Return to Marievale

The sound of the alarm pierced the silence of the morning... it was 3.45am and time to rise. I hadn't been back to Marievale since the incident and I had decided that today was the day. With an hours drive ahead of me I left in time to make the sunrise. I always enter from the "rear" end of the reserve past the crusher plant and to my surprise their was a new boom across the entrance..... but wait, the road just about went around the boom so I merely had to drive around the sentry house to gain entry. Fat lot of use and so much for the heightened security that I had been informed had been implemented as a result of the incident!

The sun rising over the pans as you enter the reserve

I headed for Hadeda hide with a little apprehension and hoping that there was another photographer there already. Much to my relief there was a car parked behind the hide so all was good. The pan was awash with the early morning golden light which was almost over saturating the scene that lay in front me but oh boy, how sweet is that light. The pan was quite busy with the normal waterfowl but this wasn't why I was here. I had what a friend in Cape Town called Malechititis - withdrawal symptoms from not seeing a Malachite Kingfisher in a while!

It was not long before a juvenile appeared, albeit it for not longer than 10 seconds. I managed one shot in the subdued light as it flew off.

The little Reed Warblers were ever so busy dashing in and out the reeds, never sitting long for longer than a second or two. A real challenge in the low light so very high ISO's were once again the order of the day.

Whilst the activity was high, I have thousands of images of the normal waterfowl so I declined from shooting these. The water level is low at the moment and the left hand side of the hide has been cleared of reeds so we had many birds doing their morning stuff. This little Sandpiper was happily running around, pausing every now and again to dig for his grub and just asking to be photographed :)

I was also quite happy to see the Lapwings with their babies running up and down. I hadn't seen the youngsters in quite a while and of course they were begging for a a shot.

I by chance glanced around and low and behold, the Malachite had returned and not only returned, he had already caught his breakfast!

There he sat, breakfast in his mouth

He has to tenderize the meal so that it goes down easier, so he smashes it on the right of the branch....

Swinging it with all his might..

and then smashing it on the left hand side..

Suitably tenderized and ready to go down..

One satisfied diner... and off he went..

A lone Whiskered Tern had arrived and was getting comfortable

The Hottentots Teal's were playing follow the leader

and the Cape Shovellor was stretching it's wings

A fly past by the Flamingo

A lone Swallow had been gathering nesting material and dived in and out the hide to build it's nest.

A Cormorant suddenly appeared out of the water... I don't know who was more surprised, me or him.

By this time the clouds had come over and the activity subdued. I decided to leave Hadeda and go over to Duiker hide. The wind was now blowing at quite a speed and was almost unpleasant. Much to my surprise, between the ripples in the water, a Crested Grebe suddenly appeared.

 I sat for a while longer and a Darter suddenly appeared and jumped onto the perch in front of the hide. He started preening himself and was almost too close for the 500mm.

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I left the hide and headed further down the road that borders the Blesbokspruit. I came across some Flamingos siphoning the water for their breakfast and a pair of Avocets crossing the stream but I could not sit for long. It's a narrow dirt road and I had a car behind me waiting for me to move. No overtaking is possible so I only managed a shot or two.

I hadn't traveled another 100m down the road when the Glossy Ibis appeared out from between the reeds..

I decided it was time to leave and started making my way to the exit. I stopped to watch some Coots chasing each other and while sitting quietly, the Red Bishop popped onto some twigs right in front of me.

Quick visit to Intaka on a Winter's Afternoon.

I visited Intaka a few times during my last Cape Town trip but was mostly unsuccessful in getting any decent bird images. There is a hell of a lot of construction going on around the Island as well as it being winter so my perception is that the bird life is much reduced than on my previous visits. Even the normally abundant Ibis' which are normally like mossies are a lot fewer in numbers. 

The last day of my trip saw me doing some landscape photography and I finished a tad earlier than anticipated and also reasonably close to Intaka. I had the 500mm in the car so thought why not? I had 2 hours to kill and it couldn't be worse than it had been on my visits the previous few times.

I sat in the first hide for about 20 minutes and low and behold the Malachite showed himself for about 30 seconds. I managed to fire a shot even though the lighting was bad and the bird backlit.

The next visitor, another fleeting one, was the Red Bishop. He was in and out about the reeds and wasn't too easy to get a clear shot.

A few minutes later I had the Common Fiscal sneaking in on the side of the hide out of the main line of vision. I swung the camera around and got this quick shot.

I was getting a bit cold and quite honestly a bit bored so moved to the other hide. There is always activity here but of the more common species that I already have thousands of images of but nonetheless it was worth seeing if anything came up. The birds were in and out the water and I snapped this Cormorant drying himself in quite a stretched pose.

There were some gulls on the water doing some antics and I focused on them hoping to get some "action" shots. Then suddenly they upped and were in the air and I caught this one on his lift off.

Suddenly there was a mad flurry from all the birds and they scattered all over the place and then I heard the sound of a motor getting closer and closer... Well low and behold, look what came cruising past.. workers on their way to clear some reeds..

Now that the light was starting to fade and the birds had been chased away, I decided to go on walkies.. I have 2 other favourite spots where at times I have been lucky to get the sunbirds. I headed up this way and en route heard the sound of the Cape White Eyes in the bushes. They were in and out the deep cluttered areas so I sat patiently waiting for them to show themselves. This was not to happen but I did manage to get a nearly clear shot of this little guy.

The light was fading fast so after increasing my ISO I headed to the area where I was sure I could find the sunbirds.. I saw them flying over but were exceptionally active and once again not playing the game! I stood half inside the bushes in a small recess in the road and once again waited.. that didn't work so I slowly walked down the path. There was one particular male that was hopping from bush to bush and would pause for a couple of seconds to sing. That was my entree... 

On my way out I stopped back at the first hide and low and behold, who did I find? None other than the Night Heron.

Well with this sighting and image, Intaka was done and dusted for this visit to Cape Town.

Marievale with the new Sony 500mmF4 lens

I recently took a trip out to Marievale Bird Sanctuary on the East Rand with the intention of testing the clarity of the Sony 500mmF4 lens. This was the one lens missing in Sony's line up since their acquisition of Minolta some years ago and was long awaited. The lens has Sony's new nano coatings on the elements which ensure superb image clarity and coupled with the 3 ED coated elements, eliminates any internal reflections. (I was keen to test these and thus the choice of  Marievale with the water and reflections seemed a good idea)

A lens of this nature is primarily used for Wildlife or Sports photography and I was keen to test it to see if there were improvements over the old Minolta or the Sigma fixed 500. It is not the lightest of lenses but then weighing in at 3.4Kg is also not the heaviest for this class of lens. 

I arrived before dawn and there was a slight fog over the water which left some dampness over the lens and camera but this was not too worrying as the lens does its part to fight the elements with interlocking weather-resistant seals in and around the focusing ring and other vulnerable points to protect against moisture, dust and moisture.

I must say I was very happy with the results. Here are a couple of images from the outing. I coupled it to the crop sensor A77 giving me an effective magnification factor equivalent of a 750mm lens.

On the far side of the pan.. about a 70% crop.

Filling the frame, no crop.

Between the reeds - focus spot on.

This African Snipe came so close that I had to step back. Completely filled the frame, no crop.

About a 40% crop.

This one caught me surprise... He just popped out the water and then was gone.

This little Grebe was also quite a distance away with this being about a 60% crop.

Malachite Kingfisher - regurgatating pellet

Being a keen bird photographer I generally spend a fair amount of time observing birds. Quite a few birds like Kingfishers and Owls aren't able to digest everything that they eat so they somehow have to get rid of this. In the case of Kingfishers it is normally a pellet of fishbones, scales and some other indigestable remains. I have only ever seen  this behaviour a couple of times and it normally happens very quickly, some would say in the wink of an eye. I was a while ago watching a particular Malachite Kingfisher through the lens waiting for him to fly and low and behold I saw him stretch his throat and then I knew what was coming.. My camera was set on high speed mode which allows me to take 12 photographs per second. I pushed the shutter release and caught 5 frames with this action.. that means that it happened in less than half a second from being in the throat till it was falling past the bird.

Captured with the Sony A77 and 500mm F4 lens.

On the way up

Just showing

On the way out

Already passing the wing

Falling under the bird - all over

A morning at Marievale

The Marievale Bird Sanctuary is situated in the southern half of the Blesbokspruit RAMSAR site, an area that is also a designated Important Bird Area (IBA SA021) in South Africa. The sanctuary is about 10 km2 in size and comprises numerous, large, shallow water bodies .  The sanctuary hosts the largest variety of bird species in the Gauteng Province and, to date, over 280 species of birds and mammals have been recorded to cohabit the sanctuary.

Marievale is a very popular spot for birders and bird photographers alike and there are quite a few bird hides which afford one the opportunity of some excellent photography. My favourite and obviously the favourite of many is the Hadeda hide. Generally speaking if you are not there by sunrise, the hides are full with guys and their cameras and those bazooka white lenses...

I don't get the opportunity to visit too often but when I do, I am seldom disappointed. I thought I would share some images from my last visit. This was not too long ago before the swallows had left and they rewarded me with some lovely shots.

Shot with the Sony A77 and 500mmF4.

 

The Night Heron

Squacco Heron in the distance taking flight

Squacco had come closer and I caught him preening...

A Whitethroated Swallow still covered with early morning dew coming in to land

Another landing shot

Breakfast time

Letting the world know that he was here

Food please!!!!

I noticed some movement in the shallow water.. here was this guy jumping across the slime.

Didn't know these guys ate Dragon Flies!

and just to make my day... The Malachite Kingfisher showed for a few seconds.