spot him in the tree, but the foliage on the tree is too thick to easily see the bird. I went outside and approached the tree. Two large hadedas took off from the tree with their familiar loud penetrating calls. With that, every bird in the tree took off. I walked closer, and over the wall, on the neighbour’s TV antenna, I could see the Crested Barbet. I knocked on our bedroom window—luckily my wife was also awake—and asked my wife to pass me my camera. I was happy to get a couple shots of this pretty bird.

The weather, of course, did not play along, and so the angle that I had to take the photo from, ensured that there was a  pale, white, cloudy background, usually not conducive to good photographs. Thinking back now, I should’ve paid more attention to my camera settings. The ISO should probably have been either 200 or 400, instead of the 800 that the camera was set to. But, I had just woken up with a mean headache and neck ache (I have problems with my back). Maybe next time I will make sure the settings are better!

 

Crested Barbet

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/800
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	500mm

Crested Barbet

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/800
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	500mm

Crested Barbet NOTE: You will notice that this pic and the one above it are really the same pic. I simply added a blue background to let the colours of the bird stand out a bit more, and to get rid of that white cloudy background.

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/800
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	500mm

Problems with and solution for Roberts Multimedia Birds of Southern Africa Android app

I purchased the “Roberts VII Multimedia Birds of Southern Africa” Android app last night. After I downloaded and installed the app on my phone (Sony  Xperia Z1 Compact, Android 4.4.4), the app then had to download the data pack (882Mb) and extract it.

However, I encountered problems once the app prompted me to choose where I wanted to extract it. There were two options: (1) Internal storage of the phone; and, (2) SD Card. I opted for (2) SD Card. Each time I selected it, the app would inform me that it could not locate the SD card. I tried this three times.

To satisfy myself, I used a file manager to actually browse to the SD card, just to make sure that it was accessible. It was!

Then, when I realized that the app simply couldn’t extract the data to the SD card, I relented and selected the phone’s internal storage. By this time I had tired out the app and it crashed without any fanfare. After this, the app would run, but it had no data files and so it was in effect unusable.

This was very annoying, and in my opinion, unacceptable! So, I wrote an email to the support of the app developer at support@gibbonmm.com this  morning. Being the time of the year that it is, I did not expect any response soon, so I decided to come up with a solution of my own.

When the app starts up and there are no data files, it asks whether to download the files or where the data had been extracted. This made me think! I know, it hurts sometimes! I realized that on my phone it created a folder named “sa_birding.” I also started wondering where it downloaded the data (.obb file) file to. I eventually discovered its location at /storage/emulated/0/Android/obb/za.co.sabirding. The file’s name is main.10.za.co.sabirding.obb. I used the Total Commander Android app to view the contents of the OBB file. From this I noticed that the original failed attempt by the Roberts app to extract the data, created the same file structure at /storage/emulated/0/sa_birding as that which I found inside the OBB file. So, once again I used Total Commander to extract the OBB file to /storage/emulated/0/sa_birding, and, voila!, the app came to life!

You are allowed to load the app and its data on 2 devices connected to your Google Play account, so in order to confirm the correctness of my solution, I went through the same steps on my Google Nexus 7 tablet, and it worked just fine there too.

So, since the app started working properly, I have been playing with it and enjoyed having fun with it, especially listening to the different calls and songs of the many different birds.

I suppose the final test of the worth of this app will be when I use it in the field where I encounter all kinds of birds.

After the failed extraction, I rated the app 2/5 on the Google Play store. I think it would be good to increase that rating now to at least 3/5. Once I’ve used it in the field, I could revisit the rating.

UPDATE:
23 December 2014 -I have now been using this app quite a lot, especially to identify birds. I think the app is well thought out and overall it is easy to use. It is definitely well worth having. One thing that may still have to be redesigned would be the "Identification" button on the first window. I find that somehow getting all the options right to identify a bird is somewhat cumbersome, and sometimes after I have selected all the options to identify a bird, the app comes back with zero hits. But, all nin all I think it is a great app, and I have re-rated the app and given it 4/5!

Rietvlei Nature Reserve–2014-11-22

Back in April, for the first time in my life, also at Rietvlei, I saw the European Bee Eater. I immediately fell in love with this beautiful bird. At the time, I only had a 55-300mm lens, and the birds were fairly far away from where I was, and unfortunately, I couldn’t get closer. I took a couple of photographs, and that was it! By the end of April these migratory birds had left, and at the time there was no chance to see them again. Then, one day (I think it was somewhere in October), while I was outside in my garden, making sure the swimming pool was in good order, I suddenly heard this sound that I knew so well. Prrrrt, prrrt, prrrt! I looked up, and there I saw a whole flock of these Bee Eaters flying right over our house. They were coming in from the north, on their way to Rietvlei.

That very Saturday, after this event, I took my camera and the Sigma 150-500 lens that I had bought in the meantime, and headed for the reserve. I couldn’t find the birds. It took me a couple of visits before I eventually saw them on 22 Nov 2014. I was very happy. When I saw them, I was actually heading out, since it threatened to rain and some drops had already started to fall. For a short while the threat subsided and I could sit in the car just watching them and waiting for an opportunity to photograph them. I was very happy.

Anyway, here are some pictures of them, and some other creatures that I photographed.

European Bee Eater

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/9
Shutter:	1/1250
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Zebra Foal

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/5.6
Shutter:	1/1600
ISO:	400
Focal Length:	150mm (35mm Eq = 225mm)

Blesbuck family

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/4000
ISO:	400
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Whiskered Tern

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/3200
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

 

More pictures can be found in the slideshow below. There are more photographs of the European Bee Eater, a Pied Starling, and African Darter, a White Throated Swallow, more Zebras, etc.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Moreleta Kloof Nature Reserve - 2014-11-16

This time, when I visited the Moreleta Kloof Nature Reserve on 16 Nov 2014, I was lucky to take a photograph of a Greater Striped Swallow, which is a really pretty bird.

Greater Striped Swallow

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/9
Shutter:	1/640
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Blood lily

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/500
ISO:	400
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Hiding Impala

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/1000
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	360mm (35mm Eq = 540mm)

What bird am I?

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/1000
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Yellow Masked Weaver

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/1000
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Yellow Masked Weaver

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/1000
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Yellow Masked Weaver

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/1000
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Ostrich with her chicks

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/9
Shutter:	1/800
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	210mm (35mm Eq = 315mm)

Rietvlei Nature Reserve–2014-11-09

After the weather was really gloomy the previous day, I decided to visit one of my favourite places in the Pretoria area, Rietvlei Nature Reserve. There are all kinds of wildlife in the reserve, and at R45 per adult for entry to the reserve, it is well worth the visit. Here are some photos from my visit on that day.

Meerkat

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/2500
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Red Bishop

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/7.1
Shutter:	1/2500
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Red Bishop

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/7.1
Shutter:	1/4000
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Donkey with pyjamas on… er, a Zebra!

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/4000
ISO:	800
Focal Length:	400mm (35mm Eq = 600mm)

Nature meets progress!

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/2000
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	200mm (35mm Eq = 300mm)

Meerkat

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/1000
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	250mm (35mm Eq = 375mm)

Lesser Swamp Warbler

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sigma DG 150-500mm 5-6.3 APO HSM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/6.3
Shutter:	1/1250
ISO:	200
Focal Length:	500mm (35mm Eq = 750mm)

Menlyn Corporate Park–2014-11-08

It was quite a gloomy day when I took these pictures of the Santam building at Menlyn Corporate Park, situated at 25° 47.374'S 28° 16.706'E, c/o Garsfontein and Corobay, Menlyn, Pretoria.

I was hoping that the early morning would get better for photographing architecture, but as it turns out, the weather remained as is, with a few peeps from the sun every now and again. Here are a bunch of shots of the building!

 

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/4
Shutter:	1/800
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	22mm (35mm Eq = 33mm)

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/4
Shutter:	1/500
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	22mm (35mm Eq = 33mm)

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/4
Shutter:	1/800
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	24mm (35mm Eq = 36mm)

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/4
Shutter:	1/1250
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	30mm (35mm Eq = 45mm)

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/4.5
Shutter:	1/1250
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	30mm (35mm Eq = 45mm)

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/4
Shutter:	1/640
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	26mm (35mm Eq = 39mm)

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/5
Shutter:	1/1000
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	40mm (35mm Eq = 60mm)

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/5
Shutter:	1/1000
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	40mm (35mm Eq = 60mm)

Hardware
Camera:	Sony SLT-A37
Lens:	Sony SAL1855 3.5-5.6/18-55mm SAM
Photo Settings
Aperture:	f/5.6
Shutter:	1/250
ISO:	100
Focal Length:	45mm (35mm Eq = 67mm)