Saturday 2 July 2011

Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary

A nice place to kill a few hours is the Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary in Pretoria, where a large enclosure is home to all manner of critters, such as this steenbok:


As one might expect, there is also a large variety of birds, especially waterbirds, such as comb ducks (a.k.a. knob-billed ducks, for obvious reasons):


Blacksmith lapwing (so named because of its call, which resembles a small hammer hitting an anvil):


 Little egret:


 And the ubiquitous Egyptian goose:



Also commonly found at the reserve is the white-faced duck:


and yellow-billed duck:


It is a congenial place to make sketches of birds, something I try now and then when I can work up the courage to try sketching moving targets.






5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing these, Brian. Very interesting reference.

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  2. Great sketches, Brian! I especially like the close-ups of the foot and head in the first sketch. Thanks for sharing!
    Carol

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  3. Wow Brian,dis nice stuff wat jy doen !!

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  4. Good job on sketching the moving targets, which can be very challenging indeed!

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