• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Southern Africa 2011 (1 Viewer)

August 16: The rain continued during the night and into the morning, so most of the morning was used for different “household” things. The only notes from outdoors included the local squirrel, White Helmetshrike, and Common Scimitarbill.

Luckily, things got better after lunch when the sun did let itself be seen. Some of the larger birds started flying, with a kettle of 5 Marabou Storks one high point, and overflying Bateleur and Tawny Eagle a couple of others. At ground level, we again had a visit by a Warthog, had many weavers on the ground including Red-billed Quelea and White-winged Widowbird, and the usual 3-4 Cutthroat Finch. As usual, I had my problems with the local kingfishers, I only got photos of Brown-hooded, but also saw a bird with pale wing flashes that however was not seen well enough. White-backed Vulture showed itself as did many of the usual species, but the bird of the day was Speckled Pigeon: a few came in and landed on the roof, disappeared for a while but came back and sat there another half hour – and this was the only day we saw them. Vervet Monkey passed through, and the Pearl-spotted Owlet was heard.

A few photos:
Marabou Storks
Speckled Pigeon
African Doves

Attached below (and none too great):
White-winged Widow
Tawny Eagle in flight
 

Attachments

  • White-w Widow P1040317.JPG
    White-w Widow P1040317.JPG
    239.8 KB · Views: 66
  • Tawny flight P1040282.JPG
    Tawny flight P1040282.JPG
    92.7 KB · Views: 45
August 17: The day started with a morning game drive at 5 am; it had really been scheduled for the previous morning but moved due to bad weather. The early start was aimed at possibly finding the elusive Leopard that was known to be in Grietjie, but no luck with that one (that is, I did see a distant eye-shine that could have been the one because it disappeared in a different way than any of the other animals had, but it was too distant to see anything else). We did see a few good ones: until then, Babboons had always been on the other side of the river but today was on our side, there was an African Green Pigeon, Black-crowned Tchagra, a good flock of Red-billed Buffalo Weaver, and the full complement of Antelopes, including what the guide said was both common and grey Duiker (I think I have later read that they are color morphs of the same species?).

Next up was breakfast and some relaxing time at the lodge, which as usual I mainly spent birdwatching. Best find of the day was Retz’s Helmetshrike (in addition to the usual White), but otherwise it was all the usual suspects that were around.

After lunch, we left the lodge for an outing, driving through Phalaborwa to Olifants River. First stop was about 30 minutes at Salati river bridge, with African Palm Swift, Grey-rumped Swallow, Wire-tailed Swallow, Reed Cormorant and African Darter, Pied Kingfisher, Black Crake, Black Stilt, Striated Heron, Af. Pied Wagtail, and a few more.

Second stop was to get on board the river barge that takes you onto a dammed in area of the Olifants River. We had most of the same species as seen on the first stop but missing for example the Grey-rumped Swallow, and added African Jacana, Purple and Grey herons, hippos and crocs, Fish Eagle, Burchell’s Coucal, Af. Spoonbill, Purple Swamphen, Yellow-billed Stork, Pied Avocet, Common Sandpiper and probably Wood Sandpiper, Giant Kingfisher, Little Swift, and Water Thick-knee. By the end of that tour darkness was approaching, so back to the lodge.

A few pictures
Red-billed Buffalo Weavers
African Spoonbill
Pied Kingfisher
Water Thick-knee
Waterbuck male
Vervet Pow-wow
Prinia and Bee-eater
Black Crake

And attached below:
African Jacana
African bush savanna as seen from a small hill within the enclosure around Inyanga lodge, Grietjie.
 

Attachments

  • African Jacana P1040575.jpg
    African Jacana P1040575.jpg
    278.8 KB · Views: 66
  • View from Inyanga P1040404.jpg
    View from Inyanga P1040404.jpg
    331.9 KB · Views: 61
I have about 4 days to go, but it will probably be a couple of weeks before I will get anything more done.

Niels
 
Thanks for the patience, I should now be ready for the next installment ;)

August 18: This morning found us driving from Inyanga lodge to Phalaborwa airport. Before leaving Grietjie we had the usual Warthogs and some common birds, but also one I regretted not getting a better look at: my best guess was Dark Chanting Goshawk. Along the main road were many Marabou Storks. Inside the Airport itself, we took place at a table and could enjoy views of Familiar Chat in addition to House Sparrow and Indian Mynah.

From there, we flew to Johannesburg and changed planes to go to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. After clearing immigration and getting our suitcases, we met the shuttle and were taken to Kingdom Hotel, seeing along the road just Vervet monkey and Marabou Stork.

Kingdom hotel is a circle of buildings around a pool area and some other (probably designed) wet areas with some trees and reeds in it. After getting installed in our room, I could not wait but had to get out and look for birds both inside the circle and outside the hotel, where we walked the road down in front of Victoria Falls Hotel next door. A few interesting birds were seen (incomplete list): Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Terrestrial Brownbul and Southern Masked Weaver were firsts, even though the id was only confirmed after coming home for a couple of these. Red-winged Starling looked out of place coming from Kruger, White-browed Robin-Chat looked just right, and there were a couple of Yellow-billed (black) Kites flying around. More surprising was the Warthogs that were scurrying around seemingly unconcerned with us and other people walking around close to them.

A few pictures:
White-browed Robin-Chat
Yellow-bellied Greenbul
Hotel garden Warthog

And attached below: several pictures mostly from inside the Kingdom Hotel (copyright Lene Larsen)
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7821_resize.JPG
    IMG_7821_resize.JPG
    293.3 KB · Views: 62
  • IMG_7822_resize.JPG
    IMG_7822_resize.JPG
    297.1 KB · Views: 56
  • IMG_7823_resize.JPG
    IMG_7823_resize.JPG
    350.3 KB · Views: 58
  • IMG_7827_resize.JPG
    IMG_7827_resize.JPG
    205.7 KB · Views: 55
  • IMG_7829_resize.JPG
    IMG_7829_resize.JPG
    241.7 KB · Views: 63
August 19: Around breakfast we saw a few birds inside the hotel, such as Pied Kingfisher, Wire-tailed Swallow, and Laughing Dove. A little later, around 9:30 we walked towards the Victoria Falls National Park using the trail that started just behind the hotel and which took us past a couple of lookouts over the river below the falls as well as places for different sorts of adventure zipping out along some wires. Meeting a couple of policemen that were on duty felt good, and the birds looked even better: nice Swallows, both Wire-tailed and Lesser Striped, Rock Martin and Little Swift, and Ashy Flycatcher.

We then came down into the park itself, turned down the offer of renting rain ponchos, and walked in. We chose to take the tour in reverse order, so we walked into the (dry) rainforest first, continued to the view of the bridge, and only then walked up to the edge of the waterfall at its furthest point from the entry point and worked our way back. From we hit the edge, the cameras were in danger from the water that rose from the bottom of the fall and then came down again on us; therefore, a few zipper bags I had brought came in very handy. Birds in this area included several of what we now considered common, but Red-billed Firefinch, Grey-backed (Green-backed) Camaroptera, Sacred Ibis, White-throated Swallow, Collared Sunbird, Green Wood Hoopoe, Schalow’s Turaco, and Ashy Flycatcher were more interesting. One funny occurrence was two Black Stork (a sight I used to see during migration in Denmark) flying over. By the end of the round (near the statue of Livingstone) we saw a flock of Vervet Monkey, of which one was stealing a bag of potato chips/crisps from the handbag of someone taking photos ;).

By then, lunch was overdue, so we walked along the road to Victoria Falls town and found a restaurant. A Fish Eagle was a positive encounter during that period.

As part of the package we had purchased from home, we were picked up at the hotel in the afternoon and transported to a smallish boat that made a sunset cruise with plenty of snacks and free bar. In spite of the bar, there was still time to enjoy a lot of sights, with a few interesting ones: Half-collared Kingfisher, Hamerkop, good number of Hippos, a very nice pair of Bushbok, Rufous-bellied Heron (and other similar species such as Squacco, Grey, and Striated Herons and Intermediate Egret), White-headed (crowned) Lapwing, African Skimmer, Water Thick-knee, Giant and Pied Kingfishers, and one that got away but I suspect African Rail. Yet one more time, an Elephant put in a show.

A few photos
Red-billed Firefinch
Wire-tailed Swallow
Half-collared Kingfisher
Long-tailed Cormorant
Angry Hippo
Bushbuck Pair
Rufous-bellied Heron
Lesser Striped Swallow
Ashy Flycatcher

And attached below:
some unknown flower
The river gorge below the falls
One of our first views of a section of the fall
Remember, this is the fall with low water levels ...
The old bridge over Zambesi
 

Attachments

  • VF flowers P1040766.jpg
    VF flowers P1040766.jpg
    179.7 KB · Views: 50
  • Victoria Falls LL1 P1000740.JPG
    Victoria Falls LL1 P1000740.JPG
    331.2 KB · Views: 50
  • Victoria Falls 2 P1000791.JPG
    Victoria Falls 2 P1000791.JPG
    263.8 KB · Views: 49
  • Victoria Falls 3 P1000796.JPG
    Victoria Falls 3 P1000796.JPG
    306 KB · Views: 53
  • Victoria Falls 4 P1000798.JPG
    Victoria Falls 4 P1000798.JPG
    382.4 KB · Views: 52
A few more photos from the same day:

First two are additional views of different parts of the waterfall; on the first of these, the foggy impression is due to water droplets that had come up from the bottom of the fall
Next is the statue of Dr. Livingstone
The last two are from the river a few km above the falls, taken when we were out on the boat

All copyright Lene Larsen

Niels
 

Attachments

  • P1000836_resize.JPG
    P1000836_resize.JPG
    145.2 KB · Views: 23
  • P1000842_resize.JPG
    P1000842_resize.JPG
    218.2 KB · Views: 29
  • P1000887_resize.jpg
    P1000887_resize.jpg
    289.8 KB · Views: 22
  • P1000911_resize.JPG
    P1000911_resize.JPG
    262.4 KB · Views: 34
  • P1000923_resize.JPG
    P1000923_resize.JPG
    138.9 KB · Views: 32
Thank you Steve. It does take a little more time to do this then I expected when I started ;)

Niels
 
August 20: The inside of the hotel ring was shining this day, as a pair of Trumpeter Hornbill were sitting in one of the trees, and also seen were Grey-backed Camaroptera and White-fronted Bee-eaters in that area. From 10 am, we walked the front of the hotel again but this time also going through the Victoria Falls Hotel into the garden behind, and returning from the back of our hotel after a few hours. Village Weaver was found in one of the trees outside Kingdom in almost summer plumage, the different sunbirds were seen, and a Tropical Brubru. Pied Crow flying around were teasing my lacking abilities shooting flight shots. African Yellow White-eye was in the trees, and a White-headed Vulture came over. During the last part of the walk we saw an Arnott's Chat (White-headed Black Chat), and in the hotel a Retz’s Helmetshrike.

Later in the afternoon, we had a quick raid from the hotel down to the river below the falls and back again, taking about an hour and ending around sunset. A large flock of Baboons looked a little miffed because we also wanted to be there, and warthogs as usual could not care less. A flock of Trumpeter Hornbills were in a tree on the other side of the river gorge, and we saw Familiar Chat and some other common birds. Afterwards, inside the hotel ring was a Golden Weaver. At different times during the day, we saw between 2 and 4 different species of Sunbirds.

A few pictures:
Dark-capped Bulbul
Scarlet-chested Sunbird
Pied Crow
Trumpeter Hornbill
Retz's Helmetshrike

And included below:
Trumpeter Hornbill flock in river gorge late afternoon
Entrance to the hotel next door
The train "Pride of Africa" on the tracks next to the hotel
 

Attachments

  • Trumpeter Hornbill flock in gorge P1040981.jpg
    Trumpeter Hornbill flock in gorge P1040981.jpg
    362.9 KB · Views: 26
  • Victoria Falls Hotel P1040946.jpg
    Victoria Falls Hotel P1040946.jpg
    236.8 KB · Views: 20
  • P1000963_resize.JPG
    P1000963_resize.JPG
    159.6 KB · Views: 19
August 21: We spent a few hours in the hotel getting breakfast, packing suitcases and finally waiting next to the pool for the transfer to the airport. During that time, the hotel (almost exclusively inside the ring of buildings) produced Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Bronze Manikin, Grey-backed Camaroptera, Rock Martin, White-fronted Bee-eater, Red-winged Starling, Af Pied Wagtail, Pied Crow, Yellow-billed Kite, Pied Kingfisher, Black-collared Barbet, and the lifer of the day was an immature Shikra.

A few pictures:
White-fronted Bee-eater
Immature Shikra
Yellow-billed Kite
lizard

With that ended our trip, except for flights to Johannesburg and back to Europe.

I have not at this point prepared a list of the species we saw, and I know it will not be right now that I do that if I do get around to it.

Hope everyone enjoyed the ride ;)
Niels
 
Hello everyone.
Attached here is the final bird list for the trip. As I think I said in the first post of this thread, getting around more in ZA could easily have upped the number of birds sighted, but that was not possible this time.

Enjoy!
Niels
 

Attachments

  • Total bird list Southern Africa August 2011.rtf
    167.3 KB · Views: 346
Warning! This thread is more than 12 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top