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