Midlands Saddle and Trout Resort near Mooi River in the midlands of Kwa-Zulu Natal has two dams stocked for fishing. The top dam is quite small and stocked with Rainbow Trout. The lower dam is much larger and contains Largemouth Bass as well. I remember fishing during our first visit many years ago but this time bird photography was the goal. The top dam is within the grounds of the resort and was the focus of our first couple of mornings. It at least 50% fringed by and has a small island covered by bullrushes which is great habitat for Red Bishops. A number of trees provide sites for weavers with good colonies of Cape Weavers and Southern Masked Weavers. In the dam there were Moorhens with chicks, Coots and occasional Yellow-billed Ducks. In addition Cape Wagtails and Glossy Starlings were foraging nearby.

I mainly targeted the Red Bishops and Cape Weavers. I have found the Bishops quite a challenge as they are very good at keeping a screen of reeds between themselves and a camera  and I wanted a clear view of the whole bird with the reeds out of focus but creating the impression of the habitat. We were lucky to have some lovely diffuse light and managed quite a few Bishop images, mostly with part of the bird obscured but couple achieved what I was after. The weavers were building nests and one of the Cape Weavers was in a spot with a clean background and I was happy with a couple of shots with the bird displaying while hanging beneath the nest.