We visit Marievale bird sanctuary regularly to practice our wild bird photography and expand our knowledge of birds and their behaviour in this wetland sanctuary. The Marievale Bird Sanctuary is located about five kilometres north of Nigel and lies within the Blesbokspruit Ramsar wetland which is internationally recognised.  The Blesbokspruit forms part of one of the tributaries of the Vaal River, which provides water to Gauteng province. 

“If you stay stuck in the past season or fixated on the future season, you will miss the one you’re in.” ~ Maree Dee

The major habitat consists of shallow open water, extensive phragmites and typha reedbeds, and surrounding grassland. During winter the grassland is often burnt which causes the regeneration for the spring. The water level in the shallow open water varies depending on the season, being high in summer and low in winter.

“Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty.” ~ Anne Lamott

An adult Pied Avocet with its pied plumage and ruby bred eye. Given its up curved beak it uses two feeding methods. In clear water, avocets feed by sight by picking prey from the surface of water or mud which they can do very accurately with that sharp posted beak. When the water is murky and when foraging in the sediments, they forage by touch, sweeping the long, upcurved bill from side to side through water or loose sediment to locate hidden prey. The avocet’s primary food is invertebrates, especially crustaceans and worms but in fresh water they also feed on insects found on the water’s surface or within the top layers of the bottom sediments.

An adult Glossy ibis in his breeding plumage. The bronze-brown plumage glistens and the primary and secondary wing feathers are an iridescent green in the sun. Outside the breeding season the adult’s neck and head is flecked with white.

An adult female Ruff in non-breeding plumage of bold mottled brown on the back and wings. The male is much larger. The mud on her beak shows she prefers invertebrates but will feed on seeds as well as small frogs and fish. The Ruff breeds in colder regions of Northern Eurasia and migrates down to, amongst other places, southern Africa for the northern hemisphere winter. 

In adult Purple swamp hen foraging in the mud among the reeds. The mud was exposed because the level of water in the wetlands was low at the end of winter. Its red beak, red frontal shield and red legs are diagnostic as its green back and wing coverts and blue head, neck, chest and belly feathers.

“The colours of winter are browns and yellows illumed by icey blue skies. Many grasslands are blacked by fire, but birds provide colourful jewels in this otherwise subdued winter wetland.” ~ Mike Haworth

The frontal shield appears to relate to protection of the face while feeding in, or moving through, dense sharp vegetation like reeds, as well as courtship display and territorial defence.

An adult female Fiscal shrike perched on a broken reed stem. I never realised that the female had a rufous patch on her flank just below her wings. The male is just black and white.

A juvenile Black-shouldered kite perched in the gum trees near the Duiker hide. The adult has ruby red eyes and its back and primary and secondary wing feathers are a light grey and its neck, chest and belly are white. Its shoulder coverts are black, hence the name.

A Lazy cisticola foraging in the grasses exposed by the lower water levels. Its plain light brown upper parts are its non breeding plumage but in the breeding season its upperparts become more rufous.

A pair of Pied kingfishers watching the water below carefully from their perch on a fallen tree branch. The female looked to be on top with a single breast band and the male at the bottom with two breast bands.

“Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we’ll soon be in trouble.” ~ Roger Tory Peterson

A Marsh sandpiper with white underparts and well defined grey-brown mottling on the upper parts. This sandpiper has yellow-green legs much like a Greenshank but is smaller and has a long thin beak. The length of the beak probably enables it to wade in relatively deep water while foraging.

A Wattled lapwing chick identified by the patchy brown down on its head and upper parts and the early vestiges of its black primary wing feathers. There is no early sign of the black head of a Crowned lapwing.

“What people call serendipity is sometimes just keeping your eyes open. ” ~ Jose Manuel Barroso

An adult Wattled lapwing. Two lapwings have yellow wattles – the White-crowned and Wattled lapwing. The latter has shorter yellow wattles and the white patch is only on the fore crown and it has a red skin immediately above the beak and below the fore crown. The Wattled lapwing also has a yellow eye but its head is brown and its neck is streaked brown and white. 

Being August which is the end of winter in southern Africa, this male Long-tailed widow bird had not yet grown his black breeding plumage and long tail feathers. His red-orange shoulder patch was evident as were his beige primary coverts and his black primary wing feathers had a beige leading edge.

Searching through the burn grassland with green shoots was this Orange-throated long claw, which is a colourful large pipit. It was foraging through the new grass shoots for insects.

“The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind.” ~ Carly Simon

This was the first time I had seen a Capped wheatear at Marievale. This wheatear was also foraging through the burnt grassland.

A Yellow mongoose ventured onto the burnt grassland from its sanctuary at the base of the mine dumps on the western boundary to Marievale. This is an opportunistic carnivore which mainly eats insects including, ants, termites, locusts, and beetles but will also go for baby birds, eggs, frogs, lizards, rodents and snakes and lizards. This species is mainly diurnal.

There were plenty of Grey-headed gulls flying around the wetlands and some nesting on the reed tufts and mud mounds protruding out of the water. This is a striking grey and white gull with a red beak and red eyering surrounding a pale yellow eye.

We did not see many species of duck on this visit but we did see quite a few Cape shovelers with their unique shaped bill and bright yellow eye. 

We always see Stonechats during our wanderings around Marievale. This is a male. The female has a grey-brown head.

We only saw Little grebes this time but occasionally also see the Great-crested grebe. The Little grebe is a very busy paddler which often dives under the water in search of food. This is a juvenile which still has to develop its ochre cheek and neck colours.

The time of the year has a big influence on what and where you see birds in Marievale. There are two reasons, the warmer weather brings the migrants and from December to April the water level rises with the summer rains.

When the weather has warmed somewhat in late August and September, the water levels are low enough for the sandpipers, stints, snipe, rails and egrets to forage in the muddy water’s edge. When the water level deepens the ducks, teals, cormorants, darters and flamingo numbers increase.

It is fun to visit the bird sanctuary with no expectations and then be amazed at the variety of birds you can see. More often than not you see a bird you have never seen at Marievale before or it is doing something that gives you a much deeper insight into the nature of the species.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

“Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?” ~ David Attenborough

Have fun, Mike