We visited the blue swallow site on Wednesday with a group of Wetlands International guests and were rewarded with some excellent birding all round.

Soon after setting off we found a Denham's bustard female fairly close to the road. She ran off a short distance and then dropped to the ground seemingly injured.She was lying on her side with her one wing stretched out to the side and tail feathers spread out. She kept her head at an awkward angle and uttered low hissing and croaking noises. As soon as we started the vehicle she sprang up, ran a short distance and repeated the process. We were obviously being lured away from her nest or chick. Though a well documented behaviour amongst most ground dwelling birds, it was still special to see it first hand and so close to the vehicle.

We then set off for the swallows and soon found a breeding pair circling above one of the nest sites. They seem to stay much closer to the nest than usual, and we later learnt from the monitoring team that they had eggs at that site! They were later briefly joined by another male.

We saw several other species worth mentioning - cuckoo finch, pale crowned cisticola and a brief glimpse of what may have been a broad tailed warbler. We unfortunately ran out of daylight and had to head back to the lodge. Our last bird for the day was roast chicken. ... See more

Tillietudlem and the Midlands Meander Education Project hosted an environmental education day for the Impendle community schools. 5 schools visited the reserve over a two day period. They learnt about ecotourism, conservation and particularly the career opportunities available in these fields. Some of the other topics included water conservation and anti poaching. Much fun was had by all. ... See more

We are very fortunate to have the Pennington’s Protea butterfly on the reserve.
They are a critically endangered species and only occurs in the Drakensberg foothills, the larvae feeding on the flowers of the Protea sugar bush (Protea caffra)
Come and enjoy a relaxing hike on Tillietudlem Game Reserve and explore this unique Protea sugar bush ecosystem. ... See more