More than mynahs

To miners, Marievale is an old Union Corp gold operation; to environmentalists, it’s an endangered wetlands; to birds, it’s a metropolis.

The mine, which opened in the 1930s, has passed through several owners, most recently Aurora Empowerment Systems. The Marievale Bird Sanctuary, an 8 000 ha Ramsar site (an intergovernmental convention treaty where countries commit to maintain their wetlands) is right next door, on the Blesbokspruit wetlands, which have been threatened by pollution from mine runoff. Yet it is still teeming with life, and well worth a visit.

From Nigel you drive past Union Carriage & Wagon and take a pitted road past old, semiderelict mine housing. Someone is using the next site as a coal dump and the road surface is coated with coal dust. Next to it is an ugly heap of waste rock.

Suddenly you’re surrounded by reeds and water, and birds, birds, birds . . . lurking in the reeds, fishing in the water and perching on vantage points. According to The Chamberlain Guide to Birding Gauteng, 280 species have been counted at Marievale; easily identified species like red bishops, flamingoes and avocets through to rare, shy birds like little bitterns and African rails.

The first bird hide you come to is called, rather appropriately, “Otter Hide” — that’s what otters do best. We have seen otters at Marievale, but rarely, and just a quick glimpse.

Drive over a narrow road and there’s a well-kept picnic site, with shaded tables and toilet facilities and another bird hide. Keep going round the curve, through the gate. Look out for the Swainson’s spurfowls lording over their territory from fence posts on your right, and then you’ve reached another hide. There’s six at Marievale, and plenty of other stretches where you get good views.

The pleasant, tidy sanctuary includes a visitors’ centre with conference facilities and two self-catering chalets.

Get there at 6 am and you’ll have the place largely to yourself to see the birds at their most active.