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.
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African Purple Swamphen |
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Red-knobbed Coot |
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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.
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White-backed Duck |
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Richard Masson |
On the second morning I arrived a bit earlier, with quite a breeze blowing, but I still had a fabulous morning!
My BirdLasser confirmed 39 species for the two hours I was there on the Sunday morning.
It is a wonderful bird hide, come on go and enjoy !
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Pied Kingfisher with prey |
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And again |

Text & images by Carin Malan of BirdLife Overberg
COMMENTS
2321Baie mooi foto's Carin.
Het lanklaas iets gesien van Richard ?