Johannesburg stopover : Rietvlei (Pronounced as Reet : fly) Nature Reserve
When: December 2019 Weather: Cool 20C
Nikon P900. Leica M10P 35mm summilux
Our route from Sao Paulo back to Singapore took us via a 6.5 hour layover in Johannesburg and having done it the year before on a similar routing, I once again engaged Bustards Birding to pick us up from Oliver Tambo airport and take us birding for a few hours before returning to catch our connecting flight. This time they suggested going to Rietvlei Nature Reserve, midway between Joburg and Pretoria and most importantly against the morning traffic so we wouldn’t get snagged by traffic.
Our young guide Jordan was inside the terminal waiting for us and he promptly brought us to his car and away from the airport on the highway towards Pretoria and Rietvlei. A most knowledgeable young man, Jordan gave us lots of info about what we might see and what the area was about….
Just 30min from ORT airport, we arrived here just around 830am after landing at 730am…
the terrain was rolling with a big lake in the middle
A handsome red bishop was the first bird we saw…
Male red bishop
Southern masked weaver
Southern masked weaver
African wattled lapwing
African wattled lapwing
African wattled lapwing
Female southern masked weaver
Female southern masked weaver
Southern Fiscal or Fiscal Shrikes were easily seen
Fiscal shrike
there were some waterbodies…weaver nests seen here
and the rather pretty African quailfinch
Helmeted guinea fowl were everywhere and the morning sun showed off its colours
Zitting Cisticola
Levaillant’s Cisticola with it’s orange brown cap
African Pipit
and arguably the prettiest bird of the outing was the European bee-eater
Beautifully coloured European Bee Eater…there were quite a lot of them around
Cape white eye
Rufous naped Lark
Male African stone chat
African Stone chat
Egyptian Geese
Yellow billed ducks
Female stone chat
African Snipe
And one of the more spectacular bird species here…the long tailed widowbird
Majestic in flight with its tail feathers lowered into a keel
it perched among the grasses
it flew over the grasses
I didn’t know widowbirds could fluff up their facial feathers like this
Long tailed widowbird
We then spotted a pin-tailed whydah
pin-tailed whydah
And then one of the birds I had been hoping to see …the northern black Bustard
Northern black bustard calling
Here the bustard also admiring the flight of the widowbird
African grey hornbill
African grey hornbill
and then another beauty…
A black collared barbet
With a pretty drab body and wings, the head feathers explode in a spectacular contrasting display…the black collared barbet….fascinating how different and yet similar it is to the black girdled barbet I had just shot in the Amazon a few days earlier…see earlier post…
Beautiful Greater Striped swallows
Ostrich
Crowned lapwing
Crowned lapwing with infant in tow
The blessed buck also had its young in tow
One of the hides where we spotted the barbet, whydah and even cape buffalo…
a single white rhino
Springbok
Wildebeest
quite a few zebra were grazing
A hartebeest
sacred ibis
and just before we left this beauty showed…the orange throated longclaw!
So in about 3 hours, we managed to see all the above….lots of deer/antelope…2 of Africa’s big 5 and a wonderful assortment of South African birds. If you ever have a 6 hour layover in Joburg, this is a great way to spend it! Highly recommended.
The Natural Traveller 