Urban Parks

20 June 2025 - Lonehill Park

I had to drop my wife off at work in Lonehill and to avoid the rush hour traffic back to Midrand, I spent an enjoyable hour walking around Lonehill Park.

The Park is dominated by the large granite boulders in the Nature Reserve which accomodate good number's of Dassies

Rock Hyrax (Procavia capensis)

Walking around the Park, I found African Wattled Lapwing

African Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus senegallus)

Rose-ringed Parakeet's in warming up in the early morning winter sun

Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)

A couple of Red-headed Finches around a feeder

Red-headed Finch (Amadina erythrocephala)

And a Southern Fiscal enjoying breakfast

Southern Fiscal (Lanius collaris)

However, most of my time was spent at the small dam where I enjoyed a pair of African Black Duck's in the golden morning light

African Black Duck (Anas sparsa)

Also present were good numbers of Black-headed Heron

Black-headed Heron (Ardea melanocephala)

Reed Cormorant's

Reed Cormorant (Microcarbo africanus)

And a few Sacred Ibis or Bin Chicken's as the Aussies call them - maybe a more appropriate name

African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus)

Both Red-knobbed Coot

Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata)

and Moorhen were present

Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

A small flock of noisy Hadeda's passed by overhead as I walked back to the car, after what was an enjoyable hour in the crisp winter air under a blue skies

Hadeda Ibis (Bostrychia hagedash)