Africa Wild

We were lucky to have a day off between all the family and friends visiting and headed straight out of town to Vaalkop Dam! The weather forecast was not great, it was overcast the whole day, but the rain stayed away and we saw lots of birds, bugs, flowers and animals.

The Vaalkop Dam is situated 54km north of Brits, near Beestekraal and north-east of Rustenburg, in typical broken bushveld country. It is renowned as both an anglers and birdwatching destination. The Vaalkop Dam is situated 54km north of Brits, near Beestekraal and north-east of Rustenburg, in typical broken bushveld country. It is renowned as both an anglers and birdwatching destination.

Here is the link to North West Parks for more info on tariffs and camping at Vaalkop Dam http://www.parksnorthwest.co.za/vaalkop/index.html

Arriving early and at the bridge crossing the river we spotted our first birdies.

A Common Sandpiper looking for breakfast.



Southern Red-Bishops were nesting in the reeds and it was hard to catch one sitting still for a second.



I always love seeing the White-winged Widow-birds.



Arriving at the water's edge there were anglers camping all along the waters edge, but far-far from being crowed and it was easy to drive along the little roads around the dam and enjoy the views.

Wiskerd Terns were flying across the dam in small flocks - not a great pic of the birds in flight.



A couple of White-faced Ducks in the shallow water.



On the rocks some Reed Cormorants, Little Egerts and a big Water Monitor Lizard.

This fancy dragonfly was hanging around the water's edge.



A Jacanna across the water - a bit far.



Red-billed Queleas were in flock flying from bush to bush and hard to catch a pic of these guys.



The Vervet Monkeys were very shy, but this one stayed for a kiekie.



A Wood Sandpiper youngster and mother at the edge of the water, but the mom flew off as we got closer.

My favorite sighting of the day was this Malachite Kingfisher a few meters from us in the reeds. He dived a few times for something in the water and then back to his spot again. We watched his him working hard for his food a long time.

The White-winged Windowbirds were very busy impressing the ladies.





Being summer there's flowers everywhere. The nice thing at Vaalkop when taking pictures is that your are not stuck in the vehicle.







On the rocks a Pied Wagtail couple.

More beautiful flowers in the veld around the dam.







Some colorful Dragon flies on the rocks.

Super Mongoose wrote:

Trithemis furva Navy Dropwing (male)



a new one for our book


And lovely flowers and a supercool white-winged widow

Toko wrote:
Trithemis furva Navy Dropwing (male)

a new one for our book


And lovely flowers and a supercool white-winged widow

Thanx Toko! a whole lot more flowers to come!

Here is another one and now I can see the dropwings!

another cracking photo

The other ones are Banded Groundling and Violet Dropwing

The veld around the Vaalkop Dam was painted in colour, standing still in one spot I shot all these pics.

In the same area I photographed the flowers was all these insects too.

Pretty Lady Bugs.





These small butterflies were on the rocks after the moisture.







A huge fly or mosquito thingy-thing.



This looked like a big wasp or something and he borrowed into a small hole on the left behind the grass.