We thought that birding enthusiasts in the Conservancy might be interested in the fact that, a couple of weeks ago, when we were returning home from Maanhaarrand, a few kilometres after turning off the Rustenburg Road onto the Hekpoort Road, we spotted a Longcrested Eagle (Langkuifarend) sitting on a telephone pole next to the road.

As I stopped the car to view the bird through my binoculars that are always in my car, it flew into a tree about 50 metres from the road and perched there in the open where we could clearly identify it positively.

It seems that it was a vagrant from the north because, according to Ken Newman’s book, it actually does not occur in this area – so, a great sighting!

Obviously, being about 12 km from the Conservancy, we could not tick it as being in Hartebeestfontein, until the next afternoon when the lovely bird did us a great favour by flying directly over our house, in a northerly direction. Maybe it had decided to go home to the Waterberg, although it is most frequently seen in the Mpumalanga tree plantations.

So, we have a fairly rare tick in Hartebeestfontein.

Ken and Daphne Theron