A Hidden Gem in the Wetlands

A bird-watching cruise

Jay does his canoe safaris in the Govuro River, which is about 30 kilometers west of Vilankulo. The river is part of a large wetland system 150 kilometers long, going from Mapinhane, which is just south of us, to BD point, a little ways north of us on the coast. BD Point is so named for the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, who was the first sailor and navigator from Europe to round Africa’s southern tip in the 1480s.

Yesterday, we decided to go on an impromptu trip to these wetlands to see if we could find anything new and exciting. Going down the main dirt road leading to the river, you are faced with two options: either carry on straight or, at one point, fork sharply left, where the road nearly goes back on itself. Usually, we carry on straight to the river, but this time we forked left. The driving was a bit dicey, as the grass and shrubbery was quite high, but we drove on.

We passed by a small group of cattle herders and their cattle and goats, bumped down the road for a while longer, and then came to a hidden gem: a beautiful little lake bursting with life, full of water lilies, ducks, pygmy geese, herons, and storks.

A group of African jacanas (Actophilornis africanus) and one white faced whistling duck (Dendrocygna viduata) amongst the lilies.

The African jacana is a wading bird, equipped with long thin legs and comically huge, wide feet that allow it to walk along the wide lily pads. There, it hunts for insects. Interestingly, the African jacana is sometimes called ‘the Jesus bird’, because it looks as though it is walking on water. This bird is actually quite a fascinating one for a few reasons. One is that, unlike the case with most other species of both bird and wildlife, it is the female jacana who has a harem of males to breed with, and the males look after the eggs and hatched chicks very protectively. The male can even hold and carry the chicks, scooping them under his wings in times of danger or if he feels threatened. These birds can also swim and dive – if threatened, the chicks sometimes dive deep down, and then float back up with only their beaks sticking out to remain hidden.

You can recognize the African jacana for its light brown body and black head, as well as the bright blue beak – their beaks only turn blue when they reach adulthood.

We parked here to birdwatch for a while.

Here we can see another African jacana and, just to the right of it, an African pygmy goose (Nettapus auritus). These are quite rare to see because they eat the water lilies – nymphaea lilies – and so can only be found in wetlands and rivers such as this one. It is also one of the smallest types of waterfowl in the world, and the smallest in all of Africa. Interestingly, unlike many other ducks and geese, the African pygmy goose can perch in high places and makes its nest in holes in trees or cliffs.

In front are more white-faced whistling ducks, a very common duck here recognizable, as the name suggests, by their white cheeks. These ducks eat small prawns and crustaceans in the wetlands. There are also some white-backed ducks, though the white is covered by their browny wing feathers (Thalassornis leuconotus).

The white-faced whistling ducks coming in for landing.

And the landing is made.

Little ducks hiding amongst the lily stalks and reeds.

Across the lake was a big tree filled with herons and storks.

On closer inspection, we saw that they were black-headed herons (Ardea melanocephala) and open-billed storks (Anastomus lamelligerus). The open-billed stork uses the gap in its bill to take freshwater snails out their shells, as that is their primary diet. You can see this gap in the photo, about mid-way up the wide bill.

We thought the heron was a grey heron until we saw the back lines on the ends of the wings – a grey heron has a totally grey underwing with no black stripes. They live in colonies in trees during the breeding time, but are monogamous. It was difficult to get any good photos of them as the lighting was wrong…

Afer spending some time at the little lake, we went on to find a bigger lake that Jay knew, and there perched our chairs to watch the white-breasted cormorants (Phalacrocorax lucidus).

Jay was quite surprised these were here, as usually you find reed cormorants in the wetlands and white-breasted cormorants closer to the sea. These are the largest African cormorant. They are fish eaters which are mostly found along the coast but, as we discovered, can also be found in inland lakes, wetlands, and rivers.

The cormorants are perched on some old fishing material.

Rear-view mirror sunsets on our drive home.