Rietvlei Wetland Area, Cape Town by Tian Olivier

Caught between the Table View and Milnerton suburbs is the Rietvlei Wetland Area, one of the last (if not the last) wetland in Cape Town that has not been developed. Nearby is an oil refinary adding to some of the many problems conservationist face to keep this area untouched. There are 2 bird hide outs, one located in the swampy area and one at water front. Different bird types can be seen at these two spots. I saw quite a bit of bird activity during the 2x2 hour sessions I spent there hiding from the very hot Cape Town summer sun. I also took some photos with my Nikon D300s fitted with a 70-300 ED zoom and 1.4x converter - I had a lot of fun taking "in-flight" pictures of the birds, even saw one catch and swallow a fish. I will load these to Flickr and post a link here. In this pano you can see some birds at the water end of the wetland. This is summertime in Cape Town so it is dry. In winter (rany season) the swamp area is bigger and more "waders" can be seen.

Regarding the pano: Used the Epic 100 inside the hideout and was restricted by the viewing slots of the cabin. I also had to change batteries, following the pano I took of Clifton Beach a few days earlier. I think that is why I have the overlap over Table mountain - equipments must have moved. I have to find a better battery solution for this.