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BIRDING AT WILLEM APPEL SE DAM, STANFORD

Posted on the 28th February 2017

I visited Willem Appel se Dam in Stanford twice last weekend, after dropping my husband at a cycle race, I took a leisurely ride back towards Stanford. On my way a had good sighting of our newest Overberg Celebrity, an European Roller and lots of Steppe Buzzards out at first light: “the early bird catches the ……. Biggest mouse”!

Just before Stanford, I had a nice sighting of two Black Sparrowhawks.

African Purple Swamphen

Red-knobbed Coot

Black Crakes

My visit to the Willem Appel se Dam was to specifically concentrate on some bird photography. I arrived at the dam to meet up with BLO friend Richard Masson, a very accomplished photographer. We had so much fun with lenses being either too long or tooo short, especially when an African Purple Swamphen decides to walk pass right in front of the hide. Thank goodness for cell phones. Other lovely species seen included White-backed Duck, Black Crake, Little Bittern, African Goshawk, Pied Kingfisher and White-faced Duck, together with the screams of a juvenile African Harrier-Hawk that spooked some of the smaller species. Lovely chats, coffee and rusks out in nature.