{"id":19909,"date":"2026-05-17T06:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=19909"},"modified":"2026-05-17T06:50:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T18:50:55","slug":"walter-sisulu-botanical-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/19909","title":{"rendered":"Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Thick-billed<\/a>
Thick-billed weaver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Our stay in Johannesburg had the aim of recovering from jet lag and beginning to acclimatise to the heat of a Southern African spring from a New Zealand winter, before starting our exploration of Botswana’s Okavango. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had long wanted to visit Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens but the opportunity has not quite worked in the past. The big draw are the Verraux’s eagles that have bred there for years but botanical gardens are always lovely habitats for a range of birds. In addition Walter Sisulu hosts a large collection of sculptures in the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cape<\/a>
Cape weaver nest building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The day was hot and bright. The brightness helping burn away jet lag and the heat an uncomfortable foreboding of worse to come. We initially stuck to some riverine bush for shade and enjoyed encounters with nesting weavers and francolin families. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Natal<\/a>
Natal spur fowl with chicks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Approaching the escarpment that the eagles inhabit we found Peregrine falcons hunting and mating but could not escape the climb through heat and dust looking for the eyrie. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Peregrine<\/a>
Peregrine falcon hunting <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"Peregrine<\/a>
Peregrine falcons mating <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Approaching the summit we met a couple of other photographers on a similar mission who pointed out the distant nest site with a juvenile in situ. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Verraux's<\/a>
Verraux’s eagle chick on the nest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Shortly after our arrival the adult pair flew over trying the encourage the youngster from the nest. This enabled a sequence of flight shots for the memory bank. We staked out the area for some time chatting with one of the photographers who was a visitor from Norway. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Verraux's<\/a>
Verraux’s eagle pair in flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I suspect the heat had the birds resting in shade as there was little activity other than the Blue-headed lizards (Southern rock agama) displaying on the rocks around us.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Southern<\/a>
Southern rock agama<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Descending back to the valley we met up with family at the cafe where I enjoyed what was labelled a “hadeda” on the menu (savoury mince on toast) and a light beer for what seemed a ridiculously cheap price in New Zealand terms. Refreshed by the shade and fluid we explored further but the heat was keeping most things quiet and still, a hunting dabchick and Bronze mannikins dropping in for a drink the only activity in the pond at the hide.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Little<\/a>
Little grebe with large captured dragonfly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"Bronze<\/a>
Bronze mannikin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Overtaken by heat and jet lag we headed for the car envying a Cape robin-chat enjoying a sprinkler in the shade before retreating to our oasis in a Johannesburg garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cape<\/a>
Cape robin-chat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 180-600mm f5.6-6.3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens – Verraux’s eagles and more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens - Verraux's eagles and more","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[982,3,209,19],"tags":[26,25,1390,1184,221,983,609,194,190,210,1389],"class_list":["post-19909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography","category-birds","category-south-africa","category-travel","tag-bird-photography","tag-birds","tag-botanical-garden","tag-nikkor-z-180-600","tag-nikon","tag-nikon-z9","tag-nikonnz","tag-photo","tag-photography","tag-south-africa","tag-walter-sisulu-botanical-gardens","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nWalter Sisulu Botanical Gardens - 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Auckland Botanical Gardens Revisted","author":"tony","date":"August 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Birds and Blossoms. A visit to Auckland Botanical Gardens","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo showing Silvereye with early Spring blossom.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Silvereye-D85_2570-web.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Silvereye-D85_2570-web.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Silvereye-D85_2570-web.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Silvereye-D85_2570-web.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1910,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/1910","url_meta":{"origin":19909,"position":3},"title":"Swellendam, Worcester, Ceres","author":"tony","date":"December 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"From Knysna we headed for Swellendam and spent the evening at Rose Cottage at Wildebraam Berry Estate on the outskirts of town. This was very pleasant but not a specific birding spot so we just enjoyed hearing and watching the Guinea fowl while having a braai for dinner. \u00a0 Next\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "landscape"","block_context":{"text":"landscape","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/landscape"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Klipspringers_D806860-web.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Klipspringers_D806860-web.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Klipspringers_D806860-web.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Klipspringers_D806860-web.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10503,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/10503","url_meta":{"origin":19909,"position":4},"title":"California Quail","author":"tony","date":"November 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"California Quail male California Quail (Callipepla californica) are an attractive little introduced gamebird. They are widespread in New Zealand and I often see them when photographing birds at Lake Okareka. The typical male \u201cChi-ca-go\u201d call is easy to recognise and I have heard it in our suburban garden despite not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/CaliforniaQuail-D85_1481-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/CaliforniaQuail-D85_1481-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/CaliforniaQuail-D85_1481-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/CaliforniaQuail-D85_1481-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1266,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/1266","url_meta":{"origin":19909,"position":5},"title":"Kirstenbosch – Orange-breasted Sunbirds","author":"tony","date":"June 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Our trip to the Cape was more time-constrained than we would have liked so it meant we had to make the most of every moment. One of the places we had to go was Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. As students, this had always been a favourite and economical day out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Orange-breastedSunbird_D805241-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Orange-breastedSunbird_D805241-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Orange-breastedSunbird_D805241-web.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Orange-breastedSunbird_D805241-web.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19909"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20090,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19909\/revisions\/20090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}