Jo'burg to...... (1 Viewer)

Ok, here's an attempt at another 'live' trip report, not sure how much I'll be able to keep it up. It's our first trip to southern Africa, 10 days in Gambia being my only experience of sub saharan Africa, so I'm pretty excited.

Nicky and I flew from Heathrow to Johannesburg direct, with South African airlines, arriving late morning yesterday. We had pre-booked (unlike us) 2 nights in the 1322 Backpackers in eastern Pretoria (280 ZAR/night, for a double) and had arranged (very unlike us!) taxi pick-up from the airport for 40 ZAR. We figured on needing a couple of days to recover and sort out hiring a car and settling in. The hostel has a kitchen, and food at a supermarket 10mins walk away is generally a bit cheaper than in Bristol.

Before we had got off the plane I'd managed a couple of identifiable lifers: Blacksmith Plover and Cape Sparrow, but the drive to the hostel was mostly chomping at the bit, with various unidentifiable flying somethings. Whoopee we're here! The hostel itself was in the leafy suburb of Hatfield, east of central Pretoria, and the small garden was (for me) worth exploring. Standing on a bench and peering over a wall has produced a zonking male African Paradise Flycatcher, and when I looked overhead I was somewhat surprised to see a circling African Darter. A short walk down the road darter-wards revealed that we were next door to the university campus, which has a small swamp-fringed lake, so I have managed to explore this area a bit over yesterday and today, in between sorting out walking to the shops etc. Nicky's not been well tummywise unfortunately, but appears to be getting better now, and has made it to the campus lake once too.

Before making it into the campus compound, the goodies started to file in, in the order of the list below. It was seeing Thick-billed Weaver through the campus' fence that really made me think 'wow, what's this place and how can I get in there?!' Pretty much everywhere we've seen in Pretoria is enclosed in tall fencing, mostly electrified, but the gate staff at the campus entrance were ok with me entering for birding purposes, though only when I showed them my binoculars were not a camera.

So here's the list so far (lifers in big bold and intros in brackets):-

1 BLACKSMITH PLOVER
2 (Rock Dove)
3 Pied Crow
4 CAPE SPARROW
5 Sacred Ibis
6 (Common Myna)
7 African Paradise Flycatcher
8 AFRICAN DARTER
9 Little Swift
10 African Palm Swift
11 Black-headed Heron
12 DARK-CAPPED BULBUL
13 KAROO THRUSH
14 Laughing Dove
15 SOUTHERN MASKED WEAVER
16 SOUTHERN GREY-HEADED SPARROW
17 AFRICAN HOOPOE
18 CROWNED LAPWING
19 House Sparrow
20 HADEDA IBIS
21 CAPE TURTLE DOVE
22 Cattle Egret
23 GREY GO-AWAY BIRD
24 CAPE WHITE-EYE
25 African Grey Hornbill
26 AFRICAN OLIVE PIGEON
27 CAPE ROBIN-CHAT
28 Crested Coot
29 FISCAL SHRIKE
30 CRESTED BARBET
31 THICK-BILLED WEAVER
32 Moorhen
33 EGYPTIAN GOOSE
34 Swallow
35 Reed Cormorant
36 WHITE-BREASTED CORMORANT
37 Grey Heron
38 Tawny-flanked Prinia
39 Pied Kingfisher
40 SOUTHERN RED BISHOP
41 SPECKLED MOUSEBIRD
42 Pin-tailed Whydah
43 CAPE WAGTAIL
44 Black-winged Kite
45 WHITE-THROATED SWALLOW
46 Purple Heron
47 (Mallard)
48 White-rumped Swift
49 GREATER STRIPED SWALLOW
50 GROUNDSCRAPER THRUSH
51 LESSER STRIPED SWALLOW
52 STREAKY-HEADED SEEDEATER
53 BLACK CRAKE
54 AFRICAN BLACK DUCK
55 CAPE GLOSSY STARLING
56 BLACK-COLLARED BARBET
57 KURRICHANE THRUSH
58 Speckled Pigeon
59 Village Weaver
60 THREE-BANDED PLOVER
61 BLACK-THROATED CANARY

There's a colony of Cattle Egrets, African Darters and Black-headed Herons on the lake. Most of the birds listed have been in good numbers, and I'm guessing there's nothing unusual in there (?). Personnal faves have been Groundscraper Thrush (1), Streaky-headed Seedeater (2), Black-throated Canary (1), Black Crake (1), African Black Duck (3) a group that popped in to the lake briefly on one visit, and of course totally loopy-looking stuff like the Red Bishops, Pin-tailed Whydahs, Speckled Mousebirds, and pretty much all of it come to think of it. Well I mustn't grumble at 35 lifers without even really going anywhere yet!

We goofed a bit with hiring a car, and should have done it at home in advance, as it would have been cheaper. We've now sorted a little one out though which is a bit under 300 pounds for 3 weeks. We hope to return it after doing a bit of a loop to the northeast, taking in Kruger NP, and then we're booked on a train to Cape Town.

As with our other 'live' reports, all suggestions are welcome, and helpful 'nudges' if you think I'm likely to have cocked up an ID etc. We're mostly using the Southern African Birdfinder book for gen, but have BIrdboybowley's trip report printed out and have looked at a few others, eg Jos's. We have the SASOL field guide, but I've just seen a newer edition and the illustrations look greatly improved for some of the tricky birds like larks and cisticolas. Drat!

Ah, brings back memories from January! Nothing like being able to trip over lifers at every turn.

Keep up the good work!

just posting for the email reminders...........

Excellent, great to see a new installment of the 'Wheatland World Wander'.
Are birding apps of any use?
Sasol has one for South Africa, hopefully the latest version:
http://www.sasolbirds.co.za/mobile-app.php

Looking forward to another epic...

Jo'Burg to . . .

iceberg?
Hamburg?
Burger King?

Dullstroom

We've just emerged from Kruger where we've had no internet so we are way behind on the reporting.

I should have added last time that by chance German birder Jens-Hermann was staying in our hostel, so we teamed up for a couple of short visits to the campus. He'd just come back from Kruger, and this was the first news of how dry the park is at the moment, especially the south.

Dullstroom is a town in an area of high altitude grassland with rocky outcrops and marshy ground, about half way between Pretoria and Kruger. We decided on this as our first site to bird. It was actually fairly chilly in Pretoria, and I had read that it can be foggy at Dullstroom, so I was beginning to think that our plan to stay at the municipal campsite there may not be a good one, I'm typing this in our tent on our second night here and all I can say about Dullstroom is this: It's awesome.

The journey on the N4 to Dullstroom produced a couple of White-bellied Sunbirds, some South African Cliff swallows, and our first Helmeted Guineafowl, African Stonechats, and the incredible Long-tailed widowbirds.

The Dullstroom campsite is easy to find to the northwest of town, and is by a couple of lakes and a rocky outcrop which is a well known Cape Eagle Owl site. It costs 80ZAR per person, and the gate guard was super friendly. We were incredibly jammy and had amazing views of a Cape Eagle Owl while it was still light, in the rocks directly above where the steps peter out. The bird was found by a SA birding couple who whistled us over, and it was a new one for them too. We watched it swoop after a rabbit-sized mammal, and narrowly miss it. There was also a female Buff-streaked Chat nearby.

Today was spent birding around the campsite lakes at dawn, followed by breakfast, then the drive recommended in the birdfinder book which involves taking the 17.5km dirt road to De Berg which starts 8km north of Dullstroom. We returned via more relaxing tarmac roads, as the car was finding that route a bit sketchy at times, and I wouldn't want to try it in a car with any less clearance than our Nissan Micra, now named Dusty.

Birds around the campsite area included a flyover party of 4 Blue Cranes, Cape Weavers, Yellow Bishops, Drakensberg Prinia (3), Cape Longclaws, Lesser Swamp Warbler, Yellow-billed Duck, African Marsh Harrier, Long-tailed Widowbirds, at least one totally awesome male Malachite Sunbird, a pair of Amethyst Sunbirds, my first 'real' Common Waxbills, Cape Crows, a Malachite Kingfisher, African Spoonbills, and Wattled Lapwings. Hirundines were well represented with Greater and Lesser Striped Swallows, Barn, and White-throated Swallows and Brown-throated and Banded Martins. The pipit and cisticola confusion started here, but by the end of today I'd worked out that there are Long-billed and African Pipits at the campsite area and on the drive, and that there are Levaillant's and Wing-snapping Cisticolas at the campsite area, and Wailing and Wing-snapping cisticolas on the drive. No luck with Pale-crowned Cisticolas.

The off-road drive started well with a group of 10 Southern Bald Ibis after about 5km, and just got better and better as we picked up Ground Woodpecker (1), a male Buff-streaked Chat, a superb Black-chested Snake-Eagle, Red-winged Francolins (5+), a male Sentinel Rock Thrush, a Mountain Wheatear, Eastern Long-billed Lark (1 seen, a few others heard) and other goodies such as an Alpine Swift, Jackal Buzzard, African Pied Starlings and a Cape Griffon. The highlight for me though was eventually flushing a single Yellow-breasted Pipit, which perched up for scope views. This species is supposed to be relatively common here, but I could easily have missed it. We also had 2 more Blue Cranes' and a very distant crane in the heat haze, that I strung into a Wattled Crane until I discovered what shadows and heat haze can do to a crane's appearance at very long range up there.

We also saw a presumed Meerkat, and a couple of cool species of bok. We don't have a mammal guide with us, so will just have to appreciate any amazing mammals we see without knowing what they are.

62 WHITE-BELLIED SUNBIRD
63 LONG-TAILED WIDOWBIRD
64 SOUTH AFRICAN CLIFF SWALLOW
65 HELMETED GUINEAFOWL
66 AFRICAN STONECHAT
67 African Spoonbill
68 Whiskered Tern
69 Steppe Buzzard
70 SPUR-WINGED GOOSE
71 CAPE CANARY
72 BANDED MARTIN
73 YELLOW-BILLED DUCK
74 CAPE CROW
75 CAPE EAGLE OWL
76 BUFF-STREAKED CHAT
77 CAPE WEAVER
78 Intermediate Egret
79 Malachite Kingfisher
80 Senegal Wattled Lapwing
81 LEVAILLANT'S CISTICOLA
82 DRAKENSBERG PRINIA
83 YELLOW BISHOP
84 CAPE LONGCLAW
85 LESSER SWAMP WARBLER
86 MALACHITE SUNBIRD
87 WING-SNAPPING CISTICOLA
88 Brown-throated Martin
89 Little Grebe
90 BLUE CRANE
91 AFRICAN PIED STARLING
92 JACKAL BUZZARD
93 Long-billed Pipit
94 SOUTHERN BALD IBIS
95 WAILING CISTICOLA
96 EASTERN LONG-BILLED LARK
97 RED-WINGED FRANCOLIN
98 GROUND WOODPECKER
99 MOUNTAIN WHEATEAR
100 SENTINEL ROCK THRUSH
101 BLACK-CHESTED SNAKE-EAGLE
102 YELLOW-BREASTED PIPIT
103 AFRICAN PIPIT
104 CAPE GRIFFON
105 Alpine Swift
106 AMETHYST SUNBIRD
107 COMMON WAXBILL
108 AFRICAN MARSH HARRIER

Taita And Beyond

We left Dullstroom and headed for the famous Taita Falcon site near the Strijdom tunnel, apparently the most accessible site inb the world for this very rare species. A roadside stop to check out something funny on a wire paid off when it turned out to be one of a group of breeding plumaged male White-winged Widowbirds.

We parked at the curio stalls just south of the tunnel at arounbd 10am and quickly found the nest site, but after an hour and a half of scanning the cliffs on both sides there was still no show. For most of this time our search was joined by a Belgian birding couple and a few of the women from the stalls. It was very hot, but a most pleasant place to wait for a while. This spot is a bit like a permanent twitch. A Rock Kestrel appeared a few times, as did a pair of majestic Verraux's Eagles, plenty of Red-winged Starlings, Rock Martins, a couple of White-necked Ravens, some Pied Crows, Alpine Swifts and Speckleds Pigeons. Then a couple of the women let out a shout and had briefly seen the Taita Falcon appear from the north and shoot behind the escarpment. The rest of us missed it but not long later I picked it up pretty much above us, which I probably wouldn't have done if it wasn't for the locals. It performed spectacularly, swooping and zooming about, almost like a swift, at times very high. A few times it came against the cliff face not far from the nest site, and called, but never actually landed. A much more distinctively shaped bird than I was expecting. We now have a stone giraffe and a wooden bowl with guineafowl painted on it.

The fields near the village to the north of the site had a few Southern Bald Ibis, and we saw a couple of Lanners together, as we made our way to the tourist site of Blyde River Canyon. I wasn't expecting any more birdwise from today, but a stop at God's Window, not far from Graskop, produced Cape Batis, Bar-throated Apalis, Greater Double-collared Sunbird, and a surprise for me when a couple of invisible singing skulkers that I figured would be prinia-type things, materialised into Barratt's Warblers. Going by voice there were a fair few at that site.

We then pitched our tent at Panorama camp ground, 2km south of Graskop, which is where I'm typing this. The camp ground is in truly spectacular surroundings, and has a swimming pool right on the forested edge of the canyon here. Nicky nearly got hit by a drinking Rock Martin while she was swimming. African Black Swifts can be seen well here, and there was a Swee Waxbill right outside reception when we arrived. Best of all though was a Chorister Robin-Chat hopping around the campsite at dusk.

109 WHITE-WINGED WIDOWBIRD
110 RED-WINGED STARLING
111 ROCK KESTREL
112 VERRAUX'S EAGLE
113 ROCK MARTIN
114 WHITE-NECKED RAVEN
115 TAITA FALCON
116 Lanner Falcon
117 BARRATT'S WARBLER
118 CAPE BATIS

Larry Wheatland said:

We also saw a presumed Meerkat, and a couple of cool species of bok. We don't have a mammal guide with us, so will just have to appreciate any amazing mammals we see without knowing what they are.

Click to expand...

Loving the report Larry. I passed through Dullstroom in October and found both Blesbok

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildlifewanderer/8183243971/in/set-72157627514818275/

and Grey Rhebok

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildlifewanderer/8176461065/in/set-72157627514818275/

Both were seen easily within half an hour of driving the backroads. I'm guessing these could be your antelope.

Into south Kruger

Thanks for the encouragement. Yes those look good for the antelopes up at Dullstroom Skink :t:

Next morning around the campsite in Graskop was pretty productive, with 2 Chorister Robin-Chats (one of which had flown into a window and only took flight when I bent over it to pick it up), Cape Robin-Chats, a pair of Cape Rock Thrush, Olive Bush-Shrike, Horus Swifts in with the Black Swifts, a couple of African Dusky Flycatchers visiting the water taps, my first Brown-hooded Kingfisher and a couple of incredibly gaudy Knysna Turacos. Also my 2nd and surely not the last unidentified accipiter of the trip!

We then headed for the Numby Gate of Kruger NP, stopping off at the mall at Hazy view for some supplies, where there was a large colony of Lesser Masked Weavers. At the check-in post we picked up Purple-crested Turaco and our first Greater Blue-eared Glossy Starlings before the long slow drive via Pretoriuskop to Skakuza camp, where we were to spend the next 3 nights. Even in the heat of the day we were constantly stopping for birds, and came across our first elephants, hippos and lions en route too.

One of the dominant bird noises was Rattling Cisticola, which ended up being common throughout the park. We have recordings of some of the SA cisticolas and larks, and these have been very useful in unravelling/confirming what would be nightmarish id's, at least with the older field guide we have. If anyone can send me a link to the song of Tinkling Cisticola I'd be grateful though??Rather dull looking European Bee-eaters were everywhere, and thrills were dished out on the way by the likes of Common Scimitarbill (ad feeding a juv), Southern Black Flycatcher (amazingly one was seen before the much commoner confusion species, Fork-tailed Drongo), Lazy Cisticola (1), a stunning Mocking Cliffchat, Pale Flycatcher, and various others, identified roughly in the order of the list below. When we got to Skakuza camp we also added Marico Sunbird, got to see the mantle of the incredibly frustrating-to-see-well Green-backed Camaroptera, had Yellow-billed Kites and African Pied Wagtails over a beer at the restaurant overlooking the river, with some wire-less Wire-tailed Swallows attempting to trick me into ticking Pearl-breasted Swallow, and ended an incredible 37-lifer day day with an Eastern Bearded Scrub-Robin singing by our tent at dusk.

In general the restriction of having to bird from the car except at a few designated spots was a bit frustrating at times, especially when contorting to try and get onto flying birds of prey, or with invisible singing things only a few metres away, but it was more than made up for by the sheer masses of stuff you actually do see, and the unreal experience of being so close to such enormous potentially dangerous mammals.

124 OLIVE BUSH-SHRIKE
125 BROWN-HOODED KINGFISHER
126 KNYSNA TURACO
127 AFRICAN DUSKY FLYCATCHER
128 HORUS SWIFT
129 CAPE ROCK THRUSH
130 LESSER MASKED WEAVER
131 PURPLE-CRESTED TURACO
132 GREATER BLUE-EARED GLOSSY STARLING
133 GOLDEN-BREASTED BUNTING
134 Bee-eater
135 SOUTHERN BLACK TIT
136 YELLOW-THROATED PETRONIA
137 SOUTHERN BLACK FLYCATCHER
138 BLACK-HEADED ORIOLE
139 Fork-tailed Drongo
140 Amethyst Starling
141 ARROW-MARKED BABBLER
142 CHIN-SPOT BATIS
143 BLACK-BACKED PUFFBACK
144 Yellow-fronted Canary
145 Scarlet-chested Sunbird
146 RATTLING CISTICOLA
147 LILAC-BREASTED ROLLER
148 LAZY CISTICOLA
149 Spotted Flycatcher
150 RED-BILLED BUFFALO-WEAVER
151 BATELEUR
152 RED-BILLED OXPECKER
153 BEARDED WOODPECKER
154 White-crested Helmet-Shrike
155 PALE FLYCATCHER
156 MAGPIE SHRIKE
157 White-faced Tree-Duck
158 African Jacana
159 WATER DIKKOP
160 RED-BREASTED SWALLOW
161 BURCHELL'S GLOSSY STARLING
162 MOCKING CLIFFCHAT
163 COMMON SCIMITARBILL
164 Hammerkop
165 Giant Kingfisher
166 EMERALD-SPOTTED WOOD-DOVE
167 Red-billed Firefinch
168 MARICO SUNBIRD
169 African Green Pigeon
170 Wire-tailed Swallow
171 YELLOW-BILLED KITE
172 AFRICAN PIED WAGTAIL
173 GREEN-BACKED CAMAROPTERA
174 EASTERN BEARDED SCRUB-ROBIN

I must admit I figured at the end of that day that I may well never have another day anywhere with 37 lifers in it. I was however to eat my words the very next day!

We spent the next day driving along the Sabie to lower Sabie, and did a loop north of the river back to Skakuza via more open grassland/savanna. This was the day we saw the mammal we both most wanted to see, and it didn't disappoint. Everyone should see a Giraffe in the wild before they die. We also saw our first White Rhinos.

The day started with White-throated and White-browed Robin-Chats in Skakuza Campsite, along with a surprise gorgeous Gorgeous Bush-Shrike by the overgrown railway. Southern Boubou, Terrestrial Brownbul, Sombre Greenbul, Blue Waxbill, Bronze Mannikin, Yellow-breasted Apalis, an Australian Goshawk, and Collared Sunbird were all added before I woke Nicky for breakfast.

Out on the road and we first popped into the hide at Lake Panic, seeing Crested Francolin, Crowned and Yellow-billed Hornbills and Pied and Diderick Cuckoos on the way. From the hide we watched a Thick-billed Weaver nest being constructed literally 2 metres from our faces, and I finally saw my first iconic Goliath Heron and African Fish Eagle. It was like being in an Attenborough. Birds along the road along the south side of Sabie included African Cuckoo, Cardinal woodpecker, Marabou Stork, Green Wood-Hoopoe, Red-faced Mousebird, the bizarre Long-billed Crombec, a terrifyingly close African Crowned Eagle with a hind claw to make you wince, Martial Eagle, Lappet-faced, White-headed, White-backed and Hooded vultures, Saddle-billed Stork, African Openbill, White-fronted Bee-eaters, 5 striking White-crowned Lapwing (apparently further south than usual due to the dry conditions further north), and a sprinkling of familiar palaearctic migrant waders.

We crossed the Sabie at Lower Sabie, and continued north, then back west. We picked up White-browed Srub-Robin, Kittlitz's Plover with 2 impossibly cute chicks, Sabota Lark (4+), Lesser Grey Shrike, Natal and Swainson's Francolins, Red-crested Korhaan (2 right by the side of the track), Black Cuckoo-Shrike and finally identified Wahlberg's Eagle, which we'd seen a fair few of by then.

175 WHITE-THROATED ROBIN-CHAT
176 BLUE WAXBILL
177 SOMBRE GREENBUL
178 TERRESTRIAL BROWNBUL
179 Bronze Mannikin
180 Yellow-breasted Apalis
181 WHITE-BROWED ROBIN-CHAT
182 SOUTHERN BOUBOU
183 GORGEOUS BUSH-SHRIKE
184 COLLARED SUNBIRD
185 CRESTED FRANCOLIN
186 Diderick Cuckoo
187 CROWNED HORNBILL
188 YELLOW-BILLED HORNBILL
189 Pied Cuckoo
190 GOLIATH HERON
191 AFRICAN FISH-EAGLE
192 Striated Heron
193 African Cuckoo
194 CARDINAL WOODPECKER
195 MARABOU STORK
196 Green Wood-Hoopoe
197 Little Egret
198 Wood Sandpiper
199 WATTLED STARLING
200 RED-FACED MOUSEBIRD
201 AFRICAN CROWNED EAGLE
202 Lappet-faced Vulture
203 MARTIAL EAGLE
204 WHITE-FRONTED BEE-EATER
205 WHITE-HEADED VULTURE
206 WHITE-BACKED VULTURE
207 Hooded Vulture
208 LONG-BILLED CROMBEC
209 Black-winged Stilt
210 SADDLE-BILLED STORK
211 Common Sandpiper
212 AFRICAN OPENBILLED STORK
213 Greenshank
214 Marsh Sandpiper
215 WHITE-CROWNED LAPWING
216 Ruff
217 WHITE-BROWED SCRUB-ROBIN
218 KITTLITZ'S PLOVER
219 SABOTA LARK
220 Lesser Grey Shrike
221 NATAL FRANCOLIN
222 Zitting Cisticola
223 SWAINSON'S SPURFOWL
224 RED-BILLED HORNBILL
225 RED-CRESTED KORHAAN
226 BLACK CUCKOO-SHRIKE
227 GOLDEN-TAILED WOODPECKER
228 AFRICAN GOSHAWK
229 WAHLBERG'S EAGLE
230 Gymnogene

So a deluge of amazing birds, and an overwhelming experience for our first couple of days in the park. A couple of 'by no means guaranteed' species, but nothing unexpected yet......

I should add that we booked our Kruger campsites in advance, though none were fully booked so it probably wasn't necessary, and that we bought a Wild Card in advance (advice from Birdboybowley's trip report) to make park fees cheaper for our stay in SA. The unsealed roads in the park were all fine for a 2WD car in dry conditions, except one short track to a lookout where we head to turn back.

More Skukuza and to Satara

Next morning started with a twitch. Our neighbours at the campsite were birders from SA, and had told us that a few days ago they'd seen a Finfoot (they're 2nd ever) on the Sabie, about 3km east of the bridge on the road to Lower Sabie. We popped into all the laybys within a few km of the bridge, and had no luck with Finfoot but did see 2 spectacular Southern GroundHornbills, a Red-faced Cisticola, and a Lesser Honeyguide.

We then doubled back and implemented our plan to spend the day travelling south on the dirt road to Pretoriuskop via Afsaal, returning by a more westerly route. We hadn't been long on the dirt road when we saw a large Impala herd in a clearing off to the right and a couple of cars had stopped. It was soon apparent that more was going on, a couple of restless Warthogs were there too and a Hyena pacing around. Then all of a sudden a Leopard strolled onto the scene. Wow. Incredible yellow eyes. It other animals were clearly bothered but didn't all flee, just stayed alert to where the Leopard was. It climbed a low tree close to the track and lazed there a while before climbing down again. Nicky got some pics I'll hopefully get to put up.

Further down the track we found our first Green-winged Pytilia at an almost dry water hole, then a Lizard Buzzard that allowed scope views from the car. Afsaal picnic stop had a Southern Masked Weaver colony with a few Red-headed Weavers. A Spectacled Weaver appeared at the wet ditch behind the spot and the Yellow-billed Hornbills were after yer lunch. Continuing west on a gravel road we bumped into a few Cinnamon-breasted Bubntings, a Dark Chanting Goshawk, and tchagra that only Nicky got to see the cron-colour of...Brown..Damn. As we approached Pretoriuskop we bumped into some Red-collared Widowbirds and then a group of 3 birds I particularly wanted to see, Retz's Helmet-Shrikes relentlessly dive-bombing a Vervet Monkey. We then saw a couple of Fan-tailed Widowbirds and the journey home produced a Lion, a Red-crested Korhaan, more Red-collared Widowbirds, and the first Striped Kingfisher and Klaas's Cuckoo of the trip. A wander round the camping area at dusk produced what's still so far the only Red-capped Robin-Chat of the trip.

Next day saw us packing up and heading north to Satara camp where we were to spend the next two nights. An Ashy Flycatcher was watched us pack up, and then we had another pop at the Finfoot. Again no luck, but Nicky spotted a nice Orange-breasted Bush-Shrike and I finally got onto a couple of Brown-crowned Tchagras properly. We then crossed the bridge, seeing 2 Burchell's Coucals and a couple of Little Bee-eaters as we did so, and headed to Satara mostly via the dirt road to the west of the sealed route. We soon saw our first Red-chested Cuckoo and in doing so discovered what was making a very loud call we'd been hearing since Graskop, and are still hearing daily in pretty much any habitat. The big surprise of the day was Lesser Black-winged Lapwing. We had a group of 3 close to the track, and later 4 more in flight. This can be a hard bird to find here apparently. A Rufous-crowned Roller provided a nice change from the hordes of Lilac-breasteds, and as we got nearer to Satara we picked up Comb Duck, a nice male Red-backed Shrike, and several singing Sabota and Monotonous and a few singing Red-naped Larks. We were to even hear Monotonous Larks singing from our tent at Satara in the middle of the night. At a water hole not far south of Satara we watched an Elephant chase a Hippo out of the water.

I asked about African Scops Owls immediately after checking in to Satara and was told to try the small tree by the toilet round the corner. On seeing the tree I thought 'no way'as it was about the same size as me, but sure enough there was an African Scops Owl in it. We discovered though that they are normally in the larger tree on the other side of the path (there were two there next day).

231 RED-FACED CISTICOLA
232 SOUTHERN GROUND HORNBILL
233 Lesser Honeyguide
234 GREEN-WINGED PYTILIA
235 LIZARD BUZZARD
236 SPECTACLED WEAVER
237 RED-HEADED WEAVER
238 CINNAMON-BREASTED BUNTING
239 Dark Chanting Goshawk
240 RED-COLLARED WIDOWBIRD
241 RETZ'S HELMET-SHRIKE
242 FAN-TAILED WIDOWBIRD
243 Klaas's Cuckoo
244 Striped Kingfisher
245 RED-CAPPED ROBIN-CHAT
246 ASHY FLYCATCHER
247 ORANGE-BREASTED BUSH-SHRIKE
248 BROWN-CROWNED TCHAGRA
249 Little Bee-eater
250 BURCHELL'S COUCAL
251 RED-CHESTED CUCKOO
252 Levaillant's Cuckoo
253 LESSER BLACK-WINGED LAPWING
254 Red-backed Shrike
255 Comb Duck
256 Rufous-crowned Roller
257 MONOTONOUS LARK
258 RUFOUS-NAPED LARK
259 AFRICAN SCOPS OWL

Nice one Larry. I wonder if the 'Tinkling' Cisticola recording you are after is C.tinniens, which you will find on Xeno-Canto as Levaillant's Cisticola.

If it's C.rufilatus you're after, there is a recording on AvoCet http://www.avocet.zoology.msu.edu/recordings?scientific_name_search=&name_search=Tinkling+Cisticola&Search=Search+Recordings

DMW said:

Nice one Larry. I wonder if the 'Tinkling' Cisticola recording you are after is C.tinniens, which you will find on Xeno-Canto as Levaillant's Cisticola.

If it's C.rufilatus you're after, there is a recording on AvoCet http://www.avocet.zoology.msu.edu/recordings?scientific_name_search=&name_search=Tinkling+Cisticola&Search=Search+Recordings

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thanks for that, I'll check the latin name in the book

Here's some pics from Dullstroom and the early part of Kruger:

1, Cape Eagle Owl , 2. Southern Bald Ibis, 3. Buff-streaked Chat, 4. Crested Barbet, 5. Mocking Cliff-Chat

Larry Wheatland said:

The day started with ... an Australian Goshawk ... were all added before I woke Nicky for breakfast.

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Forgetting where we are Larry?

Great report, takes me back, good luck to you both.

James

Ridiculous getting a Leopard in a tree on your first visit. Utterly unfair.

Ah yes just testing re: the Goshawk :-O

More pics including those unfair Leopard shots

Satara to Letaba

Early morning around Satara camp produced my first noticed African Mourning Doves. Kruger is overflowing with streptopelias, especially Laughing and Cape Turtle Doves, and I hadn't been paying them much attention. There were heaps of Red-billed Buffalo Weavers, all three masked Weaver species, Southern Grey-headed Sparrows, Burchell's Starlings, bulbuls, Diderick Cuckoos, doves etc making one hell of a racket. Several tame Red-billed Hornbills, some Spotted Flycatchers, African Hoopoes etc, and most notably a Grey Tit-Flycatcher, and a Bennett's Woodpecker on the ground.

Heading south towards the nearest water hole back along the main road we soon ran into a fantastic male Black-bellied Bustard puffing itself up and emitting a strange pop noise. Not much at the water hole, but a singing Willow Warbler was a bit something. We then went east on the dirt road through grassland/savanna towards N'wanetsi picnic spot. We soon met a Red-crested Korhaan and then an unexpectedly enormous Kori Bustard. We saw about 5 of these that day, and I really wasn't ready for them being as big as they are, twice the size of the likes of Great Bustard or Australian Bustard, and totally monstrous in flight. Before we hit the picnic spot we also encountered a couple of Double-banded Sandgrouse. At N'wanetsi we met a birding couple from Durban, Heather and Alan, who were also staying at Satara. They were very helpful in sorting out some id queries I had regarding larks and what a few other things might sound like, and also told me where they had seen 2 Temminck's Coursers a little earlier on our proposed route back. Our second twitch of the trip!

We headed north to connect with the sealed road back towards Satara and along here I was to finally see what I've sometimes read is the commonest bird in the world. Red-billed Quelea. 3 of them. Heading back west we came to the area near the water hole about 2/3 of the way back to the main north/south road, and started to see the other birds that we were told were in the vicinity of the coursers. We were on the right track. We saw about a dozen Lesser Black-winged Lapwings, some Crowned lapwings then checked the grassy areas from there to past the water hole. There were Kori Bustards, buffalo, elephant, impala, zebra and giraffe here, but no Temminck's Courser. Twitching doesn't seem to work too well here!

Back at the camp we saw the Brown-headed Parrots in a tall acacia on the south side of the camp, and whistled in a honking Grey-headed Bush-shrike. This in turn attracted a couple of Brubru into the same bins view. In the evening a Gabar Goshawk shot through the camp, and we went for a quick drive to the dam a few km to the east of Satara. This produced about 10 Marabou Storks, a Martial Eagle, and a blob on a dead stick, that on stopping the car turned out to be a Pearl-spotted Owlet.

Next day (Nov 10th) we headed northwards towards Letaba. The drive produced a couple of Black-bellied Bustards, a Black-crowned Tchagra, a group of 5 Red-headed Finch, Namaqua Dove, our first feral Ostrich and a Mosque Swallow before we hit the bridge over the Oliphants river.

We also had this conundrum: We saw a displaying lark that I originally identified as Flappet Lark but now I'm not sure, and need an experienced SA birder to help with this one. Do Red-naped Larks ever do bursts of wing-flapping when performing an aerial display? This bird was circling while giving bursts of flaps, and flaps in bursts while descending, but also appeared to be calling between flap-bursts with a call not unlike Rufous-naped Lark. That's assuming the call was coming from the same bird, but the timing seemed too in synch for it not to be. The book just says that RNL only flaps when perched and that FL is effectively silent vocally while in aerial display, so I'm stumped.

The bridge at Oliphants provided superb views of more Southern Ground Hornbills rooting through herbivore poo on the road, Cape Griffon and White-headed Vultures, Yellow-billed and Asian Openbill Storks, 2 Goliath Herons and some House Martins. At Letaba camp our neighbour pointed out an African Scops Owl in an acacia and there was an African Grey Hornbill nest in the tree next to our tent.

I got rather confused by mostly distant hirundines around Letaba while looking for Grey-rumped Swallow, for which this area is a site. There were Swallows and House Martins in big numbers, as well as Lesser Striped and Wire-tailed Swallows, but what was confusing me was how grey-rumped and grey-throated and dull-capped many of the House Martins looked. Some were far greyer than I ever thought was possible on a House Martin, but I've not seen them at this time of year, and maybe some of them may have been dusting in grey stuff or something. I mean we're not talking greyish-white, we're talking GREY. None of the grey-rumped grey-breasted type birds had more forked tails than House Martins, but I thought that maybe (like the wire-less Wire-taileds) Grey-rumped Swallow might not always have long outer tail feathers? These birds though just looked too much like House Martins not to be House Martins. Surely? I looked through hundreds of hirundines from the bridge but never saw a grey-rumped bird with a deeply forked tail.

Letaba in fact was generally disappointing. Birdboybowley had a blinding night drive here, seeing 3 species of nightjar and Bronze-winged Courser. We did a night drive here and saw very little, only right at the end being saved by an amazing Fiery-necked Nightjar by the side of a track with two tiny little chicks in tow. We moved on fairly quickly to stop disturbing this amazing family.

260 African Mourning Dove
261 BENNETT'S WOODPECKER
262 GREY TIT-FLYCATCHER
263 BLACK-BELLIED BUSTARD
264 Willow Warbler
265 KORI BUSTARD
266 DOUBLE-BANDED SANDGROUSE
267 RED-BILLED QUELEA
268 BROWN-HEADED PARROT
269 GREY-HEADED BUSH-SHRIKE
270 BRUBRU
280 GABAR GOSHAWK
281 PEARL-SPOTTED OWLET
282 Black-crowned Tchagra
283 RED-HEADED FINCH
284 Namaqua Dove
285 (Ostrich)
286 Mosque Swallow
287 YELLOW-BILLED STORK
288 House Martin
289 Great Egret
290 FIERY-NECKED NIGHTJAR

Yeah but you saw a Leopard - so stop moaning!!
Also be wary of the elephants in there - in the papers here last week were the pictures of a British couple's car that was skewered and overturned by an upset heffalump!! Luckily they weren't hurt but the tusk went clean through the door...explain that one to the hire company!!

some more pics

1, wot cisticola?, 2. Dark Chanting Goshawk, 3. Pearl-spotted Owlet, 4. African Scops Owl,5. Fiery-necked Nightjar with chicks

Wow I'm abit behind schedule on this! Glad you Guys are doing well, Brilliant!! And you've already ticked Taita Falcon! Love to Nicky, looking forward to reading up on this tonight, Best regards and good birdingX