Tag Archives: Rietvlei Nature Reserve

Celebrating our natural heritage

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It is the Heritage Day long weekend in South Africa, and yesterday we packed the Duster with picnic baskets and grandparents and set out for a most enjoyable morning at our local Rietvlei Nature Reserve. Large sections of the reserve have recently received management burns to clear moribund grass cover (fire being an essential component of Africa’s grassland and savanna landscapes), and the first spring rains have spurred the growth of new grass, attracting a wide range of birds and animals to these areas.

Reed Cormorant
Cattle Egret
Reed Cormorant
Yellow Mongoose
Yellow Mongoose being chased by a Capped Wheatear
Black-backed Jackal
Crowned Lapwing
Yellow-billed Ducks
Yellow-billed Ducks
Red Hartebeest
Long-tailed Widowbird (female)
Spotted Thick-knee
Spotted Thick-knee
Buffy Pipit
Buffy Pipit
Spur-winged Geese
Ostrich
Hadeda
Capped Wheatear
Blesbok
Lesser Swamp Warbler
Eland
Eland
Eland
White Rhinoceros
Black Wildebeest
Plains Zebra
Red Hartebeest
Blesbok lying on their path

 

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Birthday celebrations at Rietvlei

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Yesterday we celebrated Joubert’s ninth birthday at our local Rietvlei Nature Reserve, just a few kilometers from home. Combining family and friends, wildlife,  photography, a picnic and birthday cake just seems like the best way to celebrate the special day, don’t you agree?

African Reed Warbler
Black-backed Jackal
Black Wildebeest
Blesbok
Buffalo
Buffalo
Buffalo bull
Buffalo attraction
Buffalo horn
Buffalo with an itch
Capped Wheatear
Common Moorhens
Crowned Lapwing
Little Grebe
Eland Herd
Eland Bull
Eland Bull
Eland Bull
Fiscal Shrike
Grey-headed Sparrow
Groundscraper Thrush
Hadeda
The Birthday Boy!
The Birthday Boy!
The Birthday Boy and his proud mom
The Birthday Boy and his friends ready to go visit the lions
Lion Jarvis
Lioness Bassie
Neddicky
Cape Longclaw
Ostrich
Ostrich
Pied Crow
Red-billed Teal
Red Hartebeest
Reed Cormorant
Speckled Pigeon fledgling
Springbok
Waterbuck bull
White Rhino discussion
White Rhinos causing a traffic jam
Yellow-billed Ducks
Plains Zebra on the move

Rietvlei is home to a small pride of lions housed in a 150-hectare enclosure in a corner of the reserve. Normally we wouldn’t support any “reserves” in which lions are kept in confined quarters nor any that offer “cub petting” as an attraction due to the very real possibility that these establishments are involved to a greater or lesser extent in the breeding of lions for the canned hunting and bone exporting business, despite their claims of “conservation” and “education”. Rietvlei’s lions however were rescued from exactly such circumstances, cannot be introduced to the wild and will live out their lives here. It was a special birthday treat for Joubert and his friends to visit Tau, Jarvis, Bassie and Tawane at their home.

Another quick nature fix at Rietvlei

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Just as we were starting to experience withdrawal symptoms after spending almost a month exploring eight of our country’s beautiful national parks we were saved from the agony by a good friend who organised his birthday party at our local Rietvlei Nature Reserve yesterday.

Ostrich and zebra in the Rietvlei landscape
White rhino bull (dehorned to protect against poaching)
Blowing a massive cloud of dust (photo by Joubert)
African Wattled Lapwing
African Wattled Lapwing (immature)
African Darter in flight
White-breasted Cormorant in flight
White-throated Swallow
Plains zebra
Long-tailed Widowbird (female)
Rufous-naped Lark
Blacksmith Lapwing
Crab holding on for dear life at the weir (photo by Joubert)
Yellow-crowned Bishop (female)
Eland bull
Eland herd

A Quick Nature Fix at Rietvlei

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Our local Rietvlei Nature Reserve is often just what the doctor ordered when I need a quick nature fix. Located just 13km from our home, with a very fair rate of admission (R50 for adults currently, roughly $3.50), decent facilities, an extensive road network and an amazing diversity of wildlife, Rietvlei never fails to recharge the batteries! A week or so ago, in serious need of getting my head cleared following a few health worries, that’s exactly where I headed for a solo trip.

In all the years we’ve been visiting Rietvlei the reserve’s cheetahs have always eluded us – these large spotted cats are experts at hiding! I therefore felt extremely pleased when at long last I encountered a female with her three cubs, just after they had their fill of a freshly caught blesbok. I returned to the site several times later during the day, hoping that the family might still be in the vicinity, only to find the remains of the carcass variously attended by nervous black-backed jackals and pied crows squabbling over the left overs.

Cheetah female
The cheetahs’ blesbok meal
Cheetah female
Cheetah cubs
Cheetah cub
Cheetah cub
Cheetah cub
Black-backed Jackal
Black-backed Jackal nervously approaching the carcass
Pied crows at the remains of the blesbok
Pied crows at the remains of the blesbok
Pied crows at the remains of the blesbok

At one of the bird-viewing hides I had another encounter that will live in my memory forever. A reedbuck ewe hid her young lamb in a dense stand of reeds nearby, which is quite normal behaviour for the species. The curious (or should that be naughty?) youngster however did not want to stay put where his mom told him to, and quite unafraid approached me where I was sitting flat on the ground taking photos of him from a distance. Eventually he got so close that I had to get up and walk away, afraid that if he was to rub up against me his mother might catch my scent on him and abandon him. If I was pleased after the earlier cheetah sighting this experience really had me feeling utterly blessed!

Reedbuck lamb
Reedbuck lamb
Reedbuck lamb
Reedbuck lamb
Reedbuck lamb
Reedbuck lamb

Winter is getting a firm hold on South Africa’s Highveld now and early morning at Rietvlei is a pleasure to behold as mist rises from the waterways and the rising sun starts to thaw the frost covering the grass and trees.

Rietvlei Spruit
A frosty start to the morning at the Finfoot Hide
Mist rising over the Rietvlei spruit
Autumn colours still much in evidence
Rietvlei Spruit in the Rietvlei Nature Reserve
A view over the reedy wetland from which Rietvlei takes its name

For a reserve almost entirely surrounded by urban sprawl and industries, Rietvlei harbours an impressive collection of large and easily visible mammalian inhabitants. My sightings included black wildebeest, blesbok, buffalo, eland, meerkat, plains zebra, hartebeest, springbok, waterbuck, white rhinos and yellow mongoose (as well as the already mentioned cheetahs, jackals and reedbuck).

Black wildebeest
Blesbok
Buffalo
Buffalo
Buffalo
Buffalo herd
Eland
Meerkat sentry
Plains Zebra
Plains Zebra
Plains Zebra
Plains Zebra
Red Hartebeest
Springbok
Waterbuck
Waterbuck
Waterbuck
White Rhinos
White Rhino
White Rhino
White Rhino
Yellow Mongoose
Yellow Mongoose

I also managed to identify 55 different kinds of birds in the few hours I spent at Rietvlei!

African Hoopoe
Buffy Pipit
African Stonechat female
African Stonechat male
African Wattled Lapwing
Ant-eating Chat
Black-chested Snake Eagles
Black-shouldered Kite
Blacksmith Lapwing
Cape Glossy Starling
Cape Longclaw
Cape Turtle Dove
Common Fiscal
Crowned lapwing
Fiscal Flycatcher
Giant Kingfisher
Groundscraper Thrush
Hadeda
Helmeted Guineafowl
Laughing Dove
Lesser Masked Weaver
Long-tailed Widowbird female
Northern Black Korhaan male
Northern Black Korhaan female
Ostrich
Ostrich and Pied Crows
Pied Starling
Red-throated Wryneck
Reed Cormorant
Southern Masked Weaver
Swainson’s Spurfowl
Swainson’s Spurfowl
Western Cattle Egret
White-breasted Cormorant
White-fronted Bee-eater
Yellow-billed Duck

All in all a very pleasant day’s outing; one that certainly got my head back in the right place!

Enjoying the first Spring Rains at Rietvlei

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This past weekend allowed us our first brief escape from city life of the new season. Our day at Rietvlei Nature Reserve was blessed with the first, and very welcome, rainfall of Spring, although accompanied by a terribly windy cold front which put an early end to our plans for a nice picnic next to the dam. Happily the reserve’s wildlife came out to greet us in their numbers, despite the inclement weather.

Eland cow
Ostriches silhouetted against dark skies
Plains Zebra
White Rhinoceros
Black-backed Jackal
Springbok ewe and lamb
Black Wildebeest
Egyptian Geese
African Spoonbill
African Sacred Ibis
Black-winged Stilt
Plains Zebra stallion, sporting battle scars
Yellow-billed Duck
Waterbuck bull
Southern Reedbuck
A wet road, with promise of more to come
Northern Black Korhaan
Crowned Lapwing
Springbok on the run through wet grass
A portion of Rietvlei Dam during the downpour

 

A month of monochrome memories: Wading Old-Timer

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This lone buffalo bull enjoyed the refreshing coolness of a stream flowing through the Rietvlei Nature Reserve.

Rietvlei 06122015 (13)

Our end-of-year 2015 holidays were absolutely packed to the brim. Apart from our ten-day visit to the Kruger National Park (read more about our time at Lower Sabie, Olifants and Shingwedzi in December), we also made day trips to five other reserves, and will be sharing photos from those (except Suikerbosrand, which we introduced in a post all of its own) daily through the month of February, in a series we call “a month of monochrome memories”.

A month of monochrome memories: Rhino Trio

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These white rhinos in Rietvlei Nature Reserve presented a formidable front as they approached the road!

Rietvlei 06122015 (12)

Our end-of-year 2015 holidays were absolutely packed to the brim. Apart from our ten-day visit to the Kruger National Park (read more about our time at Lower Sabie, Olifants and Shingwedzi in December), we also made day trips to five other reserves, and will be sharing photos from those (except Suikerbosrand, which we introduced in a post all of its own) daily through the month of February, in a series we call “a month of monochrome memories”.