Sal
Well-known member
Imagine this . . . . crisp, cold, scarf-and-glove morning;tendrils of white mist rising from the shimmering water along the margins of the dam; tall red-brown grasses limned with the pink gold of a slowly-rising sun; steaming cups of fragrant tea competing with busy binoculars for cold fingers as we sit on the hillside facing a panoramic view of the dam, the grasslands dotted with flat-topped acacias and, in the distance, rows of blue hills rising to the magnificance of the Natal Drakensberg mountains etched sharply against the clear sky. A couple of orange-throated longclaws run here and there through the grass close to us, blue waxbills weet softly in a nearby thorn-tree, a Richards pipit stands on a rock surveying the start of another day and somewhere a scimitarbilled wood-hoopoe is calling, calling, calling . . . .
The tick - and the ticks - came later. The ticks came from the grass as I walked through it - they sit at the top and wait for some unsuspecting mammal to brush them off onto its body - in this case, mine. My lifer was a redthroated wryneck - how come I have never seen one before - such noisy birds! Not a huge list, but considering that the person I was with is not a birder, very
satisfying for me:
Red-billed wood hoopoe ; Scimitarbilled woodhoopoe
Orangethroated longclaw ; Yelloweyed canary
Stone chat ; Fiscal flycatcher
Black crow ; Pied crow
Arrowmarked babbler ; Black flycatcher
Chinspot batis ; Brubru
Forktailed drongo; Blue waxbill
Redthroated wryneck ; Bearded woodpecker
Cardinal woodpecker ; Blackshouldered kite
Pintailed whydah ; Groundscraper thrush
Greyheaded sparrow ; Southern black tit
Blackeyed bulbul ; Titbabbler
Goldentailed woodpecker ; Whitefronted cormorant
Darter ; Hadeda ibis
Cape turtle dove ; Pied kingfisher
Redcrested korhaan ; Natal francolin
Egyptian goose ; Laughing dove
Redfaced mousebird ; Blackcrowned tchagra
Whitebellied sunbird ; Cape glossy starling
African hoopoe ; Brownhooded kingfisher
Rock pigeon ; Masked weaver
Yellowthroated sparrow ; Speckled mousebird
Goldenbreasted bunting ; Crested barbet
Shelley’s francolin ; Greater doublecollared sunbird
Pied barbet ; Cape white-eye
Whitebrowed robin ; Southern boubou shrike
Spotted prinnia ; Swainson’s francolin
Tawnyflanked prinia ; Reed cormorant
In addition, we saw lots of giraffe, zebra, impala, blesbok, waterbuck, kudu, wildebeeste, eland, hartebeeste, reedbuck, a couple of jackal and six rhino! Not quite wildlife was the night I opened the curtain at the window of our hut and found a large white horse's backside pressed against the glass!! (There are horse rides in this reserve and they let the horses out at night to graze). Great weekend!
The tick - and the ticks - came later. The ticks came from the grass as I walked through it - they sit at the top and wait for some unsuspecting mammal to brush them off onto its body - in this case, mine. My lifer was a redthroated wryneck - how come I have never seen one before - such noisy birds! Not a huge list, but considering that the person I was with is not a birder, very
satisfying for me:
Red-billed wood hoopoe ; Scimitarbilled woodhoopoe
Orangethroated longclaw ; Yelloweyed canary
Stone chat ; Fiscal flycatcher
Black crow ; Pied crow
Arrowmarked babbler ; Black flycatcher
Chinspot batis ; Brubru
Forktailed drongo; Blue waxbill
Redthroated wryneck ; Bearded woodpecker
Cardinal woodpecker ; Blackshouldered kite
Pintailed whydah ; Groundscraper thrush
Greyheaded sparrow ; Southern black tit
Blackeyed bulbul ; Titbabbler
Goldentailed woodpecker ; Whitefronted cormorant
Darter ; Hadeda ibis
Cape turtle dove ; Pied kingfisher
Redcrested korhaan ; Natal francolin
Egyptian goose ; Laughing dove
Redfaced mousebird ; Blackcrowned tchagra
Whitebellied sunbird ; Cape glossy starling
African hoopoe ; Brownhooded kingfisher
Rock pigeon ; Masked weaver
Yellowthroated sparrow ; Speckled mousebird
Goldenbreasted bunting ; Crested barbet
Shelley’s francolin ; Greater doublecollared sunbird
Pied barbet ; Cape white-eye
Whitebrowed robin ; Southern boubou shrike
Spotted prinnia ; Swainson’s francolin
Tawnyflanked prinia ; Reed cormorant
In addition, we saw lots of giraffe, zebra, impala, blesbok, waterbuck, kudu, wildebeeste, eland, hartebeeste, reedbuck, a couple of jackal and six rhino! Not quite wildlife was the night I opened the curtain at the window of our hut and found a large white horse's backside pressed against the glass!! (There are horse rides in this reserve and they let the horses out at night to graze). Great weekend!
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