Marabou in Smithfield writes Lynden Lund

From the initial call from Willie Swanepoel to Carmel Rickard, until Fabrice arrived at the front door, the lines never stopped humming. A Marabou stork had been sighted near the outskirts of Smithfield!

Arnold van der Westhuizen from Aliwal North arrived in record time to take the pictures.

As further reported by André Botha, Manager: Birds of Prey Working Group, ndangered Wildlife Trust:
“The tag number S64 indicates that it was tagged by Prof Ara Monadjem’s team from he Swaziland University as a nestling at a breeding colony in Hlane National Park in the Swaziland Lowveld during September/October 2007.

Based on your sighting, the bird has moved about 734km as the Marabou flies ince leaving the nest, but was also recorded by Reinderd Visser at
Oudtshoorn in mid-January and was present there for a few weeks.”

Smithfield Bird List

A bird list of the Smithfield area has been added as a link.

This list was compiled with the help of Rick Nuttal and the Bloemfontein Bird watching club during a bird watching weekend in November 2007.

More than 200 bird species were found and the numbers are still growing.

The 2009 updated list is found on our Bird List page.

Smithfield is for the Birds

 By Carmel Rickard

A rare visitor from the northern hemisphere has set the South African birding world alight because it has chosen Bloemfontein, no less, for a summer holiday.