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

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Thanks for the comments dudes (just saying the D word cos we've been staying at a surfing place ;)). Thought I should put a link to the rare bird thread on the penguin here, for some better pics of the bird too.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=2654392#post2654392

Can't believe that it's looking at the moment like we might have seen it on it's last day. Relieved, but fear for the bird :-C

PS, and no, Paul, but I reckon I owe you a pint, which for all we know might be a fiver at home by now anyway!
 

lewis20126

Well-known member
better than jetting to Shetland for a grosbeak anyway....and about 5x cheaper too!!

..but you're better off going for the Grozza if you've already seen a hat load of Northern Rockies on Gough and Nightingale. ;) B :)

top twitch btw and very jealous of the Knysna woodies, they have an invisibility cloak.

cheers, alan
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
..but you're better off going for the Grozza if you've already seen a hat load of Northern Rockies on Gough and Nightingale. ;) B :)

top twitch btw and very jealous of the Knysna woodies, they have an invisibility cloak.

cheers, alan

Cheers Alan, and better off going for the penguin if you've seen the grozzer on a bag of nuts in Finland too ;)
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Next trip you do I'm gonna follow your footsteps afterwards so that I can be the one clearing up on all the bits you missed!! Make it Argentina/Chile as would like to go there ;)

Or maybe we could be there at the same time one day, either by design or a 'doctor livingstone I presume' moment.

Love to do Chile for sure. Spent 3 months doing Argentina about 15 years ago on public transport and hitching, in what was pre-internet days, at least for me. Meant to write a report but never did, so that's not much use to you I guess! Saw about 600 spp, and found the country totally awesome, up there with the best, for general variety. Happy to answer any q's Ads, but things are bound to have changed a lot. Having said that, I was pretty much going on a ten year old trip report bought from SW, and that did me fine. Some potty looking mammals that I never knew existed too.
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Nieu Bethesda To Hogsback

Being somewhat tired of the N2 we decided to take a more northerly tack to get back to square one. We hit the R62 for our eastward journey with a stopover at Calitzdorp. We saw little of note until settling for a couple of nights at the twee village of Nieu Bethesda, just off the N9 north of Graaff- Reinet. Highlights were a family of 3 Cape Rock Thrushes near Oudtshoorn, and a Secretarybird along the N9 north of Aberdeen. Southern Pale Chanting Goshawks, and other typical karoo species such as Karoo Scrub-Robin, Cape Sparrow, White-throated Canary, Steppe and Jackal Buzzards, Karoo Prinia etc were frequent at the roadside.

From our tranquil base at the Owlhouse in Nieu Bethesda we explored the nearby high elevation grassland and rock slopes, and the Valley of Desolation in the NP just outside Graaff-Reinet. This was all 'off Book', and therefore interesting as I wasn't sure what we'd find.

Here we finally got to see a clapper lark on a post, as well as a couple in flight, and surprise surprise, it's not until we're bang on the line between the ranges of Cape and Eastern again! This bird had noticeably brown toned upperparts, so I'm calling it an Eastern Clapper Lark, though it was (as you'd expect down here) much richer in colour, both above and below, than the Namibian bird.

I've been having trouble with the local pipits, with 5 similar species appearing to be within range here. Some appear to be Long-billed Pipit.

The stream crossing just before the village is good for heaps of birds coming to drink, including big numbers of African Pied Starling, and Red-winged and Wattled Starlings, Red Bishop, Red-billed Quelea, Southern Masked Weaver and Black-throated Canary. The garden has Karoo Thrush. The surrounding countryside has Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Familiar (a few) and Sickle-winged (1) Chats, Mountain Wheatear, Amur Falcon, Rock Kestrel, Spike-heeled Lark, Southern Ant-eating Chat, Neddicky, etc. The Valley of Desolation area further provided Pale-winged Starling, Grey-backed Cisticola, Fiscal Flycatcher and Pririt Batis.

Next stop eastwards was Mountain Zebra NP, where we stayed just one night. Here I was hoping for Red-fronted Tinkerbird and African Rock Pipit. I failed to find them, but did see some pipits with plain backs on the steep section of the Kranskop loop that may have been African Rock. Thanks to Mark Harper, I now know what they sound like, so hopefully it's just a matter of catching them actually making a noise somewhere. Or getting much better views.

Nicest surprise at Mountain Zebra was great views of Eastern Long-billed Larks. We also had more Eastern Clapper, and Large-billed Larks, a single Sickle-winged Chat, a family of Buff-streaked Chats, Black-headed (2) and Brimstone (1) Canaries, Chat Flycatcher, Scaly-feathered Finch and Pearl-breasted Swallow. A few km east of the reserve after we left, we picked up a group of Meerkats, Acacia Pied Barbet, and our most southerly Willow Warbler.

We then continued further east and up into the forested hills at Hogsback. Here we camped at Away With The Fairies backpackers, where we awoke to the sound of Cape Parrots flying over. They did this both mornings, including a flock of 21 birds. Hogsback has a good selection of raptors, and I was hoping to catch up with 'in Book' Long-crested Eagle here. This was not to be, but I did see African Crowned, Verreaux's and Martial Eagles, Gymnogene, African Goshawk, Steppe and Jackal Buzzards. A Hobby made a nice change from all the Amur Falcons!

Now it's come to silly acronym time again, and I guess I need to explain it, otherwise you won't understand why Mountain Zebra was a 1 SPASM bird site, and Hogsback was a 3 SPASM bird site. SPASM birds are lifers possible in a guided day out in the Sani Pass Area with Stuart McLean. As we can't do this because of our visa situation, we have a plan to try and pick off the SPASM birds elsewhere. Mountain Zebra had African Rock Pipit, Hogsback has Long-crested Eagle, Bush Blackcap and Grey Crowned Crane. All are SPASM birds. At Hogsback I couldn't find the eagle or the Bush Blackcap, but we did see 2 smashing African Crowned Cranes in the grassland on the road that continues through Hogsback towards Cathcart. They were in a narrow marshy strip 3.8km after turning right at the t-junction. The other SPASM species (as defined by the ones BBB saw on his day out) are: Drakensberg Rockjumper, Drakensberg Siskin, Gurney's Sugarbird, Mountain Pipit, Brown-backed Honeyguide and Pale-crowned Cisticola. So we've certainly got our work cut out for us there.

The spot where we had the cranes also produced a displaying Wing-snapping Cisticola. Noticing the subliminal song and recognising it for what it was, was a helluva lot easier than actually seeing it! Even though it's display is a pretty lengthy one, I failed to see it first time round by straining with the naked eye, and only just managed to pick it up as a dot in the bins shortly before it entered the plummeting stage of it's next display flight, some 15 minutes later. So, great to get that one back on the trip list after the mess up at Dullstroom, and a real relief that they were still displaying, or they'd be a total id nightmare.

Which brings me to bishops. The Book mentions this stretch of track as having Red, and Yellow-crowned Bishops. Unfortunately we only saw Yellow. And I say unfortunately because I think there's a good chance I may have messed up with my 'transitional male Yellow-crowned Bishop' at Etosha. 'Uh?' Yes that's right, messed up. 'What, again?' Yes that's correct. Again. Basically I can't remember my bishopy thing with yellow coming through on the crown well enough, and I'm beginning to worry that one form of Red-billed Quelea male might be able to look like that in transitional plumage. So Yellow-crowned Bishop is off. Sniff.

The Grey Crowned Crane spot also had a Denham's Bustard, lots of Cape Weavers, Cape Canaries, and Amur Falcons. The forest around Hogsback had plenty of goodies, including White-starred Robin, Chorister Robin-Chat, Grey Cuckoo-Shrike, Narina Trogon, Knysna Turaco, Green-backed Camaroptera, Sombre Greenbul, Terrestrial Brownbul, Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler, Olive Pigeon, Dark-capped Bulbul, Collared Sunbird, African Black Swift, and a few gangs of Lazy Cisticola in the scrubby edges. Hogsback was also by far the best area for butterflies on the trip so far.

So back to

586. DARK-BACKED FOREST WEAVER
587. GREY CROWNED CRANE
588. WING-SNAPPING CISTICOLA
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Chintsa, Naudesnek And Tsitsa Falls

Before heading up towards the Drakensberg mountains, we went for a couple of days on the beach at Chintsa Waest, where we stayed at Buccaneers, a long established backpackers/camping spot for happening young things. This wasn't meant to be a birding spot for us, but on the first morning we awoke to a repetetive beat which prompted Nicky to ask 'is that a tinkerbird?' I answered 'could be', and we were to hear this sound pretty much constantly during the daylight hours from various points around the camp during our stay. I was unable to see the perpetrator however, until well into the afternoon of our first stay, and even then only thanks to a couple of African Paradise Flycatchers disturbing it from its invisible perch amongst the dense foliage at the top of it's tree. I was delighted to see that it was after all the Firecrest of Barbetville, a Red-fronted Tinkerbird. How can anything so small and pretty be so annoying for so long?

Other birds around Buccaneers included a Trumpeter Hornbill, Green Woodhoopoe, Tambourine Dove, Thick-billed Weaver, Amethyst and Collared Sunbirds, Osprey, Gabar Goshawk, Lesser Striped Swallow, Southern Black Tit, Green-backed Camaroptera, Cape Glossy Starling, Giant and Pied Kingfishers, Knysna Turaco, Black-headed Oriole, African Fish Eagle and White-fronted Plover.

So now it was time to head for the mountains and try to pick off some of those SPASM birds. We decided to head for the village of Rhodes, and use that as a base to explore the Naudesnek Pass, home, according to The Book, to no less than 4 SPASM birds.

The road to Rhodes from Elliot northwards started producing good birds, with some stops at roadside marshy areas producing the wonderful Long-tailed Widowbirds, along with Whiskered Tern, African Marsh Harrier, and both Red and Yellow Bishops. Beyond Barkley East, the 30km of unsealed track to Rhodes produced 58 Grey Crowned Cranes, plenty of small cisticolas which included Wing-snapping, and plenty of widowbirds. Best of all was a handfull of Quailfinch, including fantastic views of one coming to drink at a roadside pool, which Nicky managed to get a pic of.

We had the campsite in the middle of Rhodes to ourselves, at a bargainous 4 quid between us. In the morning we set off shortly after dawn up towards the pass, on the pretty sketchy road. This wasn't easy at all for Snowflake, but by late morning we'd returned to Rhodes pretty much in one piece, and having seen a heap of birds.

This site turned out to be very good indeed for 3 of our target birds, only African Rock Pipit remaining deep within the naughty cupboard, with no sign of any of them. Drakensberg Rockjumper, Drakensberg Siskin and Mountain Pipit were all seen into double figures, and all allowed excellent views. A single Lammergeier with the Cape Griffons, and a Black Stork were both nice surprises and new for the trip. There were plenty of Sentinel Rock Thrushes and Sickle-winged Chats too, and other highlights included a Layard's Parisoma, Wailing Cisticolas, and Grey-winged Francolins. Yellow and Cape Canaries outnumbered and sometimes accompanied the Drakensberg Siskins. There were plenty of Cape Buntings. Familiar Chat, Malachite Sunbird and African Pipit were also seen.

Our next plan was a bit vague, and we ended up heading for a camping spot mentioned in our Alternative Route guidebook (available for free in most backpackers). It's a camping spot by Tsitsa Falls, 27km north of Maclear. Again, this wasn't meant to be a birding stopover, but we stayed 2 nights here and the birding's been great, not to mention the big waterfall that you can walk behind.

Just north of Maclear we unexpectedly picked up another SPASM bird, a nice and showy Long-crested Eagle, that was first spotted on a roadside telegraph pole with it's silly hairdo flying in the wind. Next real cracker was a Red-throated Wryneck, visible from the garden of the Falls Backpackers. I'm writing this bit after just returning from a walk a couple of km back along the road to a small lake, and am delighted to report that the boggy grassy slopes there are home to Pale-crowned Cisticolas, as well as Wing-snappers. There are plenty of Long-tailed Widowbirds to marvel at there too, a little reminder to me to fully appreciate them, and not take this incredible bird for granted, as we're not going to be here for that much longer.

We also saw a Secretarybird on our way to the falls, flushed by our accompanying dog, and thus producing our first flight views of the species. Other stuff around here includes a Barratt's Warbler, Neddicky, Zitting Cisticola, Brimstone, Yellow-fronted and Cape Canaries, Cape Glossy and Red-winged Starlings, Verreaux's Eagle, Southern Boubou, Grey-crowned Crane, Yellow-billed Duck, Whiskered Tern etc.

We also had a shock double-take when noticing there was something rather odd about the kittens around the house here. They're Caracals! Unfortunately the mother has been shot and they're still too young to survive on their own.

589 RED-FRONTED TINKERBIRD
590 Black Stork
591 DRAKENSBERG ROCKJUMPER
592 DRAKENSBERG SISKIN
593 MOUNTAIN PIPIT
594 Lammergeier
595 LONG-CRESTED EAGLE
596 RED-THROATED WRYNECK
597 PALE-CROWNED CISTICOLA

Some pics: 1. Grey Crowned Cranes, 2. Quailfinch, 3. Drakensberg Rockjumper, 4. Sentinel Rock Thrush, 5. Long-crested Eagle
 

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Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Delayed by Nightjars

After I wrote that bit, we were having dinner outside at dusk, and 2 Freckled Nightjars started calling from the top of the rocky slope that overlooks The Falls Backpackers. I frantically scanned for the remaining minutes until it was too dark to see, but couldn't pick one up against the sky. We waited a while, then drove up and down the dirt track for a few km a few times but had no luck catching one there. Freckled Nightjar couldn't be allowed to do this yet again. Very nasty. We had no choice but to stay a third night. The next evening I was ready for it, but a little worried that there would be no show, because the wind had picked up and there was intermittent rain. By dusk I climbed to where the birds had been calling the night before, and at last had great views of a male Freckled Nightjar, the last remaining bird on the trip's heard but not seen list.

Another day meant more birds for the list I'd compiled to leave at the place, which had grown to 87 species. A very nice male Red-collared Widowbird passed through the garden, casting light on the identity of a group of 3 puzzling female-type 'bishops' that had been knocking around. A Spectacled Weaver was a surprise, and a Drakensberg Prinia an appreciated extra, along with Quailfinch, African Firefinch, and Cape Grassbird. The Falls is at an altitude of about 1300m, where a gorge cuts through extensive grassland with remnant patches of afromontane and dry forest and scrub, some protea and boulder dotted slopes, marshy areas, and a dam. All this makes for an odd mix of birds. I left very much wondering what other goodies lurk there to be discovered.

When we finally left The Falls today (Feb 15th), our planned next stop was Matatiele Mountain. It looks pretty tasty in The Book, giving us not just a chance of SPASM birds Gurney's Sugarbird and African Rock Pipit, but also an outside chance of Rudd's Lark, Short-tailed Pipit and Black-winged Lapwing. Unfortunately the weather deteriorated enormously, so we bypassed this site, and continued to Sani Lodge, where we've treated ourselves to a room, and it is still absolutely spanking it down with rain. As we passed through Matatiele, we tried to reccie the state of the track up the mountain, but discovered that there is now a guarded gate there. We were told we had to get permission from the office in town to use the track, and the gate guard had no idea whether or not the track was currently passable in a 2WD car. We looked briefly for the office in town, gave up, and pressed on, thinking we may return if the weather gets better.

The road between Kokstad and Underberg has many interesting marshy patches, and we stopped at several of them bashing 'bishops' in the hope of picking up a Yellow-crowned. The best we could do was a male Fan-tailed Widowbird among the hordes of Red Bishops, Long-tailed Widowbirds and unidentified 'females'. 2 White-backed Ducks on one roadside pool were the 2nd sighting of the trip. The whole area is heaving with Amur Falcons.
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Sani Pass

I set off shortly after dawn this morning in the drizzle, and walked the trail that loops above Sani Lodge backpackers. I failed to find the hoped for Croaking Cisticola, or indeed pretty much anything else. Eventual highlight was 2 Drakensberg Prinias. After breakfast we set off up the pass, knowing we wouldn't make it far in our car, but hopeful that 3 of the remaining 4 SPASM birds were possible well before the SA border post.

We stopped at the suggested spot for Bush Blackcap and Brown-backed Honeyguide, 4.2km beyond the Sani Pass Hotel. Much to our surprise it wasn't long before we picked up a group of 3 Bush Blackcaps, a couple of hundred metres further on, which included a satisfyingly bright-billed bird. The call that drew my attention in their direction was so perfect for Dark-capped Bulbul that I nearly didn't bother looking!

Continuing along the bumpy track we picked up a flying Southern Bald Ibis and some Cape Rock Thrushes. At less than 6km from the hotel, the track became unmanageable for Snowflake. We continued on foot, picking up Wailing Cisticola and Buff-streaked Chat, and after about 1km the slopes alongside the track became dotted with tall proteas. I quickly became excited when I realised that a few were in bloom, and a few Malachite Sunbirds were feeding on them. We scanned the proteas for a while, and it wasn't long before we picked up a couple of distant Gurney's Sugarbirds, one of which flew down the slope and began to feed in a protea close to the road. We sat on a nearby rock and watched it make several visits to the same tree, at times to chase off male Malachite Sunbirds. We walked on for less than 1km more, and picked up another couple of Gurney's Sugarbirds before turning back.

On our way back for lunch we made a few random stops hoping for the honeyguide, and bumped into another Bush Blackcap at what must have been about 3.5km from the hotel. A Long-crested Eagle rounded things off nicely. All in all a far more successful morning than we'd expected, with just 2 SPASM birds still to see, and one more species for 600 for the trip..

598 BUSH BLACKCAP
599 GURNEY'S SUGARBIRD

pics: 1. Gurney's Sugarbird, 2. Malachite Sunbird
 

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etudiant

Registered User
Supporter
Another wonderful trip report

Thank you, Larry and Nicky, for providing another really excellent trip.
I do hope that you will put this and your other birding adventures together into a more comprehensive document. The section on the trip preparation would be worth publishing in its own right, imho.
The impressive thing is the casual familiarity with these birds that you have acquired, even though this is again a new continent. How did you get that beforehand? Reading through volumes of birding reports or bird guides sure would not cut it. You must have found a better way that would be well worth learning for other travelling birders.
Hope the balance of your trip continues to exceed your expectations!
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Thanks Etudiant, glad to hear it's worth my while writing this.

As far as familiarity goes, I still get pretty confused out there sometimes I can assure you! You've made me consider this point though, and I do reckon that the more times you put yourself in locations where the birds are totally unfamiliar, the more you get a feel for what are likely to be id issues to check out in advance, and the more you're likely to appreciate where field guides are likely to be inaccurate etc. There is also another point that I've considered, and that's that on a continental scale, some regions (neotropics and Asia) seem to constantly hit you with unidentifiable birds, even given a really good view, whereas others (Australia, and Africa so far) aren't so bad for that in general. That's just a theory!
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Highover and on

Our next stop was the Highover reserve in the Hela-Hela pass, famous for being home to a few pairs of what I believe may be South Africa's most critically endangered bird, Blue Swallow.

We phoned Highover earlier in the day to confirm that it was ok to camp there, details easily googleable. We approached the pass from the Donnybrook side, and a stop just a few km along the dirt road to check out a puzzling cisticola ended up producing a surprise couple of Blue Swallows, including a smart male with wires intact. They were hawking low over a grassy field on the right of the road. We were still over 20km from Highover's breeding site, which currently hosts only three pairs, so I'm not sure if these would be the same birds or not. The road down to Highover passed through grassy hills, plantation, and some marshy spots, all of which were pretty birdy, with eg Red-collared, Fan-tailed and Long-tailed Widowbirds in good numbers.

Upon arrival we were issued with the area's bird list, a jaw dropping read which helped to swing us round to staying for 2 nights at the lovely riverside campsite. There's certainly more to Highover than the Blue Swallows and few other specialities mentioned in The Book. Birds recorded here range from 3 species of flufftail, through Green Twinspot to Black-winged Lapwing, Grass Owl, Shelley's Francolin and Cuckoo Finch.

As it turned out, our first afternoon was a bit of a fog-bound write-off. The cloud came down over the swallow area shortly after we pitched camp, and all we could make out up on the hill were the progressively less distinct grey blobs of occasional flushed cisticolas as the cloud thickened. We even had a thoughtful phone call from HQ making sure we weren't lost in the grassland.

Next day though the birding was excellent, both in the forest around the camp site and up on the hill. Round the camp site Eastern Olive Sunbird was found to be fairly common once I sussed the song. The plentiful birdlife also included Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Golden-tailed, Olive and Cardinal Woodpeckers, Southern Black Tit, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, Black-backed Puffback, Southern Black Flycatcher, Wahlberg's and African Fish Eagles, African Pied Wagtail, Amethyst and Collared Sunbirds, Dark-backed Forest Weaver, Natal Francolin, Yellow-throated Petronia, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Green Woodhoopoe, Red-chested Cuckoo, Tambourine and Emerald-spotted Wood Doves, Black-headed Oriole, Green-backed Camaroptera, Bar-throated Apalis erc.

After breakfast we headed up the rocky track for 4.7km to the gate at the swallow site, with a birding couple from Cape Town who were also visiting. We've met so few other birders in southern Africa on this trip (almost none from outside southern Africa), and it was great to have some birding company. Once through the gate we took the left 'track' for a couple of km or so out onto the grassy hill top. We scanned for an hour or so before our first Blue Swallows appeared. They can be absent for long periods, and range widely, and some people have apparently been unlucky and missed them after trying a couple of times. While with the other couple we saw at least three different individuals, including a full-wired male. We moved to eventually get the birds flying very close to us. There were also several other hirundines around, including Black Saw-wings for comparison.

The grassy hill top was full of cisticolas, small ones (only Wing-snapping being in song), Wailing, and Lazy (at the edges). There were also Fan-tailed and Red-collared Widowbirds, Yellow Bishop, Cape Longclaw. Booted Eagle and Amur Falcon. After the other couple had to go, I explored more widely and saw a couple of Red-winged Francolins in the grassland, and African Firefinches and Common Waxbills at the edge. I was mostly looking for 'seepages', as The Book mentions Broad-tailed Warbler as being in them. If you go straight on once through the gate (not turning left to the recommended swallow area), and follow the wooded edge round to the left and down, you get to a boggy area with taller grasses and ferns. Here I got lucky and flushed a Broad-tailed Warbler, which perched up for me briefly.

Sometimes staying that extra day at a site pays off, and the next morning I found another bonus bird, Yellow Weaver, not far from the camping area. A couple of dazzlingly yellow males with orangey-red eyes. The weaver area can be found by heading back up out of the campsite on the main track, and taking an overgrown track to the right that entered a small area of tall grass alongside the river. There were lots of weaver nests alongside the river, and plenty of Thick-billed Weavers, but also Yellow Weavers there. There were also Spectacled Weavers in the tangles at the forest edge, African Reed Warbler and Tawny-flanked Prinia here too.

From Highover we headed towards the coast, picking up a full-plumaged male Dusky Indigobird on a roadside wire about 15km past the swallow site, this finally completed the South African sextet of indigobirds and their firefinch hosts.

The idea was to have some chill out time at a beach place that sounded nice, about 60km south of Durban. As it turned out, the route was passing Vernon Crooks NR about lunch time, so we popped in for a picnic visit, which cost about quid anarf per person. It was very hot, and pretty quiet birdwise, but we did hear a few Croaking Cisticolas singing half-heartedly. I found the daddy of all cisticolas harder to actually see than expected, and it wasn't until I went after the 3rd singing bird that I actually got to see one. I guess they must be really easy here at a more sensible time of day.

As it turned out, 'our' backpacker place no longer did camping, so we continued further south along the coast, eventually settling at The Spot Backpackers in Port Shepstone. I then noticed that this happened to be just a few km from The site in The Book for Magpie Mannikin: the leafy village of Southport.

This morning we had a lie in. I heard what I figured must be Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird singing from the tent, but it soon stopped singing. A very short walk produced a flock of Bronze Mannikins to go through. We then headed off to try and find the apparently famous Kloof Road in Southport. As legend has it, this 'most reliable site in SA' for Magpie Mannikin was discovered thanks to a non-birding mum sending word to her birding son that she was worried that she was overfeeding the Bronze Mannikins. According to my field guide, Magpie Mannikin is considerably bigger than Bronze Mannikin. The gen in the book is now more than 8 years old, so I figured that if she was still overfeeding her mannikins, I ought to by now be looking for something the size of a pumpkin, the weight of which would lay waste to any Kloof Road garden birdtable.

We parked at the start of the street and spent a couple of hours walking up and down it, looking into gardens, and trying not to look dodgy. We somehow managed not to attract any armed response units. I asked the few people we met walking about the birds, but no-one knew anything about them. We found two particularly good birdy spots, both with several Bronze Mannikins. The first was just round the first bend, where you can overlook several gardens. This also produced Pin-tailed Whydah, Red Bishop, Cape Glossy and Red-winged Starlings, Yellow-fronted Canary, Amethyst Sunbird, Village Weaver and Southern Grey-headed Sparrow. The second hotspot was beyond the crossroads, near the top of Kloof Road, which also produced the highlight of at least one White-eared Barbet, as well as Thick-billed Weaver, Speckled Mousebird and some perched Black Saw-wings. A few Yellow-rumped Tinkerbirds were singing in this general area, and I eventually managed to see one near the crossroads.

Not sure what we'll do this afternoon, but it looks like there's a storm coming in.

600 BLUE SWALLOW
601 EASTERN OLIVE SUNBIRD
602 BROAD-TAILED WARBLER
603 YELLOW WEAVER
604 CROAKING CISTICOLA
605 YELLOW-RUMPED TINKERBIRD
606 WHITE-EARED BARBET
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Umdoni Park and Pietermaritzberg

We returned in the late afternoon to Southport and discovered a tiny patch of swamp forest being kept as a reserve at the crossroads on Kloof Road. A notice board mentioned that Magpie Mannikin and Green Twinspot breed there, though we had no luck with them. We did see a nice Purple-crested Turaco.

Next morning we packed up and headed north. We stopped to bird the Umdoni Park site, which is basically forest and grassy clearings around a golf course. By the time we'd asked permission at the clubhouse to use the trails it was getting hot and bird activity had dropped off. We were given a map, parked at the environmental centre, and took the black trail (the road) towards Umdoni Village. Just beyond the point where it crosses the golf course was pretty productive, with Black-bellied Starling, Chin-spot Batis, White-eared Barbet and Dark-backed Forest Weaver all appearing. Eastern Olive Sunbird and Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird were noted at scattered locations throughout our walk.

When we turned left into the purple trail we bumped into our first major target bird, a lovely Grey Waxbill, which we watched building a nest in a low isolated tree alongside the track. The bird flew back and forth between there and a grassy patch about 30m further on, where we watched it collect it's grass stems. We then hit the pink 'Molly's Road trail, and stopped at the Otter view point which looks down at a stream in a forested gully. Here we had great views of 2 Red-backed Mannikins, also collecting nest material, right in front of us. This spot also produced an African Crowned Eagle, and 2 wagtails on the stream below, which I'd have been happy to call Mountain Wagtails if they hadn't been so uncomfortably distant.

Other species seen at Umdoni Park included Long-crested Eagle, Square-tailed and Fork-tailed Drongos, Collared and Amethyst Sunbirds, and Black Cuckoo-Shrike. We also found some treasure in the form of a couple of turaco flight featers.

Next we decided to check out a couple of sites around Pietermaritzberg, so we pressed on and ended up camping at Alfred Falls Dam for 2 nights. This place was full of surprises, the first of which is that I'm still not totally sure if we ended up in the same place as The Book describes! We took a signed turn to Albert Falls Dam about 16km from Pietermaritzberg to get to the site, after first continuing to km23 (as per The Book) to find an unsigned junction. The place we ended up at was along the south side of the dam, and called Msinsi, and came across to us as a rather run down operation, which backed onto what looked like another game reserve. It was a bit sad watching giraffes and zebras on different sides of the fence nuzzling each other through the fence.

The next surprise was the birds. The book mentioned 4 possible new ones for me at Albert Falls, of which I figured I'd surely see the 'common throughout the reserve' Coqui Francolin, and had a decent chance of Orange-breasted Waxbill, a slight chance of Harlequin Quail (as it's a wet year) and pretty much zilch chance of Black-winged Lapwing (seen regularly around the entrance gate). Upon arrival I was reminded that the lapwing was possible, when Nicky pointed out a single Crowned Lapwing on the small lawn area at the entrance barrier. A quick scan and hmmm, yes of course, no Black-winged Lapwings. What a surprise. Not. Imagine my surprise the when I was to discover that hanging out on the lawn at the Pelican Bay camping area c6km from the entrance gate, with a similar number of Blacksmith Lapwings, was a flock of more than 30 Black-winged Lapwings!

As it turned out I completely failed to find any 'common throughout the reserve' Coqui, or any other francolins, in spite of 2 dawn drives and 2 evening ones, nor did I find Orange-breasted Waxbill or Harlequin Quail. I did however discover that Yellow-throated Longclaw was present (3 sightings involving 7 birds), and even better, finally caught up with naughty SPASM bird Brown-backed Honeyguide, with 2 individuals being seen within 500m of the entrance to the camping area.

Other birds noted at Albert Falls included Red-throated Wryneck, Goliath Heron, Long-crested and Africa Fish Eagles, Osprey, Gymnogene, Croaking and Levaillant's Cisticolas, Neddicky, Cape Grassbird, Common and Blue Waxbills, African Firefinch, Red-collared Widowbird, Southern Black Flycatcher, Rufous-naped Lark, Spectacled and Village Weavers, Golden-breasted Bunting, Cardinal Woodpecker, Southern Boubou, African Jacana, Ringed and Kittlitz's Plovers etc.

We were back in the land of western pal pals too, with several Spotted Flycatchers and Red-backed Shrike gracing the acacias. A singing Willow Warbler was particularly homely, and I wondered which of us would make it home first.

This morning, after my dawn Coqui failure, we packed up and drove to Darvill Sewage Farm on the outskirts of Pietermaritzberg. The directions in The Book worked fine, with the added bonus of there not being an entry charge. We were just told to park by the gate and walk. It's a tiny area compared to Strandfontein, but a bit bigger than Rundu, with plenty of nice rank vegetation on and in the tanks. Of my target birds here, I had a hunch that I'd stand a fair chance of Orange-breasted Waxbill and Red-headed Quelea, but little chance of Dark-capped Yellow Warbler. As it turned out I failed to find the seed-eaters but much to my surprise I did see 3 Dark-capped Yellow Warblers, at widely scattered points around the site.

Another surprise was an unsettled flock of more than 50 Black-winged Lapwings, further cheapening this species for me which I thought was supposed to be uncommon. Other waders included good numbers of Ruff and Wood Sandpiper, with the odd Little Stint and Common Sandpiper.

Ducky highlight was at least 5 Hottentot Teal, with Red-billed Teal, Cape Shoveler, Spur-winged Goose and Yellow-billed Duck also present. The reeds and herbage was heaving with Levaillant's Cisticolas and Tawny-flanked Prinias. African Reed Warbler, Lesser Swamp Warbler and Little Rush Warbler were also seen and heard here. There were plenty of Red Bishops and Fan-tailed Widowbirds, fewer Red-collared Widowbirds, Zitting Cisticola, Common Waxbill and Bronze Mannikin.

Continuing with our 'aiming to confuse' plan, we then headed back towards the Drakensberg (Ha, didn't expect that did you?). We decided to get off the hectic motorway and travel on the R103. This ended up being a good move. 23Km before reaching the town of Estcourt a dazzling bird perched in tall grass by the roadside caused me to produce a loud intake of breath. A top of the range, fully sandwiched picnic of a full-blown male Yellow-crowned Bishop in the sunlight. We stopped the car and it put on quite a show for us, but kept moving too quickly for a pic to do it justice.

We've now made it to Amphitheatre Backpackers somewhere or other near Bergville. There's an incredible vista of rolling grassland extending for miles to the towering Drakensberg in the distance beyond. There are Spotted Dikkops on the lawn, and the grass around the nearby dam is heaving with 'bishops', including all four widowbirds, Red-billed Quelea and Red Bishop. Worth a bash about tomorrow.

607 GREY WAXBILL
608 RED-BACKED MANNIKIN
609 YELLOW-THROATED LONGCLAW
610 BLACK-WINGED LAPWING
611 BROWN-BACKED HONEYGUIDE
612 DARK-CAPPED YELLOW WARBLER
613 YELLOW-CROWNED BISHOP
 

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Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
More Highlands And Grasslands

It didn't take long the next morning to realise that the immediate vicinity of the Amphitheatre Backpackers was to far exceed my expectations birdwise. Nicky had done it again with one of her non-birding site suggestions.

Scanning from the tent over morning coffee produced 2 Black-bellied Bustards, and a pair of Grey Crowned Cranes which flew over calling. A walk out into the surrounding grassland revealed plenty more was around than I'd seen the evening before. Yellow-crowned Bishops, Orange-breasted Waxbills, Quailfinches and Pin-tailed Whydahs were all present in good numbers along with the hundreds of 'bishops' already mentioned. If you're into gaudy displaying widow/bishop males, or their headscratching 'female' type plumages, or just wandering freely through grasslands wet and dry, and short and tall, constantly flushing things, then this could be the place for you. Heaps of Levaillant's and Zitting Cisticolas, Common Waxbills and Cape Longclaws added to the quelea/bishop/widowbird mix. 4 Southern Bald Ibis flew over, and the constantly quartering Amur Falcons were joined by an African Marsh and a male Montagu's Harrier, which put up a clamorous pair of Wattled Lapwings. The little dam itself had no less than 8 White-backed Ducks on it, and a Purple Heron lurked in the reeds at the water's edge. Common Quail was new for the the trip here, with 3 flushed birds reminding me that surely Black-rumped Buttonquail must be more than a far fetched hope around here. A couple of Swainson's Francolins were also seen.

Whilst based at this great value isolated backpackers, we popped into Royal Natal NP, and did a short hike. This produced little of note except Drakensberg Prinia, flight views of a probable Brown-backed Honeyguide, and the sight of a Baboon on the back seat of our car. It had climbed in through an open window and ran off with our crisps. Sour cream and onion flavour.

From Amphitheatre we continued west and north to the scenically awesome Golden Gate NP, where we spent 2 nights at the camp ground. Upon arrival we met a birding couple who had been here a few times before. Of my 3 possible target birds present in the park, they'd never seen Blue Korhaan or Black-rumped Buttonquail here, but were pleased to inform me that the last outstanding SPASM bird. African Rock Pipit, was present on the trail up above the back of the campsite. And that I'd hear it up there easily enough. I didn't have the heart to inform them that in order for me to hear it, it would actually have to be a species that existed in the real world, as opposed to a species that exists purely as a result of the collective mass hallucination of countless birders and ornithologists over the period stretching back from now to when this 'bird' was originally 'described'.

Still, just to humour them I went looking for it anyway, on 2 dawns, on both sides of the valley. Of course I didn't see or hear it. How could I? I would be just as likely to encounter Harry Potter, Captains Scarlet and Pugwash, The Caped Crusader, or Cape Clapper Lark. There were some Yellow Bishops, Cape Bunting and Cape Rock Thrush up there, and a Crested Barbet and Red-chested Cuckoo in the camping area. Highlights for that area of the NP were a group of 3 Ground Woodpeckers on the north side of the road, and a crippling damselfly (pic below) that looked like one of our Lestes jobbies, but with a razzy wing pattern.

We spent a fair bit of time in the eastern section of the park scanning the vast open grassy plains for korhaans. This gave us a Grey Crowned Crane, Wing-snapping Cisticola, many Southern Ant-eating Chats. Here there were impressive herds of 'game', including Black Wildebeest, Blesbok, Hartebeest, Zebra, Eland and Springbok.

Next we headed north and east to Memel. This intriguing site is described in The Book as a far less famous alternative to Wakkerstroom. For me it looked particularkly good, because not only were all my Wakkerstroom targets there (Blue Korhaan, and the two rare endemic larks), but also the illusory African Rock Pipit is there too. It also looked like the specific spots to look for the birds would be easier to locate than at Wakkerstroom, a site where many birders end up hiring a guide to show them the 2 larks.

From Harrismith we took the most direct road up to Memel, which I certainly wouldn't recommend as there is a long stretch of it that is in dreadful condition. It does pass through some good grassland however, and 27km before Memel on the S56, Nicky spotted the trip's 11th and final species of bustard, a fabulous Blue Korhaan within 30m of the road, which hung about feeding when we pulled up alongside it. From about that point on, the road became less totally riddled with potholes. Other birds seen further south along that road included several Yellow-crowned Bishops and Red-capped Larks, Grey Crowned and Blue Cranes, and Southern Bald Ibis.

Once in Memel we followed signs to the birder-friendly Mahem Guesthouse. The owner, Jimmy, was very helpful, and sorted us out with a great place to camp in town, at his friend Marie's place, Cedar B+B. He also loaned us several pages of A4 of local birding gen, which includes slightly more detailed site gen for Rudd's and Botha's Larks, Yellow-breasted Pipit etc, than is in The Book. He told us we should also talk to Frans at the butcher's, who is a local birder and part time guide. Frans was busy, but keen to pass on what he could, verifying that the best areas are still pretty much what it says in the gen. He did however point out that the larks would have been much easier to see a few months ago when they were singing and when the grass was shorter!

We set off at dawn, stopped at the African Rock Pipit spot on the way (enough said, there is no Santa), and spent the rest of the morning in the optimum area for Rudd's and Botha's Larks. No luck. Oh well, at least we tried. Maximum respect to Birdboybowley for finding both these tricky species without a guide at Wakkerstroom, even if he did cheat by going in the Spring. We did see 2 more Blue Korhaans, this time enjoying flight views too. Also 40+ Southern Bald Ibis, Pale-crowned, Wing-snapping, Zitting and Levaillant's Cisticolas, 2 Quail, and lots of Amur Falcons, African Pipits and Red-capped Larks. Cinnamon-breasted Bunting and Swainson's Francolin were seen nearer to Memel.

We heard that the Rudd's Larks were surveyed in the Memel area this year, and it's looking ok for this critically endangered bird, with a new area discovered in which they're present. Good news.

I wrote all the above on the evening of Feb 28th, when I'd resigned myself to the idea that we'd move on the next day, as looking for larks seemed pretty hopeless. Then it occurred to us that if we could get permission to walk about in what we thought would be the best 'field' (an area of a few square km), we might be in with enough of a chance for it to worth giving it another go. We asked Jimmy if this might be possible, and even though he was busy dealing with plumbing issues, he phoned the farmer who owned the field straight away, and we were allowed the next day.

That night a big storm came in, giving us little sleep, and in the morning it was still raining, and the plateau was in the clouds. We came close to giving up again and moving on. After a late breakfast it looked like clearing up a bit so we decided to go for it, putting poor old Snowflake, complete with increasingly alarming rattle, through the bumpy and now slippery ride up to the lark site. When we arrived on the misty hilltop, the visibility was only just good enough to be worth a poke around in the field, so Nicky stayed in the car.

The first half hour was, as predicted, very unproductive, with a flushed korhaan being too far into the cloud to identify, a single African Pipit and a small cisticola. Then the cloud lifted enough to see things pretty well for 100m or so. After about an hour I came upon a marshy depression, about 100m in diameter, where I flushed 2 African Snipe. There were a few passerines in the grassland around it, a handful each of Red-capped Larks and African Pipits. Here, much to my amazement, I found 3 Rudd's Larks (the trip's 25th species of Lark!). 2 in loose association and a single of these peculiar-looking larks, all within c100m of this depression. PM if you want the exact spot, but don't enter the field without permission, which is easily obtained, as it is a very big deal round here, and would result in bad consequences for you and future access.

614 ORANGE-BREASTED WAXBILL
615 Common Quail
616 BLUE KORHAAN
617 RUDD'S LARK
 

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birdboybowley

Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
Supporter
England
...Maximum respect to Birdboybowley for finding both these tricky species without a guide at Wakkerstroom, even if he did cheat by going in the Spring...

Well, those of us that can only go for 3 weeks rather than 3 months have to cheat all we can ;) Well done guys!
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
The Far East, Part 1

Thanks chaps, great to hear from you. I love the name Mountain Malachite for that damsel, that'll do me.

Our next move was to head eastwards to hit the last remaining area of South Africa which still contained the chance of a healthy wodge of new 'uns: the hot and humid coastal strip from north of Durban up to the border with Mozambique.

We passed pretty close to Wakkerstroom, and considered an extra night there to look for Botha's Lark, but it looked all in the clouds, and we figured we may give it a go later if we can spare the time to botha looking for any more larks. Instead we made it as far as Itala game reserve, and spent the night camping there, where my biggest hope was Shelley's Francolin. It was great to be among the big mammals again, with Rhino, Giraffe, Zebra and Blue Wildebeest all being seen on the drives around the loops. There was no entrance fee but the campsite was double normal price with no facilities, and a bit of a struggle to get to in 2WD.

The only francolin we managed here was Swainson's, but we saw plenty of other birds in a setting that remind us more of Kruger than anywhere else we'd been recently. Pin-tailed Whydah was common, and we were treated to the spectacular dancing display of a male in front of a female, which resulted in copulation. Other species seen included Rufous-naped and Red-capped Larks, Lilac-breasted Roller, Bee-eater, Croaking and Zitting Cisticolas, Neddicky, Blue Crane, Yellow-throated Petronia, Brimstone Canary, Southern Blacks Tit and Flycatcher, Black Cuckoo-Shrike, Groundscraper Thrush, Red-collared and Fan-tailed Widowbirds etc.

On March 2nd we carried on heading eastwards, and settled at Sodwana Bay, picking up a Lizard Buzzard atop a telegraph pole somewhere along a very long and bumpy 'short cut' as we got nearer to the coast. At Sodwana Bay we hung out for a couple of days while we looked at The Book to formulate a plan of which sites to visit while in the Far East. We stopped by a roadside Pizza shack, and ended up staying in a shady peaceful camping area behind the big pizza restaurant, owned by the folks who own the backpackers behind the small pizza shack.

As it turned out, this area was pretty good for birds. From our camping area the road continued through scrub for about 1km, then into forest for 3km before reaching the gate at the northern end of the national park. A narrow trail a short distance into where the forest starts (just after 2 small bridges) runs over a forested hill to the beach, from where you can walk up to a snorkelling spot.

Around the forest edge I found my first Livingstone's Turaco and Eastern Nicator. Small number of each were also heard during our stay. I also saw a few of what I've now calculated are Purple-banded Sunbirds, all of them eclipse males. Other highlights were a Grey Waxbill, Yellow, Spectacled, and Dark-backed Forest Weavers, Black-bellied Starling, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Burchell's Coucal, Orange-breasted Bush-Shrike, Tamboutine Dove and Yellow-bellied Greenbul. There were even Trumpeter and Crowned Hornbills passing through the campsite, as well as Eastern Olive and Collared Sunbirds, White-eared Barbet, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Sombre Greenbul, Terrestrial Brownbul and Green-backed Cameroptera.

Best of birds on the beach was a Grey-headed Gull, and other birds in general included Common Waxbill, Bronze Mannikin, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Thick-billed Weaver, White-browed Scrub-Robin and Emerald-spotted Wood Dove. Nice pizza too.

From Sodwana Bay we decided to head right up to the Mozambique border and visit Ndumo NP. Although there are self-drive tracks here, many of the specials are only found on walks through different habitats that are only permissible with an armed guide. We bumped into some birders as we were approaching the park who had been there for a couple of days, so grilled them for gen. Considering the potential (around half the new birds that were left for me in SA occur at Ndumo), this couple had seen disappointingly few of the birds I was hoping for. They mentioned that they'd done better on other visits, and the stuff generally wasn't being seen at the moment. I figured I couldn't possibly do as badly as they'd done, but in fact ended up doing worse! I came away from this legendary mecca with just 2 new birds. This has made me realise how tough the Far East specials can be if you don't get the timing/conditions right.

One highlight was great views of 2 Rudd's Apalis along the self-drive track down towards the bird hide, just before the open section. This was a great relief on the final morning, when at last an apalis wasn't a Yellow-breasted, which are all over the reserve like a rash. Another highlight was unbeatable views of Square-tailed Nightjar on the guided night drive. We saw at least 10 of these, and also Fiery-necked Nightjar, a fiery-eyed Southern White-faced Scops Owl, Spotted Eagle Owl, Spotted and Water Dikkops, and 3 Lesser Black-winged Lapwings.

We decided to do the guided Pongola walk, particularly because the couple we met had seen Pel's Owl 2 days before, albeit a very brief flight view. Our guide was very good company, and a great birder who had 21 years experience at Ndumo and was very impressive on calls. In spite of him trying his best, we somehow failed to even hear a single one of my target birds on our four hour walk with him. At least we had the spots pointed out where the birds are regularly seen! Guided walks here are (potentially!) great value at around 7 quid a head for more than 4 hours. I considered the Shokwe Pan walk too, but we didn't do it in the end. As it turned out nothing new would have been seen anyway, though I'd have got to hear Southern Banded Snake Eagle if we'd gone.

Apart from missing the Pel's, another massive lowlight was twice getting utv's of Pink-throated Twinspot. I basically just had red-rumped dumpy things that didn't stick around, or reappear on numerous returns to the same spots.

We did however see a lot of birds! There were Red-fronted Tinkerbird and Pale Flycatcher in the camp site. It was strange to see the giant African Crowned Eagle reduced to pretty much a dot overhead as it called and displayed over our tent. There were Eastern Nicator, Grey Tit-Flycatcher, White-bellied, Scarlet-chested, Collared and Eastern Olive Sunbirds, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, White-eared and Black-banded Barbets, a big colony of Pink-backed Pelicans and Yellow-billed Storks, Grey-headed and Orange-breasted Bush-Shrikes, Brubru, Square-tailed Drongo, Golden Oriole, Black-bellied Starling, Dark-backed Forest and Spectacled Weavers, Golden-breasted Bunting, Blue Waxbill, Rattling Cisticola, Kurrichane Thrush, Trumpeter and Crowned Hornbills, Golden-tailed, Bearded and Cardinal Woodpeckers, Little Bittern, Black-crowned Night and Squacco Herons, Chin-spot Batis, Long-tailed Paradise Whydah, Purple-crested Turaco, Retz's and White-crested Helmet- Shrikes, Martial and Bateleur Eagles, Burnt-necked Eremomela, Spotted Flycatcher, Red-backed and Fiscal Shrikes, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Tambourine and Emerald-spotted Wood Doves, African Green Pigeon, Common Scimitarbill, White-throated Robin-Chat, Brown-hooded Kingfisher etc etc.

From Ndumo we hit the coast, and spent a couple of nights at Kosi Bay Mouth, at the remote Utshwayelo camping area. Unlike at Ndumo, where there is a kitchen gremlin who's job it is to stop people who are camping from using the cooker in the empty kitchen even when they have run out of gas, Utshwayelo has a kitchen fairy, who offers campers the use of the kitchen when it isn't busy, and with a smile. The Book doesn't say much about Kosi Bay as a site for land birds, so birdwise I was in for a very nice surprise. We connected with some birds we 'should' have seen at Ndumo!

Here, right at the beginning of the sandy 4x4 track that runs down to the river mouth, at last were lots of trees full of the 'right' sunbirds! Lots of Purple-banded and a fair few Grey Sunbirds were here joining the Scarlet-chested, Collared and Eastern Olives. After paying a 30 rand (2 and a bit quid) charge for a permit that allows you to use the track throughout your stay, you can follow the track down through scrub and remnant forest to the river mouth to snorkel. Pishing near the end of the track plucked out a gobsmacking female and a juv Black-throated Wattle-eye. Yes! Note that if your field guide says 'juvenile resembles female', as does mine, it might be good to add the words: 'only in that it is the same shape'. The juvenile was a big surprise, in that it was dirty white below, including the throat, had the rest of the head mid grey (with inconspicuous much reduced red eye wattles), and the upperparts were roughly the colour of a Spotted Flycatcher. Resembles a female what?

Kosi Bay Mouth also produced Goliath and Purple Herons, Burchell's Coucal, Livingstone's and Purple-crested Turacos, Black-crowned Tchagra, Pale and Grey Tit- Flycatchers, Black-bellied Starling and Chin-spot Batis.

On our last evening there I had a cunning plan. I had a hunch that an open area of damp grassland with low palms at the bottom of the hill might be good for Swamp Nightjar. Down the hill I went, to position myself in the right spot for dusk, and there I waited. Then, very slightly earlier than is fashionable, a nightjar appeared and came flying around me while it was very much light enough to discern colour. Amazingly it had no white wing patches either! I had a moment or two of' 'who's a clever boy then?', and then I had to come to terms with a couple of facts. I couldn't make out even a narrow buffy tail edge I figured I ought to see on a female Swamp Nightjar. More importantly I couldn't get round the fact that compared to the fluttery little nightjars we'd been watching a couple of nights before, this thing was a monstrous brute, and greyish. It should be even smaller and brownish I think for Swamp. I had to admit that I was actually being visited by a female European Nightjar, that probably recognised me from back home and thought it would fly right up to me to say hello. As the darkness descended, the only nightjars I heard calling as I wandered sweatily back up the hill in the dark were Fiery-necked.

618 LIVINGSTONE'S TURACO
619 EASTERN NICATOR
620 Pink-backed Pelican
621 SQUARE-TAILED NIGHTJAR
622 RUDD'S APALIS
623 PURPLE-BANDED SUNBIRD
624 GREY SUNBIRD
625 BLACK-THROATED WATTLE-EYE
626 European Nightjar
 

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Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
The Far East, Part 2

Next we decided to head to the quiet, sweltering, touristy village of St Lucia, where we have been camping at Bibs Backpackers.

A stop on the way at a bridge over a river produced Wooly-necked and Yellow-billed Storks, African Purple Swamphen, and a very washed-out cisticola, in the reeds. I had my suspicions as to its identity, but it wasn't until another was seen just before the bridge as you enter St Lucia that I could confirm that they were Rufous-winged Cisticolas. It was quite an effort to locate one at the St Lucia site, and I had to rein myself in back to the road from the reed bed at one point, when I heard a hippo nearby. There were also Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters here. Note that hippos are very common here, and they roam the streets at night, so it's probably unwise to do any on-foot birding in the dark. We had our best views of hippos at around 8pm, as they grazed nearby, unbothered in the headlights at the edge of a car park.

On the morning of March 9th I stumbled upon the Gwalagwala trail, mentioned in The Book, about 5 mins walk from the backpackers. Cool. No entry fee or anything, just choice birding on the doorstep. When I busted forth onto the trail I bumped into a small group of American birders with a local guide. Now, I don't know about you, but if I had just been watching something as difficult to find as a Green Malkoha, and incredibly enough “maybe about fifty metres” along the track I then bumped into a birder who specifically asked me if I'd seen Green Malkoha, then there is no way on earth that I'd even consider for a millisecond doing anything other than immediately hastening back to the spot with them, to make sure they knew exactly which vine tangle it was in when I last saw it, to make sure that they stood the best possible chance of relocating such a cool and tricky bird. But maybe that's just me? It certainly didn't seem to occur to them, on whatever planet they were on. Needless to say I spent much of the rest of the day trying to find one in this small forest patch, along with Woodward's Batis which they had also seen. Unsuccessfully. That afternoon we had a sesh at the internet cafe, and managed to hear some recordings of the batis and malkoha calls, but didn't hear those noises on our late afternoon visit.

Yesterday morning I hit the Gwalagwala trail just after dawn, more than a little nervous about the prospect of bumping into a hippo, but there were no nasty shocks bigger than just a very large Bush Pig. As soon as I entered the forest I could hear what sounded like the batis calling, so I legged it along the trail and crept into the forest towards the sound until there in front of me was a cute male Woodward's Batis, with an equally cute female nearby. Great start to the day. Maybe 20 mins later I had a great stroke of luck when a Green Malkoha flew low over my head and landed in a tree alongside the track, where it began to call. I ended up with superb views of this bird as it picked its way along the branches and slid into the next tree, at one point emerging into the full sunlight.

After this I headed down to the large clearing that borders the river, because the day before I'd seen a lot of small bird activity there. I was desperately checking out any very high pitched noises and glimpses of very small birds, as I figured there was no reason why there ought not to be twinspots here. Just before I figured it was time to go back and wake Nicky with a cup of tea, two tiny birds raced by that I didn't get onto in time, but I'm pretty sure they were Green Twinspots, and think I even saw red on the face, This was very frustrating, and this was the kind of word I was having with myself: “you see son, that's it for you, you're past it. Eyes and ears seen better days eh? Bit slow on the draw creaking those bins into play eh son? Yep, 'fraid the likes of twinspots aren't for the likes of doddery sluggards like you. Best stick to ostriches”.

Still, I wasn't going to let that spoil a great morning's birding. This little site had already also produced a couple of parties of Crested Guineafowl, Livingstone's Turaco, Greys Waxbill and Sunbird, Purple-banded Sunbird, Red-capped Robin-Chat, lemon Dove, Black-bellied Starling, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, White-eared Barbet, Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, Spectacled Weaver and Gymnogene, not to mention heaps of Yellow, Dark-backed Forest and Thick-billed Weavers, Square-tailed Drongo, Burchell's Coucal, Common Waxbill, Collared Sunbird, Sombre Greenbul, Terrestrial Brownbul, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Green-backed Camaroptera, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Black-backed Puffback etc.

After breakfast I returned with Nicky. It was overcast and there was still plenty of bird activity, which included 2 more Woodward's Batis. We stopped for a while to enjoy a mixed flock of birds on the final approach to the favoured open area. A tiny noise and a tiny flick of 2 tiny birds belting across the track a few metres in front of us. They stopped low to the right at the edge of a tangle. Up with the bins as quick as an old man can. BANG! For probably a bit under two seconds I had an incredible eye-full of a perched adult male Green Twinspot in perfect light in the bins. With it's scarlet-faced diamond-studded midnight and moss look, this bird totally failed to disappoint. Then it was gone in such a flash that it was as if it had teleported. Some time later we had a couple of more prolonged views of a juvenile Green Twinspot in pretty much the same place. For those of you who might be wondering what a juvenile might look like (you can't really tell from the field guide), this one was plain grey underneath, dull greenish above, with a blackish bill, and the area of the face that's vivid red in the male was a kind of cheerful buff. Green Twinspot has been one of the birds I've most wanted to see on this trip for some time now, so yesterday was officially a good day.

Today we decided to do a day trip to Cape Vidal, and remain at Bibs in St Lucia because of the daft price of the no-facilities Cape Vidal camp site. Quite a few exciting birds are possible at Cape Vidal, but we'd missed them all before at other sites, so I wasn't that hopeful that we'd see any of them today.

I was very pleased indeed therefore when shortly after turning into the Vlei Loop there was a Southern Banded Snake-Eagle with a big fat head perched in a dead tree not far from the track. It was happy to pose for over the top scope views, and pics. This was a special bird for me, because it put me in the position of having the last 100 species to go before the (for me) big 5000. Why that's special for me is that for many years I've wondered if I'll get to 5000 before I'm 50. Now there's less than 100 to go, but I'm 49 in a few months! At the end of this trip report you'll see why that goal might be a tougher challenge than it might look.

Further round the Vlei loop we saw 2 Rufous-bellied Herons and another Southern Banded Snake-Eagle. Our next piece of luck was that of the few birds visible from the Mfazana hide, 2 pairs were African Pygmy Geese. Other birds on our Cape Vidal jaunt included lots of Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, Yellow-throated Longclaw, European Roller, Fan-tailed Widowbird, Croaking, Rattling and Zitting Cisticolas, African Jacana, Wooly-necked Stork Black Crake, and Ashy Flycatcher.

Pics: 1 & 2. Southern Banded Snake-Eagle, 3. Crested Guineafowl

627 RUFOUS-WINGED CISTICOLA
628 WOODWARD'S BATIS
629 GREEN MALKOHA
630 GREEN TWINSPOT
631 SOUTHERN BANDED SNAKE-EAGLE
632 AFRICAN PYGMY GOOSE
 

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birdboybowley

Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
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England
Ha, American birders abroad........I had the misfortune of bumping into some of these at La Selva on Xmas day 2007. Jeez, no wonder they were there on that day - I'm sure their families must've chipped in to send them there!!
Even a simple 'seen much?' resulted in replies of 'yeah, some good stuff'....'like?'....'well, the good stuff that's here'.....I shoulda pushed them off the bridge
The big 5000 before the really big 50......? Good luck old man! ;)
 

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