One of the nicer things about living on the East Rand is the amount of water we have around here, and with that the variety of water birds.
I popped in at a pan this morning to see what was knocking about and saw some quite nice species.
Purple Gallinule - normally a very shy bird, I saw 7 of them rooting through the water plants.
Whitefaced duck - one of my favourite species of waterfowl.
Yellowbilled duck
Southern Pochard - a new one for me, I only saw this lone male.
Red-Crested Pochard - also a new one, which had me stumped, reason being it is indigenous to Europe. This is obviously an established escapee (often seen in Gauteng apparently)
Common Moorhen
Grey-headed Gull - raucous and plentiful out here, I think these are probably the dominant waterbird in the East
Crowned Lapwing
Three-banded Plover - not all that uncommon, but not often seen out in the open