Every morning and afternoon, I drive past a grassveld, to get to and from school in Johannesburg. Reeds occupy a large section of the veld as well as one or two trees in the area. The veld is about 500m x 200m and is surrounded by factories, a highway, a shopping mall, restaurants, flats, a power station with 6 cooling towers and a gym. As we drive past it - I take advantage of the situation - and quickly do a bit of bird watching. The usual birds that I see consist of Stonechats, Crowned Lapwings, Blacksmith Lapwings, Longtailed Widows, Redcollared Widows and Red Bishops. Nothing too spectacular unless you still need to tick a few of these birds from your list but then I would suggest you go somewhere else as it probably will be more rewarding.

 

On Friday afternoon, while coming back from school as the sun was setting, I saw what seemed to be a large white bird with black edged wing feathers. With doubt that this WAS in fact a large bird in the middle of the city, I passed it as being a person, walking by holding plastic bags. With a little giggle at myself, I told my mom about the ‘person’ who I at first thought was a bird. To my shock she replied that it was! With a second look I realized that indeed it was a Secretarybird (a long day at school makes you see things)… A rush of excitement flowed over me as I had only seen two of these majestic birds in the wild (in

As I watched it flying off into the distance I couldn’t help wonder how we have chased so many birds away from their own habitat as a result of greed and a demand for more infrastructure and products. A Secretarybird can be found all over Southern Africa but - after invading their land - we only expect to see them in Nature Reserves.  A fact or a myth, you decide...

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