Sal
Monday 21st July 2003, 15:48
Whoooeeee! This was such a great trip! First, let me give you a little background.The Kruger National Park is South Africa’s largest wildlife park covering an area of over 19 000 km2. It is situated in Mpumalanga province and is eight to nine hours
drive from where I live. Its shape is long and rather like an inverted L spanning something like 220 - 250latitude and it has sixteen different ecological zones which are determined by a combination of geology and climate. This means lots of
different vegetation types and lots of different birds! Nearly five hundredspecies have been listed, so although my sightings constitute only a fifth of this, don’t think I am typical. Real Birders Get More! (This last is especially for Charles- keep that dream! ) There are various camps in which you can stay, and I am putting
in a tiny map at this stage so that if you want to you can copy and enlarge it and follow our journey. Oh no I am not. Can't make it paste. Sorry.
We entered the Malelane gate in the south at around six
thirty a.m on Saturday 12 July. The weather was rather
overcast and remained so for the rest of the day (but after
this first day we had wonderful weather all the time.) As we
proceeded north, we even had some spots of rain. Our first
three nights were at Satara camp and as the speed limit on
tar is 50 and on dirt is 40kph and because one constantly
stops to look at things, this journey can take all day. - and it
did! The trees were full of grey loeries, fork tailed drongoes
and longtailed shrikes. Overhead at least one and often two
bateleurs (think they are now called wedgetailed eagles, hate
the name) soared and circled. Redbilled, yellowbilled and grey hornbills were everywhere - on the road sorting through elephant dung and rhino middens; in the trees balancing uncertainly and whistling to each other; flap-gliding heavily
through the air. Lilacbreasted rollers tumbled through the air with brilliant flashes of aquamarine or perched in full and glorious colour on the topmost twigs of the low thorn trees Redbilled oxpeckers were on a large number of the herbivores that we saw. I looked hard for yellowbilled oxpeckers which are very
rare here, more common in the north of SA, but saw none. Every now and then we saw white helmetshrikes and small parties of redbilled woodhoopoes whose Zulu name translates as ‘the laughing of old women’ (cackling sort of noise). The
blackeyed bulbuls and the starlings - Burchell’s glossy starling, Cape glossy starling and blueeared glossy starling - were especially common at the picnic sites. On the way we stopped at various waterholes and I was able to add water dikkop, blacksmith plover, reed cormorant, goliath heron, marabou stork, Cape wagtail, Egyptian goose, giant kingfisher, African fish eagle, black headed and grey heron, saddlebill stork and brownhooded kingfisher to my list. Other birds seen on the way up were melba finch (a favourite of mine), blue waxbill, blackheaded oriole, hadeda ibis, helmeted guineafowl, whiteheaded vulture(great because uncommon here), Swainson’s and Natal francolins,
brownhooded kingfisher, Burchell’s coucal and Cape turtle dove. By the time wehad booked in at Satara it was geting dark and a Scops owl started purring in thetrees outside the office, this was my last bird of the day.
Each morning we would get up at five and be ready to roll when the gates opened at six. Dawn was breaking and the sky streaked with gold and peach and crimson
and washed at the edges with pale greens and blues and the trees stood out as twisted, lacy black silhouettes. Each day we travelled a different road, stopped at a different dam, but all in the same area around Satara. Birds seen on these expeditions, as well as many of the ones already mentioned, were whitebrowed scrub robin, pied kingfisher, blackcrowned tchagra, yellowbreasted apalis, greencapped eremomela, bearded woodpecker, whitebreasted cormorant, darter, arrowmarked babbler, greenbacked heron, African jacana, brownheaded parrot, lappetfaced vulture, yellowbellied bulbul, house sparrow,
redeyed dove, whitefaced duck, whitebellied sunbird, scarletchested sunbird, plainbacked pipit, stonechat, hamerkop, Namaqua dove, laughing dove, crested francolin, tawny eagle, green pigeon, crested barbet, brown snake eagle,
woollynecked stork, threebanded plover, crowned plover, wattled starling, kori bustard. These last we saw in the late evening light - three of them in stately line abreast, walking slowly through the short grass, touched by the long low rays of the setting sun - so beautiful.
We left Satara on Tuesday 15 July and travelled south to Biyamiti bush camp where we had booked in for our other three nights. This is one of my favourite camps and great for birders. It has only fifteen chalets and the camp boundary incorporates some bush with little paths running through it. There is also a perimeter path so that you can look into the thick bush outside the camp. All of this is great for birding just from the camp itself. When I tell you that it fronts onto a (seasonal)river and has its own bird hide . . . ! On the way down - again a full day’s journey - I added the following to my list: malachite kingfisher, bronzewinged courser, puffback shrike, yellowbilled stork (these, by the way,
were in breeding plumage so their white feathers had the most lovely tinge of pink), spoonbill, southern boubou, chinspot batis, blackwinged stilt and great white egret. One place we stopped at was Orpen dam. This is a small long, narrow dam in a sort of gorge and there is a lookout quite high above it.The vegetation is
thick and lush and there are sycamore figs and jackalberries (both large trees) and thick reedbeds. The dam runs to left and right of the lookout and round the corner out of sight. In the reeds were two grazing buffalo. On the sandbank opposite,
lined up like breakwaters, were 25 crocs, also on the sandbank and in the shallows were grey herons, yellowbilled storks and woollynecked storks and there were two fish eagles calling from a sycamore fig. There were darters perched on dead branches spreading their wings to the sun and the grunting of hippo echoed from the narrow walls. Little threebanded plovers ran busily across the sand and puffbacked shrikes, boubous and batises hopped busily about in the trees. It was
peaceful and lovely and I could have stayed for hours.
We were greeted by ten elephant in the riverbed when we arrived at Biyamiti (including two babies) and I was able to walk to within ten metres of two young males (there was a fence between us!). It was dark by the time we unpacked so
birds had to wait until the next day. Again, we drove along different roads each day and, in addition, I spent one afternoon walking the bush paths in the camp.The most interesting thing that I saw was a hamerkops’ nest built in a large sturdy
sausage tree. It was probably about five years old and a pair of hamerkops were busy building onto it for the new breeding season. One stayed on the nest working with the material supplied, and the other flew busily back and forth collecting from
the riverbed right in front of me. It would pick up a beakful of dried grass, walk around for a bit, drop it, pick up some reeds, walk around again, and then discard this in favour of hard dry lumps of elephant dung almost as big as its head ! This
whole new section of the nest will be lined with dung! Every time the male (I am sure it was a he) brought home another beakful there would be this cacophony of sound as they shrieked at one another. I think she was saying ‘typical. You go out and leave me to do all the work and all you bring back is another load of sh . . t!’ My list grew as I added the following: redfaced mousebird, trumpeter hornbill, little bee eater, redbilled firefinch, yelloweyed canary, greyheaded bush shrike wattled plover, emeraldspotted dove (now greenspotted dove), redcrested korhaan, lesser
striped swallow (must have stayed behind), threestreaked tchagra, southern black tit, fantailed flycatcher, whitecrowned shrike, gymnogene, martial eagle, pearlspotted owl, spurwing goose, redbilled buffalo weaver, whitefronted bee eater, black stork.
In addition, of course, were the animals. Amongst others we saw about 160 elephant, 120 buffalo, 14 lion, 4 leopard, 5 hyaena and 10 rhino. Hmmnn this is getting a little out of control. OK will not tell you about best animal sighting -dream sighting for me! Magic time. Great anti-stress prescription!
drive from where I live. Its shape is long and rather like an inverted L spanning something like 220 - 250latitude and it has sixteen different ecological zones which are determined by a combination of geology and climate. This means lots of
different vegetation types and lots of different birds! Nearly five hundredspecies have been listed, so although my sightings constitute only a fifth of this, don’t think I am typical. Real Birders Get More! (This last is especially for Charles- keep that dream! ) There are various camps in which you can stay, and I am putting
in a tiny map at this stage so that if you want to you can copy and enlarge it and follow our journey. Oh no I am not. Can't make it paste. Sorry.
We entered the Malelane gate in the south at around six
thirty a.m on Saturday 12 July. The weather was rather
overcast and remained so for the rest of the day (but after
this first day we had wonderful weather all the time.) As we
proceeded north, we even had some spots of rain. Our first
three nights were at Satara camp and as the speed limit on
tar is 50 and on dirt is 40kph and because one constantly
stops to look at things, this journey can take all day. - and it
did! The trees were full of grey loeries, fork tailed drongoes
and longtailed shrikes. Overhead at least one and often two
bateleurs (think they are now called wedgetailed eagles, hate
the name) soared and circled. Redbilled, yellowbilled and grey hornbills were everywhere - on the road sorting through elephant dung and rhino middens; in the trees balancing uncertainly and whistling to each other; flap-gliding heavily
through the air. Lilacbreasted rollers tumbled through the air with brilliant flashes of aquamarine or perched in full and glorious colour on the topmost twigs of the low thorn trees Redbilled oxpeckers were on a large number of the herbivores that we saw. I looked hard for yellowbilled oxpeckers which are very
rare here, more common in the north of SA, but saw none. Every now and then we saw white helmetshrikes and small parties of redbilled woodhoopoes whose Zulu name translates as ‘the laughing of old women’ (cackling sort of noise). The
blackeyed bulbuls and the starlings - Burchell’s glossy starling, Cape glossy starling and blueeared glossy starling - were especially common at the picnic sites. On the way we stopped at various waterholes and I was able to add water dikkop, blacksmith plover, reed cormorant, goliath heron, marabou stork, Cape wagtail, Egyptian goose, giant kingfisher, African fish eagle, black headed and grey heron, saddlebill stork and brownhooded kingfisher to my list. Other birds seen on the way up were melba finch (a favourite of mine), blue waxbill, blackheaded oriole, hadeda ibis, helmeted guineafowl, whiteheaded vulture(great because uncommon here), Swainson’s and Natal francolins,
brownhooded kingfisher, Burchell’s coucal and Cape turtle dove. By the time wehad booked in at Satara it was geting dark and a Scops owl started purring in thetrees outside the office, this was my last bird of the day.
Each morning we would get up at five and be ready to roll when the gates opened at six. Dawn was breaking and the sky streaked with gold and peach and crimson
and washed at the edges with pale greens and blues and the trees stood out as twisted, lacy black silhouettes. Each day we travelled a different road, stopped at a different dam, but all in the same area around Satara. Birds seen on these expeditions, as well as many of the ones already mentioned, were whitebrowed scrub robin, pied kingfisher, blackcrowned tchagra, yellowbreasted apalis, greencapped eremomela, bearded woodpecker, whitebreasted cormorant, darter, arrowmarked babbler, greenbacked heron, African jacana, brownheaded parrot, lappetfaced vulture, yellowbellied bulbul, house sparrow,
redeyed dove, whitefaced duck, whitebellied sunbird, scarletchested sunbird, plainbacked pipit, stonechat, hamerkop, Namaqua dove, laughing dove, crested francolin, tawny eagle, green pigeon, crested barbet, brown snake eagle,
woollynecked stork, threebanded plover, crowned plover, wattled starling, kori bustard. These last we saw in the late evening light - three of them in stately line abreast, walking slowly through the short grass, touched by the long low rays of the setting sun - so beautiful.
We left Satara on Tuesday 15 July and travelled south to Biyamiti bush camp where we had booked in for our other three nights. This is one of my favourite camps and great for birders. It has only fifteen chalets and the camp boundary incorporates some bush with little paths running through it. There is also a perimeter path so that you can look into the thick bush outside the camp. All of this is great for birding just from the camp itself. When I tell you that it fronts onto a (seasonal)river and has its own bird hide . . . ! On the way down - again a full day’s journey - I added the following to my list: malachite kingfisher, bronzewinged courser, puffback shrike, yellowbilled stork (these, by the way,
were in breeding plumage so their white feathers had the most lovely tinge of pink), spoonbill, southern boubou, chinspot batis, blackwinged stilt and great white egret. One place we stopped at was Orpen dam. This is a small long, narrow dam in a sort of gorge and there is a lookout quite high above it.The vegetation is
thick and lush and there are sycamore figs and jackalberries (both large trees) and thick reedbeds. The dam runs to left and right of the lookout and round the corner out of sight. In the reeds were two grazing buffalo. On the sandbank opposite,
lined up like breakwaters, were 25 crocs, also on the sandbank and in the shallows were grey herons, yellowbilled storks and woollynecked storks and there were two fish eagles calling from a sycamore fig. There were darters perched on dead branches spreading their wings to the sun and the grunting of hippo echoed from the narrow walls. Little threebanded plovers ran busily across the sand and puffbacked shrikes, boubous and batises hopped busily about in the trees. It was
peaceful and lovely and I could have stayed for hours.
We were greeted by ten elephant in the riverbed when we arrived at Biyamiti (including two babies) and I was able to walk to within ten metres of two young males (there was a fence between us!). It was dark by the time we unpacked so
birds had to wait until the next day. Again, we drove along different roads each day and, in addition, I spent one afternoon walking the bush paths in the camp.The most interesting thing that I saw was a hamerkops’ nest built in a large sturdy
sausage tree. It was probably about five years old and a pair of hamerkops were busy building onto it for the new breeding season. One stayed on the nest working with the material supplied, and the other flew busily back and forth collecting from
the riverbed right in front of me. It would pick up a beakful of dried grass, walk around for a bit, drop it, pick up some reeds, walk around again, and then discard this in favour of hard dry lumps of elephant dung almost as big as its head ! This
whole new section of the nest will be lined with dung! Every time the male (I am sure it was a he) brought home another beakful there would be this cacophony of sound as they shrieked at one another. I think she was saying ‘typical. You go out and leave me to do all the work and all you bring back is another load of sh . . t!’ My list grew as I added the following: redfaced mousebird, trumpeter hornbill, little bee eater, redbilled firefinch, yelloweyed canary, greyheaded bush shrike wattled plover, emeraldspotted dove (now greenspotted dove), redcrested korhaan, lesser
striped swallow (must have stayed behind), threestreaked tchagra, southern black tit, fantailed flycatcher, whitecrowned shrike, gymnogene, martial eagle, pearlspotted owl, spurwing goose, redbilled buffalo weaver, whitefronted bee eater, black stork.
In addition, of course, were the animals. Amongst others we saw about 160 elephant, 120 buffalo, 14 lion, 4 leopard, 5 hyaena and 10 rhino. Hmmnn this is getting a little out of control. OK will not tell you about best animal sighting -dream sighting for me! Magic time. Great anti-stress prescription!