Leader:
Keith Barnes
Participants:
Steve & Kathy Martin
SUMMARY
This trip was designed as a three-week intensive trip to eastern South
Africa looking for not only all the eastern endemics, but also a host of
Red Data Book (threatened), rare and reclusive birds found in eastern South
Africa. We were after some serious quality birds and got almost all of
them. Steve and Kathy had already ventured to South Africa before, a trip
to the western half of the country, led by me, where we did some serious
damage on the birds of the dry western portions of southern Africa. This
time round we decided to concentrate on the Kruger N.P., particularly the
northern portions, the Mpumalanga escarpment, northern Zululand and the
Drakensberg. The goals were to find all of eastern South Africa’s endemics
and near-endemics, as well as taking in a substantial proportion of the
bushveld birds and savanna areas of the north-east of the country. We also
made a concerted effort to search for many species scarce throughout their
African ranges, including Taita Falcon, Blue Swallow and Wattled Crane.
We achieved both our goals, finding almost all of our target birds. The
triplist total was 435. This was lowered due to our incessant hunting of
the Martin’s target species e.g. we skipped all wetlands where we would
have list-loaded with waders, terns and gulls and by the fact that most
of the intra-African and Palearctic migrants had yet to arrived.
27 Sept:
Steve and Kathy arrived at Johannesburg International Airport (JIA)
on SAA 210 at 10h20. After a joyous reunion and much reminiscing about
how great our last trip had been and how much we were looking forward to
this one we made our way to the hotel. Being the keen birders that they
are, a brief stop was all that was needed before we headed north to Pretoria
and the Hennops River Valley for our first birding of the trip. The key
target was soon found near its nest and the Ovambo Sparrowhawks flew
in and mated next to the road to add the excitement. The grassland plains
nearby yielded Rufous-naped Lark, and Barrow’s Korhaans called,
frustratingly out of view. On a rocky outcrop we discovered an obliging
pair of Short-toed Rock Thrush of the pretoriae race, a potential
split as Transvaal Rock Thrush. We returned to Joberg and our hotel
near the airport for "a good night’s rest".
28 Sept: Johannesburg to Magoebaskloof, Tzaneen.
Perhaps "a good night’s rest" is not the best description of what transpired.
We were up at 02h30 so that we could make it to Nylsvley by dawn. We headed
out of Joberg before 03h00. The trip was pretty uneventful and we arrived,
just as planned, shortly after dawn. Nylsvley is one of the finest ephemeral
wetlands and bushveld areas in southern Africa. We quickly picked up a
lone Marsh Owl sitting low in the grass. A pair of Ostrich strode
across the plains. The regular hoardes of wetland species where there including
over 500 African Snipe. Amongst them we had a single beautiful pair
of Painted Snipe. African Jacanas were in their hundreds.
Purple
and
Squacco
Herons were also seen along with a small flock of the scarce
Hottentot
Teal. A pair of African Fish Eagles
soared overhead, their evocative
cries piercing the sunny skies. A
Greater Kestrel was seen on a
nearby fenceline and the bushveld yielded our first Swainson’s Francolin
and
Grey
Go-Away Bird
as well as Southern Yellow-billed, Red-billed
and
Grey Hornbills. This area also yielded our only
Crimson-breasted
Gonolek, Burchell’s Glossy Starlings, White-browed Sparrow-weavers, White-winged
Widowbirds, Buffy Pipit, Marico Flycatcher, Burchell’s Coucals and
Violet-eared
Waxbills of the trip. We had to make tracks at about 10h00 as we still
had some specials to get at Pietersburg Nature Reserve. We cruised north
for a further hour before eating lunch at the entrance to the reserve under
a Crested Barbet nest, a lifer for the Martin’s. The Pietersburg
Nature Reserve had been burnt a few weeks prior and was looking pretty
barren. Nearly as surprised as we were, was a White-quilled Korhaan
stalking
insects on the blackened plains. Fortunately we located an area suitable
for the local special, the Short-clawed Lark, and no sooner had
we played the tape then a bird came shooting in in response. This under-rated
beast did its towering see-saw display flight for us several times before
returning to its sensible mid-day resting place under a bush. Another great
find was an African Wren-warbler in the upper parts of the reserve
along with a party of
Burnt-necked Eremomelas. The area yielded
many other typical bushveld birds including shrikes and woodpeckers, but
was notably excellent for
Accipiters including a Gabar Goshawk
and
Shikra
near
the entrance and a surprise Ovambo Sparrowhawk
just before we left.
We made our way to Magoebaskloof via the Haenertsburg Pass. After Tzaneen
we made a small detour for a surprise! Kathy, a raptorfile of note, thoroughly
enjoyed the saturating views we got of the Bat Hawks
at their nest,
eyeing us dozily before their crepuscular feast. We arrived at the hotel
too late for any diurnal birding, but after dark managed to grip a Wood
Owl that was calling from behind the hotel. The meal there was scrumptious.
29 Sept: Magoebaskloof - Kruger N.P.
Magoebaskloof is home to some of the best (although dwindling) Afro-montane
forest in South Africa. The scenic beauty of these forested hills is also
a feature. An early morning expedition to a nearby patch yielded one of
our key targets, a beautiful Orange Ground Thrush singing in the
sub-canopy. A small party of Swee Waxbills were flushed from the
lawn by a Samango Monkey darting across the lawn. An incredibly cold group
of White Helmetshrike’s, hopelessly out of place, were snapping
up anything that moved in a desperate attempt to warm their bodies, more
used to subtropical climates. We soon made our way to the Woodbush and
De Hoek forests and hit some impressive parties including key specials
such as Olive Bush Shrike and Yellow-streaked Bulbul. A loud
rattling emanating from a bush suggested that a Barratt’s Warbler was
very close, a tape soon got the curious culprit to show. A lower ‘whoo’
call was issued and we rushed down about 20 metres to find the gorgeous
Black-fronted
Bush Shrike. The Wolkberg is the only South African locality where
this bird can be found and we must have seen a further three individuals
during the course of the morning. An African Goshawk soared above
us and Rameron Pigeons alighted in a canopy tree as a Knysna
Turaco exploded from a nearby mossy enclave, its semi-transparent crimson
wings resplendent in the early morning light. A Narina Trogon called
in the distance, and a few "hoots" with cupped-hands brought it in for
a closer look. Not far away an Olive Woodpecker screamed, and we
were able to track it down. A Grey Cuckooshrike put in an appearance
in the canopy with a Yellow-throated Warbler alongside it. A Dusky
Flycatcher sat motionless before darting out to hawk a termite, only
to return to its exact perch while a Cape Batis worked away at the
interior of the forest. All this while, several Greater Double-collared
Sunbirds were competing to see who called the loudest from the top
of the canopy.
Soon we had to move on and drove through the dusty homeland of Venda on our way to the Punda Gate of Kruger National Park. After arrival and check in, we drove the Mahonie loop in search of birds. We had a glut of storks, seeing African Openbill, Woolly-necked, Saddle-billed and Marabou Storks, as well as good raptors, including Brown Snake Eagle, Bateleur, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Tawny Eagle and African Hawk Eagle. We also added a lot of general bushveld species to the list. Chief amongst these was Brown-headed Parrot, Yellow-billed Oxpecker and Retz’s Helmet Shrike. Our night drive scored us Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, which Kathy spotted brilliantly and a few Fiery-necked Nightjars.
30 Sept: Punda Camp, Mahonie Loop and roads near Punda.
We started early and went back out on the Mahonie Loop to look for
more broad-leaved woodland birds. One of our first treats was a party of
Trumpeter
Hornbills searching for fig trees along the base of the hills surrounding
Punda. Amongst the many typical bushveld species, we saw Martial Eagle,
Natal
and
Swainson’s Francolins and a wonderful party of four Purple-crested
Turacos indulging in a bizarre ritual of trying to expel one another
from the edge of their respective territories. Taking turns, the members
would repel up and down the trees, spreading their wings and bouncing from
branch to branch. The performance lasted for several minutes. A Klass’
Cuckoo was trying to parasitise a Chinspot Batis. We were able
to call up both Pearl-spotted
and Barred Owlets during the
middle of the day. Parties of Red-faced
and
Speckled Mousebirds
were
also seen. Several species of roller, woodhoopoes and hornbills were also
added as was Black-collared Barbet,
Scarlet-chested
and
White-bellied
Sunbirds and the electric
Jameson’s Firefinch
and
Southern
Cordon-Blue. Just as it was heating up a party with several
African
Penduline Tits came as great reward. A Southern Boubou
was one
of the few on the trip and Sulphur-breasted and Grey-headed Bush-shrikes
added
to our already impressive bushshrike list!
During lunch the campsite yielded more. Greater Blue-eared Glossy Starlings and Red-headed Weaver are common scavengers in the camp. Blue-grey (Ashy) Flycatcher was found outside our chalet. The thickets proved to be rewarding for Bearded and White-throated Robin-chats. On our afternoon drive into the relatively sterile Mopane woodland, we soon had one of our chief targets, Arnot’s Chat. We added several other bushveld birds to our list, but failed to find the Dickinson’s Kestrel that we were looking for.
1 Oct: Punda-Pafuri-Pafuri River Camp.
An early start was necessary for us to fully take advantage of today’s
opportunities in the far north of the park on the Zimbabwe border. We drove
rapidly to Pafuri. En-route a Grey-headed Parrot whistled
over, but neither Steve nor Kathy got a decent look.
The Levuvu River yielded Three-banded Plover, Goliath Heron and the highly localised and threatened White-crowned Plover. The riverbanks are also the favoured haunt of the Giant and Pied Kingfishers, Pied Wagtail and White-fronted Bee-eater. All seen here easily. Vultures wheeled overhead and White-backed, Lappet-faced and White-headed were all picked up. A lone Lizzard Buzzard sat alongside the picnicsite and we had a pair of Little Sparrowhawks both perched and flying from every angle imaginable. The dense riverine thicket along the Levuvu River brought reward in the form of Yellow-bellied and Terrestrial Greenbuls, Green-capped Eremomela, Grey Tit-Flycatcher, White-browed (Heuglin’s) Robin-chat, Bearded Scrub Robin and Collared Sunbird. The very northern crook of Kruger offers a whole host of new birds, including some very localised (within South Africa) and very special ones. The crazy-looking Crested Guineafowl were both tame and common. The electronic call of the Black-throated Wattle-eye gave away this localised little gem. Tropical Boubou (with only some 50 pairs in the country) was also found easily. We spent a great deal of time stalking a calling Gorgeous Bush-shrike. Steve got to see it, but Kathy, unfortunately, did not. The Pafuri area also is the only place in South Africa supporting Meves’ Long-tailed Starling, which was found after a little searching along with their vibrantly coloured cousins, the Violet-backed Starling. Ironically, this was the only place on the whole trip where we saw Red-billed Quelea, one of Africa’s commonest birds. Mind you, we never looked for it elsewhere!
Near the picnic site we spotted the locally rare Bat-like Spinetail. A pair of these birds fluttered overhead. Their characteristic and bizarre flight shape gave them away. We made our way out of the park to Pafuri River Camp for lunch. Afterwards we set off for one of the highlights of the tour. There are probably a grand total of 200-300 Mottled Spinetails in South Africa. It is one of the country’s rarest birds. Recently, a large Baobab has been found where at least 200 roost each night. This single tree probably holds South Africa’s entire population, and visiting it when all these birds come in to roost is a great way to spend an evening. On our way to the tree we passed through some barren farmlands. While searching for Monotonous Lark we picked up two other surprises, the small-billed form of the Sabota Lark and several Chestnut-backed Finch-larks. The Monotonous remained elusive though. Eastern Paradise Whydah, just starting to come into plumage was also seen near the roadside with several glowing Golden-breasted Buntings.
Once we had found our way to the site for the Mottled Spinetails we searched for Miombo Wren-warbler and one soon came in to tape. Just as it started getting dark they came, first a few at a time and then hundreds, circling tightly over the giant tree immortalised in The Little Prince. "Wooshing" overhead the circle grew tighter and tighter until all of a sudden they sped into the cavity in a matter of seconds. The only reminder of the spectacle was the incessant chatter emanating from the tree of hundreds of little swiftlets packed tightly together for the night! Just seeing these beasts is a treat, but this is a marvellous experience. As it was already dark, we spotlighted on our way back to the River Camp. We located more Fiery-necked Nightjars, some Steenboks and a Galago that jumped quickly from its tree. The River Camp dinner was great, and we had the resident Wood Owl serenading us all night long.
2 Oct: Pafuri-Long Tom Pass.
Today was always set to be a long driving day. But it proved to also
be probably our most frustrating birding day. The Kruger always yields,
even after several days, and after a walk around the river camp, where
we saw the Wood Owls in perfect daylight, we managed to add Yellow-billed
Stork, Hooded Vulture and Black-breasted Snake Eagle to
our list. Our attempts to locate a Pel’s Fishing Owl along the Levuvu
proved fruitless. However we did turn up Red-faced Cisticola, Paradise
Flycatcher, Brubru, Red-billed Oxpecker and Lesser
Masked Weaver, all new trip birds. Most of the mid-morning and early
afternoon was spent driving a stretch where Dickinson’s Kestrels had
been seen earlier that day! After looking over a single kilometer stretch
for over two hours we gave up, we still had a long way to drive. We drove
to the now famous site for the Taita Falcons (where the ONLY
pair
in South Africa is resident) near Blyde River Canyon. We arrived at 16h30,
confident that at least one of the birds would be off foraging somewhere
and would return to the nest. We waited for another 2 hours….nothing! The
birds must have already been roosting on their set-back nest before we
had arrrived. I had never dipped the falcons before, but there is always
a first time. Disappointed, but not in despair, I knew that if the following
morning went well, we would have time to come back here to try again. The
site wasn’t a complete right-off as we had managed to see the endemic Cape
Griffon and Cape Rock Thrush as well as our only Mocking
Chat and first White-necked Ravens of the trip. Somehow, the
day still felt a little hollow. We made our way through to Long Tom Pass
on the Mpumalanga escarpment where we had a wonderful dinner and some excellent
wine which cheered us up a little!
3 Oct: Long-Tom Pass & Abel Erasmus Pass (again).
Today was a much better day! An early wake-up had us enjoying
the forest birding first thing. The lodge has both excellent escarpment
forest patches as well as extensive patches of marvellous pristine high-altitude
grassland. The flowering trees in the garden certainly delivered quite
a spectacle, four sunbird species competed for nectar Black, Lesser
and
Greater
Double-collared and White-bellied sunbirds. Several
Red-backed
Mannikin flew into the tree too, an added bonus. We had done so well
on forest birds at Magoebaskloof that we were only looking for a few key
species here. A Chorister Robin-chat called, but because the Martin’s
had seen this on their previous trip it was not a priority.
Swee Waxbills,
Cape
and
Forest
Canaries ate seed on forest edge. The whole time I was playing the
chirpy monotonous
Bush Blackcap call. Each time, we ventured a few
meters further in, and played tape….not a sausage! No response, nada. Then
a small passerine jumped up on a log about 1.5 m in front of me, coral
pink bill, grey face, black head. The Bush Blackcap (taxonomists
still argue whether it is a bulbul or a babbler) was right in front of
us. After everyone had good looks we made our way out of the forest.
On our way past the reception I casually said that we were going to look for the Blue Swallows. The rarest breeding bird in South Africa, the Blue Swallow is also one of the most threatened. With as few as 80 pairs remaining in South Africa, the swallow has lost 80% of its habitat in the last three generations and is considered Critically threatened in South Africa; scary statistics indeed. They return each year, in the first week of October; I knew we were cutting it fine. The owners said that the birds had not returned this year. I was not too worried as there are other sites we would visit later in the trip, but it would be a nice bird to see now! I decided to go look for them anyway. No sooner had we found our way onto the rolling grassland plateau and a Wailing Cisticola grated its call at us. Some casual spishing brought it out. And then a hirundine came swooping over the grassland and dipping into a culvert. I knew it had to be the bird. It rose again and banked in the sunshine. The iridescent royal blue and long tail streamers clinched it. The male Blue Swallow sheared effortlessly over the long waving grass and then was joined by his mate. Only 20 metres away they made a "twittered" greeting in mid air and then made off in the opposite direction. We hung around for another half-hour waiting for them to return, but they never did. We returned for a full english breakfast, packed up and headed off. The Protea stands on Long Tom Pass rewarded us with a localised eastern endemic, the Gurney’s Sugarbird.
Time was now on our side, and we returned to the Abel Erasmus Pass. This time we only had to wait a few minutes below the Taita Falcon nest before the male bird came in at one hell of a speed. Calling a high pitched "kik-kik-kik" the female joined him on their favourite tree outside the nest. We got the scope on it and enjoyed full frame views of these exceptionally rare birds. After a few minutes, the male launched himself off the perch and started calling and circling higher and higher. Once up high the stoop began. The Little Swift took some time to realise that he was on the menu. The breakneck speed that the falcon had reached was incredible. Left, then right, the swift dodged, and if it hadn’t tucked its tail in under its cloaca, it would have been swift surprise for falcon breakfast. What excitement! The cliffs here also provided some other nice raptors including both African Harrier Hawk and Crowned Hawk Eagle in display. We heard a Striped Pipit call up-slope and Steve and I decided it was gettable.
Maybe stupidity, maybe testosterone, or maybe the falcons inspiring hunting feats got us up onto the cliff. Kathy (the sensible one) stayed behind. We didn’t get the pipit, and coming down the rocky slope was a lot more tricky than getting up it. Steve, a semi-professional mountain climber, did a good job. I, on the other hand, slid down on my rear-end. Painful, but certainly safer. We grinned, Kathy shook her head. Streaky-headed Canary was the final surprise on the walk back to the car. We got into the vehicle, stoked from a great morning’s birding, and started towards Dullstroom and the highland grasslands of central eastern South Africa. On the way we picked up a Rufous-chested Sparrow-hawk soaring over a small plantation. At higher altitude, and near to Dullstroom, we headed to the entrance road to the tiny but highly under-rated Verloren Valei Nature Reserve. On the dirt road we encountered Jackal Buzzard, Blue Crane, Cape Sparrow, Ground Woodpecker, Pied Starling, Cape Weaver and Long-tailed Widowbird. At dusk an Eastern Long-billed Lark called and came in to tape, but it was too distant for satisfactory looks. After dark we flushed a nightjar, almost certainly a Freckled Nightjar, but we did not get good enough looks to be 100% certain. We returned to Dullsroom for the evening.
4 Oct: Dullstroom (Verlorenvalei Nature Reserve) to Wakkerstroom.
Located well within the critically threatened South African Grasslands
Endemic Bird Area (EBA), Verlorenvalei and the surrounding area support
an impressive array of threatened grassland birds. As the sun crept over
the jumbled boulders outside the reserve, one of the first birds we saw
was the endemic and very attractive Buff-streaked Chat. Shortly
after dawn we managed to find the same Eastern Long-billed Lark that
had been displaying the night before, but with dramatically better views,
Steve and Kathy were happy. We continued up the road looking for more grassland
birds and were extremely lucky to find a lone male Wattled Crane foraging
in a field. With only 230 individuals left in the country, this is considered
one of South Africa’s five most critically threatened species and we were
delighted to have caught up with them so early. They normally do not leave
the confines of Verloren Valei. As we were returning to the car we heard
a distant party of Red-winged Francolins calling, and with a bit
of walking and effort, managed to track them down. Things were going very
well, and we had not even entered the reserve yet. We spent the morning
here with the reserve manager Frans Kruger. Frans is not only a superb
guy but is extremely knowledgable too, about the birds, orchids and management
of this threatened biome. As we were standing next to Frans’ landrover
a Long-crested Eagle flew in and a magnificent Malachite Sunbird
probed
the nearby Leonotis bush. Once on the pick-up truck we added Bokmakierie,
wrapping up a clean sweep of southern Africa’s bushshrikes for the trip.
Also, from the vantage point up above the grasslands we were in for a chat
surprise getting Mountain Chat, Familiar Chat, Southern
Ant-eating Chat as well as Sentinel Rock Thrush and Cloud
Cisticola in the grasslands amongst many African Pipits. We
stopped to admire three more Wattled Cranes and while the car was
stationary we took a walk in the grasslands to look for the globally threatened
Yellow-breasted
Pipit. Frans was not sure that they were back in the reserve yet (as
they are altitudinal migrants). We soon found some
Black-winged Plovers
and
after a little more stomping flushed our target, Sneaking up on it a few
more times we were rewarded with superb views of the male, canary yellow
underneath and quite a stunning looking bird. Quite pleased with our haul,
we were ready to head off, and then Frans said, "Hey, want to go and look
at a breeding colony of Bald Ibis?" The decision was made in unanimous
head-nods. Frans took us to the colony where we were briefed on appropriate
behaviour so as not to disturb this awesome looking and globally threatened
grassland bird. On arrival, the adults took off but soon returned once
we had settled down. Next to a waterfall, these bald-domed crimson-headed
icons pretty much carried on with daily activities and it was a treat to
watch them at such close quarters for such a prolonged period. We rewarded
ourselves with a suberb late-breakfast stop at Harries Pancake’s in
central Dullstroom. Bacon and Guacamole or Syrup and cream? Tough choice.
After breakfast we took a strategic drive to Ermelo and then down to a
new site where we had discovered Botha’s Larks a few weeks previously.
At our new spot, this globally endangered endemic which can be a tough
bird to guarantee at the best of times can be considered common! We had
not been out of the car very long when we had at least three of these birds,
which have lost over 50% of their global range and are restricted to 500
km2 of habitat in the world. The site also yielded Red-capped
Lark and Orange-throated Lonclaw. In the afternoon we drove
the dirt road from Amersfoort to Wakkerstroom. A Black Harrier quartered
the grasslands alongside the road, our only one of the trip. As the sun
started to set we found an exquisite party of Blue Korhaan right
next to the road and we were able to examine the detail on every feather
of these beautiful birds. Driving into town several Grey Crowned Cranes
come in calling their mournful but characteristic "mahem" as the sun retreated
behind the hills, bathing the grasslands in an orange light. We decided
to head out for a night-drive immediately and were glad we did as it was
exceptionally productive, producing both Spotted
and
Cape Eagle
Owls as well as what was almost certainly a Grass Owl that slid
rapidly and shadow-like across the lights of the car. As much as we scanned,
we failed to pick it up again and this brief view was not satisfactory
enough for the Martin’s to tick it. We made our way through to where we
were staying in Wakkerstroom and for what proved to be the surprise of
the trip, a 5-course extravaganza of a meal put on by Anne McPhearson,
our hostess.
5 Oct: Wakkerstroom Biosphere Reserve.
Located in a large area of agricultural parkland unaffected by forestry
and people, the area surrounding the small town of Wakkerstroom is the
centre of an endemic bird area, supporting some of the most threatened
species in Africa. Although we had already seen some of these the previous
day, some key birds remained. We headed out on the Armersfoort road again.
This time seeking one of the world’s most threatened larks and the last
of the endemic mega-specials, the Critically Threatened Rudd’s Lark.
We arrived at the stake-out shortly after dawn. Although these birds are
scarce, in the breeding season they are obvious because of their aerial
display flight and curious distinctive call. We waited about 20 minutes
before one started calling. We located it and eventually it came to ground
where we enjoyed prolonged views of it running in the grassland, with the
distinctive crown stripe been seen by everyone. The area also has Eastern
Spike-heeled Lark. Genetically these birds are quite distinct from
their western cousins and with the rate of splitting larks in southern
Africa these days, it is better to bank them. As I said to Steve "sometimes
we know what birds you need before you do". We also found a pair of displaying
Blue
Crane. Returning for breakfast we nabbed a Black-throated Canary
over
toast and tea (and bacon, eggs, sausage , etc., etc.). The afternoon was
set to chase White-bellied Korhaan, which the recent edition of
Sinclair splits as Barrow’s Korhaan. It certainly is very different
looking and behaving to its East African relatives and is almost certainly
a valid split, so we needed to find it! Heading down to the stake-out,
we walked through fields for about 1.5 hours. Much to our relief, just
as we were about to give up, one called up on a distant ridge. We followed
the sound and eventually had very satisfactory looks at them. On our way
back we found Ayre’s Cisticola and headed straight for the wetlands
at Wakkerstroom to boost our daylist. Birding the wetlands was very productive
and a lot of fun and we added a host of commoner species as well as African
Quailfinch, African Marsh Warbler, Yellow Warbler, White-throated
Swallow, SA Cliff Swallow, African Marsh Harrier, Hottentot
Teal and Malachite Kingfisher.
6 Oct: Wakkerstroom Biosphere Reserve to Mkuzi Game Reserve.
Exiting Wakkerstroom early we had a magical Montagu’s Harrier quartering
the grasslands not far from town. As we dropped off the escarpment the
well-treed bushveld pushes into the grasslands. The escarpment grasslands
provided Grassbird and Rufous-naped Lark. Stopping on the
Pongola River we added Osprey and African Black Duck and
then headed directly to Ghost Mountain Inn, which was to be our home for
the next few days. Village Weaver, Lesser Masked Weaver,
Diderick
Cuckoo, Ground-scraper Thrush, Bronze Mannikin,
Yellow-fronted
Canary and Marico Sunbird were added in the Inn gardens. After
lunch we headed for the near-legendary Mkuzi Game Reserve. This is where
the White Rhino was saved from global extinction. Birding here is fantastic
and 400 bird species that have been recorded in this small 36 000 ha gem.
Time however was limited and one can only visit a fraction of the habitats
on offer, including pans, swamp forest, Acacia
thornbush, woodland,
riverine forest, and the highly unique sand forest. We spent our time looking
for the main sandforest specials. Heading directly for Kubube and Kumasinga
hides, this is where we spent the afternoon bagging several of the coastal
Mozambique plain specialities including Rudd’s Apalis and Pink-throated
Twinspot. Other species we saw at the Kubube hide were White-browed
Scrub Robin, Red-chested Cuckoo,
Crowned Hornbill, Tambourine
Dove and Black-bellied Glossy Starling. Mouse-coloured Sunbird
was
seen along with Black,
Collared, Scarlet-chested
and
White-belliedsunbirds.
Look as we may, we could not turn any of the many Marico Sunbirds that
we saw into the local special
Neergaard’s Sunbird. The drought conditions,
it seems, resulted in the birds moving out of the area, and nobody had
seen Neergaard’s
here for quite some time. We did add Yellow-spotted
Nicator near the parking lot after a lot of effort to track down this
notorious skulker. In our short drive we saw
Little Bee-eater and
Black
Cuckoo-shrike. We then stopped in a thicket where African Broadbill
had
been reported recently. The tape was played, but no response. We made for
the airstrip where Black Rhino had been seen, and we caught up with a magical
Female and youngster. As we made for the gate we stopped at the thicket,
and true as bob, the
African Broadbill was now calling. It was almost
dark and despite the spotlight we could not pick them up before we had
to hurry off to make it to the gate before closing time. We got there with
3 minutes to spare. We headed back to Ghost Mountain Inn, picking up Fiery-necked
Nightjar
again.
7 Oct: Mkuzi Game Reserve full day.
Today we spent the entire day at Mkuzi. We enjoyed a lot of woodland
birding and saw many species, but we chased several of the Martin’s target
birds and got them, adding the following to our list: Black-bellied
Bustard, Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Mountain Wagtail, Yellow-throated
Longclaw, Croaking Cisticola, Mouse-coloured Flycatcher,
Red-capped
Robin-chat, Purple-banded Sunbird, Black-crowned Tchagra
and Blue-billed Firefinch. We also got improved views of Bearded
Woodpecker, Red-billed Oxpecker, Southern Black Tit,
African
Penduline Tit, Burnt-necked Eremomela and
Grey Tit-flycatcher.
Although we were due to leave early for Ndumo the next day, we decided
to book the morning walk to the Mkuzi Fig forest in a last ditch attempt
to see the African Broadbill. We returned to Ghost Mountain Inn
and enjoyed impressive traditional Zulu dancing before the buffet dinner.
8 Oct: Ndumo Wilderness Lodge.
Up early, we headed to Mkuzi to go on the Fig Forest walk. Just after
entering the gate we found some Spotted Hyaenas which attempted to eat
the front bumper. The drive to the Fig Forest was not that eventful. Our
walk commenced with screeching Brown-headed Parrots passing overhead.
The regular suspects were there and Black-bellied Glossy Starlings and
Purple-crested
Turacos were common. A Broad-billed Roller displayed and we
soon caught up with these spectacular birds. As we entered the forest we
had Trumpeter Hornbills, Red-capped (Natal) and White-browed
Robin-chats calling everywhere. The first target bird, White-eared
Barbet, was nabbed nesting in a dead trunk near the suspension bridge
over the river, their trilling call gave them away. We eventually passed
the area where the African Broadbill had been seen a few days earlier,
and there it was, sitting on the same branch the ranger had seen it on
48 hours ago, dead still and unresponsive. We had what we had come for,
and were very pleased with ourselves! Another addition to our list was
the Yellow White-eye. After an enjoyable morning and just as we
were heading on our way out a Green Coucal (Yellowbill) called.
After a fair bit of effort we tracked it down sitting high up in some tangles
and enjoyed prolonged views. On the way back to camp we made a quick stop
at Nsumo Pan, picking up Comb Duck, African Jacana and Water
Dikkop. We were happy that we had decided to stay the additional morning
at Mkuze and made off over the Lebombo mountains to Ndumo. We were staying
at the Wilderness Safaris camp and were picked up by our guide. It was
getting late in the afternoon, but we were able to nail another special
of this area by picking up a pair of Lesser Black-winged Plovers with
chicks before nightfall.
9 Oct: Ndumo - St Lucia.
Ndumo, on the floodplain of the Nyamithi Pan, supports a host of Mozambique
plain specials. Our primary target bird here was Pel’s Fishing Owl.
We didn’t see it and that was disappointing, but we came exceptionally
close. I heard it calling pre-dawn and woke the Martin's up and blasted
the call across the lagoon in front of the lodge. The bird responded but
never came any closer. Shortly after dawn we headed to the area where it
had been calling. We found pellets, feathers, spots where they had been
sitting, but no owl. We spent the remainder of the day searching for areas
where they are seen but had no luck. It always was a long shot as we were
only spending one night at Ndumo, but we were disappointed that we didn’t
get it. Nevertheless, our day in Ndumo delivered some other exceptionally
good birds. While searching for the owl a Cuckoo Hawk came flying
in and perched. We saw it very well. The floodplains were spectacular and
we added Black Saw-wing, Wire-tailed and our first Barn
Swallow of the year. The bushveld birding was excellent, but we were
very focussed, looking for our last few specials of this area. The weeping
boerbean trees were flowering, this was excellent news, as they had not
been flowering in Mkuzi, and they are favoured by Neergaard’s Sunbird.
We saw about six other sunbird species too, but eventually the tiny red-banded
beast showed after we annoyed it a little with some play-back. The globally
near-threatened Neergaard’s Sunbird is not reliable anywhere as
it can be nomadic, so we were well pleased to catch up with it. A little
further along, a Southern Banded Snake Eagle was perched up only
15 m away! This is another globally near-threatened bird, with an estimated
25-35 pairs in South Africa. We were certainly glad to catch up with one
of these scarce animals. The pans, surrounded by the most magnificent fever
tree and fig forest supported an amazing variety of waterbirds and we added
Pygmy
Goose and African Spoonbill to the list. As it became apparent
that Pel’s would remain elusive we returned to the lodge and the papyrus
marshes for breakfast. A productive plate of bacon and eggs yielded
Black-backed
Cisticola, Golden, Yellow and Brown-throated Weaver as
well as Red-shouldered Widowbird. All new trip birds and several
lifers for Steve and Kathy.
After breakfast we left Ndumo and headed straight for Lake St Lucia. Arriving in the late afternoon we drove to the Iphiva camp site near the entrance of the Game Reserve. This is a great spot and we added a lot of new birds in our first bird party, the most notable were the localised coastal forest specialities of the Mozambique coastal plain Brown Scrub Robin and Woodward’s Batis. Two other new triplist birds were Forest Weaver and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird. After dark we looked for flufftails without any joy but were very pleased with the Swamp (Natal) Nightjar we located in the adjacent grassland. Another Red Data Book bird, the Swamp Nightjar is threatened by habitat destruction and its coastal grassland habitat is disappearing fast.
10 Oct: Lake St Lucia.
After an early breakfast we headed straight for Cape Vidal to soak
up the incredible Lake St Lucia World Heritage Site, and the plethora of
waterbirds and bushveld birds associated with this magical and diverse
lagoon. We explored the Cape Vidal area for several target birds and apart
from some of the same specials we saw yesterday we turned up trumps with
great looks at Grey Waxbill and Green Twinspot early on.
The forests were busy and we heard Livingstone’s Turacos calling
in the distance and many White-eared Barbets in their holes. On
the grassy floodplain we saw Red-breasted Swallow and our first
Zitting
Cisticola of the trip. We also saw African Goshawk,
Crowned
Eagle and Olive Sunbird to the long list of forest birds we
had already seen on the trip. In the afternoon we made our way towards
Bonamanzi where we found our only Collared Pratincole’s of the trip
and then made straight for Eshowe.
11 Oct: Dhlinza.
This morning we were up early for one of our key trip birds. We made
our way into Dhlinza forest and spent the better part of an hour walking
around scanning the forest floor. I picked up the tell-tale high pitched
"tseeeep" sound a little off the path. I walked into the forest, moving
slowly, until from virtually under my feet it nonchalantly hopped away.
Only 4 ft away, the Spotted Ground Thrush moved. Apparently completely
unperturbed it foraged, at times hopping even closer. I motioned for the
Martin’s to come closer and eventually everyone had bin-filled views of
one of Africa’s most threatened and cryptic forest thrushes. Globally "Endangered"
there may be fewer than 400 pairs of these birds left in South Africa.
With, yet another amazing special under the belt, we carried on birding.
Dhlinza is a great place and I was the only one to see some Delegorgue’s
Pigeons fly from the canopy but Lemon Dove, Scaly-throated
Honeyguide as well as a calling male Emerald Cuckoo were all
seen well before we left. We headed for Richard’s Bay to look for some
key waterbirds. On the way, the Enseleni River provided another key highlight,
an African Finfoot, another Red Data Book bird. At Thaluzithleka
Pan in Richards Bay we added the highly localised Lesser Jacana,
as well as a few other trip birds such as White-backed Duck and
Whiskered
Tern. This amazing wetland always delivers and we also had hosts of
other regular wetland species. In the afternoon we headed to Umlalazi Nature
Reserve where the mangroves support South Africa’s rarest kingfisher. There
are less than 500 Mangrove Kingfishers in South Africa. They migrate
south to the Eastern Cape in early October and I thought we would be too
late. But we sloshed our way through the mangroves playing the tapes and
after about 45 mins a bird came in, perched long enough for everyone to
get great looks, called once and shot-off. The Martin’s had already seen
Palm-nut
Vulture on previous African travels, but we decided to go and look
at one of the pairs that breeds at Umlalazi. We had wonderful views of
this, one of the rarest raptors in the country, numbering fewer than 40
individuals. We returned to Eshowe for the night.
12 Oct: Ngoye Forest Reserve.
Leaving Eshowe, today was about a handful of high quality birds, not
about quantity. Getting to Ngoya Forest is not easy, accessible only by
4x4 vehicle, we picked this up and off we went. As soon as we arrived at
the forest edge we heard the incessant "chop-----chop------chop" call of
the Woodward’s Barbet. Within a minute one had responded to our
tape and it landed just above our heads. This bird is found only in one
unique and discrete forest block in South Africa. It has a global population
of some 500 individuals and is considered threatened. The debate rages
on as to weather it is a sub-species of East Africa’s Green Barbet.
But there is no doubt that it has distinct morphological features and the
huge geographic disjunction (the closest population being in southern Malawi)
are strongly suggestive that this is South Africa’s most localised endemic
bird species. Making our way to another forest block over the rolling Zululand
hills, we saw a variety of good grassland birds including Croaking Cisticola
and
Pale-crowned
Cisticola, African and Plain-backed Pipits. We also flushed
a Common Quail and added a Broad-tailed Warbler
to the list
before reaching the forest edge. A Black Sparrowhawk
came skimming
over the grasslands just before we entered the forest. We then decided
to head to the Grootdetrouw Dam to spend the afternoon on a barge looking
for some more threatened birds. The time spent on the barge was superb
and we saw many birds including another African Finfoot,
which rapidly
scooted up the slope. However, we spent a good three hours hunting for
the Vulnerable White-backed Night Heron, and just as it seemed the
beast was going to evade us we discovered an adult and juvenile bird, a
nest and an egg. Smiles broke out and so did the cool-box full of beers
as we sailed back to the lodge and back towards Eshowe.
13 Oct: Eshowe-Sani Pass.
We left pretty early this morning to get down to Port Shepstone nice
and early. We were heading for a private house and garden where a few of
South Africa’s 200-odd remaining Pied Mannikins come in to a seed-feeder.
We arrived at Tony’s place and within an hour we had three Pied Mannikins
up
in the tree next to his house with a whole party of Bronze Mannikins.
Another rarity nabbed we moved on to Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve, where
we searched in vain for Knysna Woodpecker. We were rewarded with
views of other forest birds though including a nesting Crowned Hawk
Eagle, Knysna Turaco, Narina Trogon, Olive Woodpecker and Grey
Cuckooshrike. The scrub near the forest held a Lazy Cisticola.
The grasslands outside the reserve on the way to Franklin supported a small
family of Grey Crowned Crane in the grassy midlands. Once at Franklin
Vlei we searched the marshes for many wetland birds and came up trumps
with our only sightings of Little Bittern and African Rail.
We headed for Underberg to reach Robin Guy’s place just in time for dinner.
14 Oct: Sani Pass - full day.
We made our way towards Sani Pass from Underberg, stopping just outside
Himeville to find a Wattled Crane with chick. We then started heading
up the incredible pass which at 3 482 m a.s.l. is the highest mountain
pass in southern Africa and the gateway into the mountain kingdom of Lesotho.
Where Proteas dominated we found the beautiful endemic Gurney’s
Sugarbird, Cape Rock Thrush and ‘tinkling’ Grassbird.
Near the base of the pass we searched the Leucosidea scrub for Bush
Blackcap and Drakensberg Prinia which we found easily. Yellow
Warbler was heard as was the incessant calling of a Barratt’s Warbler.
Higher up, over the top and once into Lesotho we found Drakensberg Siskin
near
the Sani Top hotel, the amazing and striking Orange-breasted Rockjumper
was also seen near here. Sentinel Rock Thrush, Cape Bunting,
Sickle-winged
Chat, Rock Pipit and the year’s first Mountain Pipits, as well
as a pair of soaring Lammergeier and a few Cape Vultures were
all seen before we headed down the mountains. We made our way towards Donnybrook,
finding a wetland en-route. Here we eventually enticed a Red-chested
Flufftail out of the reeds, much to the Martin’s satisfaction, their
first flufftail!
15 Oct: Natal Mistbelt Grasslands.
We left Underberg before dawn to get to Donnybrook and Xumeni Forest
at first light. We were rewarded early on, with a whole flock of the highly
threatened Cape Parrots leaving to forage at another forest block.
With less than 500 remaining, this is yet another of the country’s "endangered"
species. The Xumeni forest is productive and we added Black Cuckoo,
Chorister
and
Starred
Robins and another wonderful Orange Ground Thrush
to our list.
We also made a valiant attempt to find a calling Buff-spotted Flufftail,
but after 2 hours trying, we gave up when the bird stopped responding.
In the afternoon we made for Creighton. After a superb quiche lunch served
by Gail Gemmill we headed out in search of the Black-rumped Button-quail.
This incredibly scarce bird is also considered "endangered", with fewer
than 1200 individuals remaining in South Africa. After an hour’s walking
a pair flushed, but flew directly into the sun and left Steve feeling not
too happy about the views he saw. We decided to try another spot and shortly
after entering the other field had a pair take off at our feet and show
as well as you can expect a flushing buttonquail to show, leaving Steve
with a distinctly broader smile on his face. We also saw Orange-breasted
Waxbill here, and on our way back to Creighton saw a male Stanley’s
Bustard in full display. The afternoon was spent at some wetlands where
we got more looks at Red-chested Flufftail
and African Rail.
16 Oct: Sani Pass - Joburg.
Leaving Creighton before dawn, we returned to Oribi Gorge to try for
the Knysna Woodpecker again. We spent 2 hours trying with no luck
and then bumped into a group of birders that had just seen one. Rushing
to the spot the male came in and attached itself to a trunk right in front
of me. I turned and pointed to the bird, but it flew into the trees before
Kathy or Steve could get a satisfactory view. It continued to call for
a while and despite desperate searching we could not relocate it. It stopped
calling and was not heard or seen again. We had to leave as it was a long
drive back to Joberg, and this woodpecker was so near and yet so far. A
nemesis bird for the Martin’s would have to remain, and the only South
African endemic they have not seen to their satisfaction. The remainder
of the day was spent returning to Joberg, with virtually no more birding.
17 Oct: Johannesburg: Suikerbosrand N.R., Marievale and Roodepoort
Botanical Gardens.
Because the international flight was not until late in the day Steve
and I (Kathy decided to rest for the day) hunted a few more of his target
species. Our first stop was Suikerbosrand, a reserve on the edge of Heidelberg
near Johannesburg. We soon had the most important bird, a party of Orange
River Francolins nearby. Heading out, our next stop was Marievale where
we located the required Black Egret fishing umbrella-style and then
on to the Roodepoort Botanical Gardens where we looked for Striped Pipit,
but instead turned up a more than welcome Half-collared Kingfisher!
We decided to call it a day, the trip was over and we headed back to Kempton
Park, enjoying a wonderful seafood farewell lunch before heading to Joberg
International Airport where we bade each other fond farewells. The trips
with Steve and Kathy are very special, and we know that even as we wave
good-bye, we will surely see each other again!
Conclusions
Steve and Kathy are experienced African birders and the 108 lifers
that they got all had to be worked for exceptionally hard. But I can say
that we saw the best quality birds I have ever had on a South African trip.
Missing a handful was inevitable given that we were going after the toughest
birds in the country. Based on the South African Red Data Book we saw three
of the country’s five Critically threatened birds (the other two, Bittern
and White-winged Flufftail are virtually impossible to see on a trip of
this kind). We saw six out of six of the country’s Endangered terrestrial
species and 25 out of 30 possible Vulnerable species. We also saw 31 of
the possible 42 near-threatened species. In essence we saw almost every
species in the Red Data Book that we could have for the time of year and
for the areas that we were in. Added to this, we saw all of South Africa’s
eastern endemics! The only miss being a southern endemic, the Knysna Woodpecker,
that so narrowly avoided detection. All in all, it would have been very
difficult to de better.
Trip List
Based on the list of the new authoritative Robert’s VII,
which is due for release in 2003. The totals cited do not include heard
birds or birds seen only by the guide. For the sake of completeness however,
birds heard or seen only by the guide (demarked explicitly GO (guide only))
are included in the detailed annotated list below. Threatened status, according
to the Eskom Red Data Book of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland denoted
as (CR) Critically Threatened, (En) Endangered, (Vu)
Vulnerable or (nt) Near-threatened. Endemics to South Africa/Lesotho/Swaziland
are marked with an (E) and underlined. Endemics to southern
Africa are marked (NE) and are in italics.