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Birding around Rustenburg - No 1 |
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Wednesday, 17 March 2010 |
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Birding around Rustenburg No 1
In the two plus years that I was in the Rustenburg area (from2004 to 2006), I was able to do some local birding. The closest places to town are the “Prison Dam” and “Sewerage Works”, both situated on the eastern side of town, off the Northam/ Thabazimbi road.
The Prison Dam and surrounding bush with grasslands have people and
cattle passing through most of the time. There are fishermen around the
small dam and the bird life has become habituated to people and is
therefore easy to see. On my 8 recorded visits of between 1 and 4.hours
I ticked from 29 to 50 species. Most of the common water birds are
present, with White Backed Duck, Fulvous Duck, Purple Swamp Hen
(Gallinule), Black Heron (Egret) normally present. Great Crested Grebes
occur in winter and Orange Breasted Waxbills are sometimes present as
well.
In summer lots of White Winged Widows and Golden Bishops are present,
with, normally, Black Breasted Prinia (as well as Tawny Flanked),
Fiscal Flycatcher, White Fronted Swallow, Chestnut Vented Titbabbler,
Wattled Plover, Black Throated Canary (as well as Yellow Fronted) being
some of the birds not normally seen in the Phalaborwa area.
At the sewerage farm there has been a lot of expansion work going on,
with obvious disturbance and I only visited here twice again. Most of
the common birds occur, as listed at the Prison Dam but because of the
evaporating pans there is a much larger population of waders.
If you are visiting Rustenburg or interested in birding in the North
West area speak to me, and I can give you more details and even
contacts in the Rustenburg Bird Club
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