Rondevlei, where I live, is an estuarine lake on the Garden Route. It is part of a series of lakes that are connected to each other and enter the sea at Wilderness.It is a beautiful area and contribute in a large way to the Garden Routes scenery. Two of the lakes are designated Ramsar sites, which identifies them as areas of international importance to migratory birds. It therefore goes without saying that there is amazing bird-life here, and I try to take advantage of this whenever I can. The Rondevlei has a fantastic hide that is very productive, it doesn’t produce rarities very often but does provide  regular, rewarding birding in a beautiful environment. Common birds seen are African Rail, African Marsh Harrier, African Fish Eagle, Hottentot Teal, Cape Teal, White Backed Duck and depending on the level of the lake, good waders attracted to the mud flats.

One bird that we see quite often has, of late, been prolific. The African(Ethiopian) Snipe. It is a beautiful bird that is not common in many areas and with the Rondevlei being low at the moment, we can see between 5 and 9 different birds feeding together. I recent highlight was for me a maximum count of 15 birds.

At one stage Snipe were popular Game birds(this is where we get words like “sniper”) and so it is wonderful to see aggregations like this, they have a very distinct breeding display that involves Drumming of the wings. There has been no sign of this as yet  so it is possible that they are en route to another breeding site.