In Wakkerstroom we were staying at the Wetlands Country House and Sheds, which provided very pleasant accommodation in a series of converted cow sheds set in a parkland area. It was an excellent base for our time in this important birding area.
We spent the whole of 23 August exploring the Wakkerstroom area where the environment was in stark contrast to Mkhuze Wildlife Reserve.
There were plenty of grassland birds to be seen in the open countryside and we got good photographs of Spike-heeded Lark, Sentinel Rock Thrush, Rudd’s Lark and Eastern Clapper Lark.
Although there are large areas of grassland around Wakkerstroom, there are also significant marsh-covered parts. So after spending much of the morning looking for birds in the grassland areas, we spent time photographing waders and birds on the rivers and pools.
During our day around Wakkerstroom the temperature was high from late morning, creating heat haze, which made photography difficult leading to blurred images of more distant animals. Nevertheless, we were pleased to get shots of Meerkats despite the haze.
The final day of our tour was 24 August and we started this by doing some final birding around Wakkerstroom. The weather was once again very good and we were happy with the photographs we got in the early morning light. We again saw several species of lark, which blended in well with their grassland environment.
After a couple more hours birding around Wakkerstroom we started our drive towards Johannesburg where our tour ended. However, towards the end of the journey we stopped for a final birding session at Leeuwpan lake. There were plenty of waders at the water’s edge which were quite close, making for good photographic opportunities.
As we ere leaving the lake we saw a beautiful Southern Masked Weaver gripping a vertical branch beside the road. It stood out against a dark background and offered an excellent photographic opportunity that we couldn’t resist. We therefore stopped he car and jumped out to get the last bird photographs of the trip.
After this last encounter we drove to Johannesburg where we were to spent a night before flying to Cape Town and attending the conference organised by the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences. This had been an excellent tour and Dylan had done an outstanding job of guiding, along with doing all the driving.