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Southern African Forum (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Dave Kennedy
- Start date
Sal
Well-known member
Hi Sal,
We headed north into Limpopo from J'burg, and into Punda Maria on the second day after stopping at Nylsvlei. 8 days around Kruger/Blyde C., Wakkerstroom, Mkhuze, St Lucia, Eshowe, Sani Pass, Garden Route, Cape Town, West Coast NP, Tanqua Karoo, Karoo NP, Kimberley, and back to J'burg.
We saw heaps.. 480 species of bird + plenty of mammals. The route meant lots of driving (did 9'800kms), but rewarding in covering alot of the habitats.
We did manage to dip on some rather common birds - Giant eagle-owl in Kruger, Terrestrial Bulbul!, African Hawk-harrier.. but also managed to pick up alot of the rarer things such as the flufftail, Namaqua Warbler, Wattled Crane, several Black Harriers, Broad-tailed warbler, Pennant-winged Nightjar, Dickinson's Kestrel, etc..
The SA Bird Finder, however, is what made a self-guided trip possible, and thats what we used to plan our journey. The best bit was reading about the Orpen area, and it telling us to look for Senegal Lapwing in the field near a turn-off we happened to have pulled up at. So we put up our bins onto the field and lo-and-behold, there was one standing in the shade under a distant tree.
I'm keen next to head up the Tanqua Karoo and continue north into Namibia & Botswana.. one day
I'm sure you planned this trip especially to take in such a wide range of habitats - 480 birds is fantastic. I'm really sorry you dipped on the Giant Eagle-owl - one of my favourites and on the African Harrier-hawk, both of them are very appealing to the eye in their natural environment, but I think you made up for this in what you did see . . . . I loved the bit about the Senegal Lapwing!
The SA Birdfinder does sound very useful, think I must go and have a look at it. Many thanks for the post, I enjoyed reading it; your plan for a future trip to the Tanqua Karoo, Namibia and Botswana sounds great. However, Jan Feb would be very hot. Aug - Oct might be good - wild flowers out and good birding. However some of the migrants might not have returned.
Sal
Well-known member
If you look at the back posts you'll see we have have been getting a bit - er -twitchy about the renaming of our birds. I think Alan thought this was another renamed bird!!
Sal
Well-known member
Woolly-necked Stork and other musings
In Pietermaritzburg we have lampposts that go up into the air, then take a graceful curve over towards the street and they are a favourite perch for the Hadedas, so when was driving along a busy road I wasn't surprised to see ahead of me a bird with a long beak perching on one - till I realised it was a Woolly-necked Stork! There was a garage just ahead so I drove into it and had some petrol put into the car so that I could go to the end of their grassy area and have a good look. The stork was completely unfazed by the people and the cars and the motorbikes passing beneath and stood there preening away quite happily. I rushed home to get my camera but of course it was gone when I got back. They are not very common birds anyway but to see one perched in the city like that was particularly unusual. I guess it may have been in transit to or from the settlement ponds at Darville.
The African Harrier-Hawks that live in Pietermaritzburg are having a particularly hard time at the moment as there are so many delicious morsels of baby bird around; I never see one but it isn't being viciously mobbed by about ten or more birds and they are never allowed to settle anywhere! I guess there must be times when they manage to find a tree without anything in it but food, but it never happens around this suburb.
Talking of mobbing, there is some very interesting interaction between the Pied Crows, that are moving into the area (I never saw one this side of town until four or five years ago) and the Red-winged Starlings who have been here for ever and now seem to be moving out - driven off by the crows, it seems, because the crows favour the same high perches on, for example the tops of taller buildings where the starlings nest, and they just dive-bomb the starlings till they move away. Of course at the moment I guess the crows could be after eggs and the baby starlings too.
In Pietermaritzburg we have lampposts that go up into the air, then take a graceful curve over towards the street and they are a favourite perch for the Hadedas, so when was driving along a busy road I wasn't surprised to see ahead of me a bird with a long beak perching on one - till I realised it was a Woolly-necked Stork! There was a garage just ahead so I drove into it and had some petrol put into the car so that I could go to the end of their grassy area and have a good look. The stork was completely unfazed by the people and the cars and the motorbikes passing beneath and stood there preening away quite happily. I rushed home to get my camera but of course it was gone when I got back. They are not very common birds anyway but to see one perched in the city like that was particularly unusual. I guess it may have been in transit to or from the settlement ponds at Darville.
The African Harrier-Hawks that live in Pietermaritzburg are having a particularly hard time at the moment as there are so many delicious morsels of baby bird around; I never see one but it isn't being viciously mobbed by about ten or more birds and they are never allowed to settle anywhere! I guess there must be times when they manage to find a tree without anything in it but food, but it never happens around this suburb.
Talking of mobbing, there is some very interesting interaction between the Pied Crows, that are moving into the area (I never saw one this side of town until four or five years ago) and the Red-winged Starlings who have been here for ever and now seem to be moving out - driven off by the crows, it seems, because the crows favour the same high perches on, for example the tops of taller buildings where the starlings nest, and they just dive-bomb the starlings till they move away. Of course at the moment I guess the crows could be after eggs and the baby starlings too.
Dave Kennedy
Well-known member
Apologies to everyone - my computer self-destructed, so here I am again, much poorer than I was before, with my very first posting using the new machinery. I have to go off to the Okavango Delta tomorrow until the 27th November. When I get back I'll finish off the Garden Route series, and tell you what happened up in the Delta.
Best wishes to you all,
Dave Kennedy
Best wishes to you all,
Dave Kennedy
Dave Kennedy
Well-known member
Take a look at this..........not the finest photo, but look where it was taken! Personally, I think they're stapled to the ground for the tourists.
Best wishes,
Dave
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Dave Kennedy
Well-known member
Welcome back, Jo,
I am SO thrilled you found your leopards! I'm really looking forward to hearing about your trip. Coincidentally, I'm off to the Delta tomorrow until Nov 27th, so I'll let you know what I find.
Best wishes,
Dave
Sal
Well-known member
I wondered what had happened to you! What an infuriating thing to happen - hope you had good backup? I love the 'I HAVE to go to the Okavango Delta' - I would kill to go to the Okavango Delta . . . and I really look forward to the reportback. Have a good time.
Dave Kennedy
Well-known member
Things were pretty well backed up, so no major problems. As to the Delta, I got an unexpected invitation to take part in a Birding Big Day up there...so it was totally unplanned, but there was no way I was going to say no! Stick around......these things happen to you when you're retired.
Best wishes,
Dave
Dave Kennedy
Well-known member
Well done! Sounds like you had a great time! Congratulations on your birds and animals. You'll just have to ask KittyKat for a leopard picture!
Looking forward to hearing all bout it.
Best wishes,
Dave Kennedy
Sal
Well-known member
Brilliant. Is this for Bird Life South Africa's Birding Big Day on 29 Nov? A pretty good venue I would think. Good luck!
I think it is the Yellow-throated Woodland-warbler Alan
...but Sal, it's name has changed - wherever has the woodland-warbler come from?
Dave, I feel for you, my monitor has just died, now I'm sitting with one monitor between 3 PCs
Problem is the hardware importers are now catering for the masses, so it's almost impossible to get the hardware you want...
Sal
Well-known member
Oh yes, you're quite correct - it used to be the Yellowthroated Warbler. Sorry Alan.
Sal
Well-known member
Crowned Eagles
Today I was over on the North side of the city where the forested area is and I had just come out of a shop when I heard a male Crowned Eagle calling. It was doing a display flight - curving up,up, up and then, at the top of its parabola giving several rapid flutters of its wings before diving down again. At the top of the parabola it would call out again and again. So its mating season once more. I love this eagle's call, it actually gives me goose-bumps! I was so lost in watching and listening that it was a few minutes before I realised I was making a bit of a spectacle of myself in the middle of the car park. This was the first eagle I ever learnt about - sitting beneath its nest in a forest fig tree, examining the abandoned bits of carcass below the tree and discovering how wonderfully well adapted it is to a forest existence.
The pic below waws takin in Hluhluwe /Imfolozi game reserve earleir this year.
Today I was over on the North side of the city where the forested area is and I had just come out of a shop when I heard a male Crowned Eagle calling. It was doing a display flight - curving up,up, up and then, at the top of its parabola giving several rapid flutters of its wings before diving down again. At the top of the parabola it would call out again and again. So its mating season once more. I love this eagle's call, it actually gives me goose-bumps! I was so lost in watching and listening that it was a few minutes before I realised I was making a bit of a spectacle of myself in the middle of the car park. This was the first eagle I ever learnt about - sitting beneath its nest in a forest fig tree, examining the abandoned bits of carcass below the tree and discovering how wonderfully well adapted it is to a forest existence.
The pic below waws takin in Hluhluwe /Imfolozi game reserve earleir this year.
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Dryocopus
Was Eagle before...still am in life!
Photos are a topic I'd rather not go into! I appear to have wiped my memory card from my dslr and not downloaded them! They are being searched for ...but i think i may have to take the card into a specialist.
The compact camera downloaded fine. Mainly scenery and a few mammals/birds there, but my good pics were on the Canon.
So I will be requesting permission to illustrate my blog using photos from here I expect!
Dryocopus
Was Eagle before...still am in life!
Lovely photo.
I saw one Crowned Eagle on the way from the Dune Forest to St Lucia Estuary.
What a striking bird.
I now see why you love the Hluhluwe/Imfolozi game reserve so much. We had to swop from Mkuze GP to Hluhluwe due to the drought at Mkuze. I really enjoyed staying there at Hilltop Camp ,apart from the taste of the water there!Mineral water needed!
fantastic facilities and the view from outside the restaurant
quite stunning!
Sal
Well-known member
There is little worse that that happening after a special holiday. I am so sorry - but maybe you will be lucky and they will be found. Hope so.
Great that you liked Hluhluwe, yes I agree, the views are stunning. Hope you added to your bird list there; did you drive into Umfolozi at all? I always take 15 - 30 litres of local water when I go to any of these places because I cant stand the taste of that awful brackish stuff - especially as I drink black tea!
If you haven't used the card since you lost the pics, you can recover them with PC Inspector's File Recovery or Smart Recovery. Saved me a couple of times. Of course if you have used the card since then... :-C
