Helen and I visited Marievale Bird Sanctuary in late August last year. This wetland is a RAMSAR site and is therefore judged to be of International importance because of its uniqueness and biodiversity. The water levels in the wetland have a strong influence on what birds you are likely to see. The time of year also dictates whether you will see migrants or not. Being the end of Southern African winter only the very early migrants were seen. In the southern African winter many of the grassland birds lose their colourful breeding plumage and the grass and reeds in the wetland turn to yellows and browns.

“The changing of the seasons marks our journey through life, embracing and learning from each experience.” ~ Anonymous

We have seen many Purple swamphens during our wanderings around Marievale Bird Sanctuary. This is a big bird around 43cm in height, the size of a chicken. When the sun is out it shows a spectacular purple, green and blue colouration. It has a bronze green back and wing coverts. Its underparts and head are a royal blue. The throat and ear coverts are a light blue and it has a red beak and frontal shield. Its legs are red and and it has white undertail which it flicks up and down as it walks along the bank of a waterway.

This species of swamphen is an omnivore and feeds mostly on soft shoots of reeds and rushes and small animals, such as frogs and snails. It is also known to feed on eggs and other bird’s chicks. The Purple swamphen is often heard and tends to hide in the reeds along the bank. It is not often seen out in the open, much like a Black crake.

A Black-winged stilt is wader recognised by its very long pink legs, black back and wings and white underparts, neck and head. It has an untidy black crown and a long thin beak, red eye which is black when immature. Marievale is ideal for this wader as it prefers marshes and wetlands. With its long thin beak it picks edibles such as insects and crustaceans from the sand and surface of the water.

A pair of Avocets. These waders are easily identified by their upcurved black beak, black and white colouration and ruby red eyes. Their head nape and back is black as are their upperparts. The primary feathers on the wings are black as are the coverts with the greater coverts mainly white forming a white shoulder patch. They have long blue-grey legs suited to wading in shallow water.

The Pied Avocet feeds by swishing its beak back and forth in the shallow water to catch insects, worms and crustaceans. Their short rounded wings are suited to short quick flights. Pied avocets have been a great conservation success story globally and especially in the UK.

A Hottentot teal foraging as it is swimming in the shallow waters of the Marievale waterways. This is a small dabbling duck with a black head and nape and buff-colored cheeks and throat. Its bill is an unusual blue colour with a black stripe on the upper mandible. Its back is blackish-brown edged with buff, the breast is brown spotted with black, and the belly is mottled buff. As with all teals, its has a green wing speculum, a distinctly coloured patch on the secondary wing feathers.

A female ruff in non-breeding plumage foraging for insects, worms and crustaceans in the mud. This migrant must have been one of the early arrivals. Ruffs undertake the longest migration of any terrestrial bird, as they first leave their Siberian breeding colonies in July before heading west to the Black and Caspian Seas, then on down south to southern Africa, a journey of approximately 16 000km.

A lone Kittlitz plover foraging for insects in the mud among the dead reed stems. There is a difference between plovers and lapwings. Plovers are much smaller than lapwings and the latter has broad, rounded wings. Lapwings also have long legs and carpal spurs on their wings.

This Little stint is a tiny wader and was seen foraging along the water edge. This migrant was also an early arrival. It breeds in arctic Europe and Asia and migrates down to South Africa in the late winter, early spring.

A pair of Red-billed teal sunning themselves and preening on a small island in one of the large open waterways in Marievale.

A pair of Red-billed teal and Yellow-billed ducks flushed by our approach. Interestingly, the popularity of Marievale with birders has not had much effect habituating these waterfowl to humans. The duck species are still wary of humans.

“Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.” ~ John Lennon

A male Long-tailed widowbird in non breeding plumage. Non-breeding males lose their long tails and become streaky and brown but keep the distinctive wing pattern.

A Cape wagtail singing to its heart’s content from a fallen tree trunk mostly submerged in the water. This a long-tailed insect eater with a brownish back, pale underparts, and a black chest band. White outer tail rectrices are conspicuous in flight. Found in most open habitats, especially those near water. Like all wagtails it has a distinctive way of walking, bobbing its tail constantly.

“A heart without dreams is like a bird without feathers.” ~ Suzy Kassem

A male Stonechat singing away from its dead tree stump perch. Stonechats are abundant in Marievale.

A White-throated swallow. Like most swallows it has a blue back, nape and crown. Its forehead is a chestnut brown. Its throat is white and it has a blue horizontal breast band. Its belly, undertail coverts are white. It also has two long thin tail streamers which are characteristic of this species.

A Black crake out in the open but surprised by a noise on the other side of the stream. It immediately dashed for the cover of the reeds next to the stream. This species of crake is secretive and is usually only seen sulking on the edge of a reed bed. This is a small black wader with a vivid yellow beak, red eyes and pink legs. This species prefers freshwater marshes.

An African snipe. This is a stocky short legged, long billed wader. It has cryptically coloured plumage which provides effective camouflage making it difficult to see amongst the vegetation at the edge of the waterway.

This species of snipe is active at night, especially in moonlight. It uses its long beak to probe the mud for invertebrate organisms, especially earthworms. These were collected while the bird walks on soft mud and sandy edges of streams and in short grasslands.

We never got to see these African snipe winnowing with its associated unusual flight pattern and sound. We did see another of this snipe’s unique features which was the bending of the ends of its long beak. This snipe eats with its bill closed. It has a long, sensitive, flexible beak used to probe loose soil and mud for food. Without removing its bill from the mud, the snipe flexes the tip of its upper mandible like a pincer to grab and consume food. Serrations on the bill and spikes on the tongue help it to move food from the bill-tip to the throat

A Red-knobbed coot chasing another coot away from where it was feeding on submerged plant matter. This species of coot is a charcoal black waterbird with a white frontal shield, white beak, red eyes and two red knobs on its forehead. It has yellow legs and webbed feet. The red-knobs are only evident in the breeding season. This is a highly territorial species and can often be seen bullying larger birds by running across the water at them with open wings.

We were lucky enough to see several large flocks of flamingos. The flock in the next image was of Lesser flamingos.

“No human ever lived in a birdless world.” ~ Richard Smyth

An adult Lesser flamingo in flight with its legs and neck extended for longitudinal balance. This species is smaller than the Greater flamingo but has the same slender build. It has a dark pink beak and pink legs. The wings are narrow and the primary and secondary flight feathers are black, and their wing coverts are red. Their eyes are orange to yellow, surrounded by a ring of maroon.

The Lesser flamingo feeds on various types of algae. When feeding it submerges its head in the water with its beak upside down and uses its legs to stir up the water to release the algae and other organisms, which are filtered through the beak. The Lesser flamingo has an upper mandible which is triangular in cross-section, and narrower than the lower mandible, so acts like a lid for the lower mandible. Both the upper and lower mandibles contain two rows of a bristled, comb-like or hair-like structure called lamellae. When the mandibles come together, the lamellae of the upper and lower mandibles mesh forming a filter. The flamingo’s large, fleshy tongue is covered with bristle-like projections which help filter water and food particles through the lamellae.

A Lesser flamingo coming into land. Flamingos are strong fliers capable of both short-distance and long-haul flights, often traveling in V-shaped formations for energy conservation and safety during migrations. All species of flamingos demonstrate remarkable takeoff and landing skills, using water surfaces to gain momentum for takeoff, and gracefully touching down with their webbed feet acting as natural landing gear. At a point they appear to skip along the surface of the water.

A Marsh harrier quartering the grasslands and edge of the reed beds for prey. Quartering is slow flight over open areas in search of prey. When prey is spotted the raptor will often hover for a short while to pinpoint the prey’s location before diving down to grab it.

“Wild beasts and birds are by right not the property merely of the people today, but the property of the unborn generations, whose belongings we have no right to squander.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

An African rail. This is a mid-sized rail. Its back and nape are brown and its head and chest are grey. Its belly, flanks and undertail have a barred pattern of black and white. It has a long red beak and red legs. Both male and female have similar colouring.

Like most rails this species is secretive though less so than other rail species. It prefers reedbeds and dense vegetation along the edges of wetlands in which to feed and bred. It feeds by probing the mud and shallow waters along the bank with its long red beak. It eats insects, earthworms, spiders, small frogs, small fish and soft plant matter such as seeds.

You never know what you are going to see when wandering around Marievale Bird Sanctuary. There are the perennials like stonehats, moorhens and coots but what you see and where you see it is dependent on the level of water in the wetland and its open waterways. If you are lucky you may even see a spotted-necked otter, water mongoose or a yellow mongoose and a variety of interesting birds.

“Not just symbolic representations, birds bring forth a myriad of life lessons, inspirations, and vibrant imagery that imprint themselves on our creative and philosophical landscapes.”~ Isabella Sedano

Marievale is a wonderful place to reinforce your bird identification skills and keep photographically fit.

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

Have fun, Mike