My idea of how the Fairy should look has drastically changed over the last few days. I had been looking for a bird with a similar build to that of a Cape Robin-Chat. Only recently have I realised that the bird I’m searching for is more or less the same size as a Cape White-eye! This new measurement has completely thrown me off. I’m really battling to imagine the proportions of this little bird now.

Sunday marked my second attempt at finding the Fairy Flycatcher, my second failed attempt at finding the Fairy Flycatcher. The closest I had come to the Fairy was a sighting of a Chinspot Batis (which I was really pleased with)! Personally, I think this is an improvement from the Fiscal Flycatcher counterpart I had admired on the previous trip.

Regardless of the horrid weather, Rietvlei had shown us its treasures once again! 

A Capped Wheatear, perfectly camouflaged for one of its preferred habitats.

 We watched a Black-chested Snake-Eagle for about 20 minutes in the first and last rays of sunshine we had for the rest of the day.

A Pied Kingfisher at Island View Bird Hide had caught a fairly large fish but was unable to swallow it regardless of its many attempts to force it down and trying to beat it down into a more suitable size. It was one of those ‘eyes to large for your stomach’ cases. Eventually, the fish dropped.

One of the trip highlights was of an immature Secretarybird. Much to my annoyance, the light conditions at this stage went from manageable to completely unsuitable. The Secretarybird had walked down a dirt road towards us, then did a running take-off (flushing out a Northern Black Korhaan in the process) then landed in a tree next to the road.

The saddest part of it all was that the Secretary bird had flown parallel to our car. I had caught every wingbeat of its flight but the lighting rendered my photos useless.

Next, an immature Lanner Falcon was seen sitting in a burnt area amongst Crowned Lapwings. A Yellow-tailed Mongoose ran up to the Falcon and managed to flush it up. Chaos followed. The Lapwings went into a panic and dive bombed the falcon. After a while, it settled on the ground once again. 15 minutes later, a flock of Pied Crows mobbed the falcon.

An innocent Ostrich whom was taking a dust bath was the Pied Crows’ next target. 

87 bird species were seen.  Interestingly, I recorded 116 bird species at Rietvlei last year. I’ve already surpassed that total with 132 bird species this year from 2010/02/21!

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