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| Birding Polokwane - one of the highlights of this leg |
This first blog post covers the part of our trip before we arrived in Kruger.
I arrived at Heathrow on the evening of November 18th and settled into my overnight flight to Joburg. James meanwhile was already en-route with an indirect flight via Ethiopia, whilst Mayur was taking an early morning flight from his home in Cape Town.
I slept surprisingly well, waking in the early hours, and enjoyed watching our gradual descent over the mountains towards the city. Upon opening my phone to activate my local eSIM, the very first message I received on WhatsApp was a report of a Spotted Redshank on Port Meadow - arghhh! A potential patch tick for me, and unbelievable to have missed it the second I left the UK. In any case, as I write this four months later, we never received any further description or evidence for this record, so it has been rejected. Anyway - to be quite honest it barely dented my mood as I collected my luggage and headed to Mugg and Bean cafe to meet James and Mayur. I was pleased with my first lifer of the trip - Cape Robin-Chat - in the airport garden, along with Southern Masked-Weavers at their nests, and Cape Sparrows hopping around. Little Swifts gathered overhead. We had arrived.
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| Phone pic of airport Cape Robin-Chat - not representative of the quality of photography in the rest of this blog! |
Sorting out the hire car was a faff, as predicted, requiring us to pay a huge deposit as none of us have a credit card - something to learn for future overseas birding trips. Soon, however, we were on our way, collecting Cameron and driving straight out of the city towards the first location on our itinerary.
The area north-east of Pretoria is dry and bushy, and our primary target was Tinkling Cisticola - a relatively range-restricted species which would be a lifer for Mayur. Also possible in this habitat was Ovambo Sparrowhawk, although like any raptor they can be tricky to connect with. I was overwhelmed by the diversity at our first roadside stop. Birds were calling everywhere, and flitting around in the bushes at point-blank range. The distinctive three notes of Red-chested Cuckoo would become one of the most familiar sounds of the trip; two Dideric Cuckoos chased each other across the road; and a Piping Cisticola (Neddicky) sang from the wires. Amethyst and White-bellied Sunbirds flitted in the trees, as a chunky black bird materialised in the bushes directly opposite the car - in my excitement I called it as a Drongo, but was quickly corrected by Cam as a superb Southern Black-Flycatcher. Slightly more familiar were the calls of a flock of European Bee-eaters overhead. All this on just a random bit of road!
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| Southern Black-Flycatcher |
I soon realised that there was no way I could initially keep up with the barrage of calls and new birds so I focused on just seeing what I could, ticking what I was happy with in terms of identification features and getting as many photos as possible. I had tried to do as much reading as possible beforehand and even used eBird to quiz myself on photos of the expected species, but nothing can compare to just being out there and experiencing it for the first time. Driving further along the road I saw a grey, rather featureless Accipiter fly alongside the car at medium range - getting everyone else onto it, Cameron was happy that this was an Ovambo Sparrowhawk, so despite brief views we were pleased to connect with our first target. We picked up a few more of the expected common species along the road - Cape Starling, Rattling Cisticola, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Speckled Mousebird, Crested Barbet and Fiscal Flycatcher, before arriving at the first Tinkling Cisticola hotspot.
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| Lunch at the Tinkling site - before all the food went rotten |
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| Tinkling Cisticola |
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| Tinkling in the foliage! |
The bird took a little bit of finding, with only distant song initially picked out by Cameron, but it soon came into some nearer bushes and we were treated to some fabulous views. We also heard Desert Cisticola, Pied and Black-Collared Barbets; our only Fawn-coloured Lark of the trip perched up on wires; and we had our first views of the ubiquitous and iconic Lilac-breasted Roller. A flock of Barn Swallows was feeding by the road, and it was a bit of a shock to see them in their drab, worn wintering plumage, with heavy moult in their wings - completely different to how they look back home!
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| Black-winged Kite |
The afternoon was now beginning to turn to evening, and we headed towards Dinokeng Game Reserve, where we would be camping for the night. Passing a shaded stream, we saw several dark, Mallard-looking birds darting away from us - African Black Duck, a good tick to get so early on. On the other side of the road, a Giant Kingfisher was waiting in the branches. Two great birds just before the sun set.
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| African Black Duck |
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| Giant Kingfisher |
On the road leading towards the Afsaal campsite we connected with Crimson Gonolek (which frustratingly refused to be photographed this entire trip!), Crested Francolin, Swainson's Spurfowl, Woodland Kingfisher and our first Hornbill - Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill. We arrived at camp with enough light to get the braai going and settled down to do a bit of light moth trapping using our LepiLEDs. I'm aware that James is going to cover the mothing side of the trip in his own, separate series of blog posts, so I'll mostly leave those photos to him.
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| Crested Francolin |
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| Aurivillius fuscus, the Cats-Eye Emperor Moth |
The next day we woke at dawn, took down our tents immediately and began doing some birding around the campsite. In the game parks, including Kruger, birding within the camps is one of the best ways to get close to the birds for photography, as along the road you're not allowed out of the car for safety reasons. At Afsaal we were treated to some nice views of Southern Black-Tit, Black-backed Puffback, Southern Red-billed Hornbill, Brubru and Groundscraper Thrush. An African Cuckoo called unseen, and directly over the fence a Red-billed Oxpecker was following a herd of Zebra.
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| Southern Black-Tit |
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| Groundscraper Thrush |
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| Red-billed Oxpecker |
Our aim for this first full day of birding was to thoroughly bird the Zaagkuilsdrift and Crake Road area, hoping to connect with a wide range of species utilising the acacia woodland, scrub and seasonally flooded fields along the road. On the drive out of the campsite we picked up a flock of Lesser Striped Swallows and both Southern Red and Yellow-crowned Bishops on the verges, before arriving at the main birding site. My experience of our first stops at Zaagkuilsdrift was rather reminiscent of the previous day - total overwhelm and too many birds in the bushes!
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| Driving down the Zaagkuilsdrift Road |
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| A quick introduction to our hire vehicle - this Citroen Aircross was one of the worst cars I've ever driven, with a barely functional reverse gear. Affectionately coined "the Batmobile" during this trip, in reference to our Bat Hawk target bird! |
In less than three hours of relatively casual birding from the car we clocked up around 90 species, with highlights being close views of Marico Flycatchers, a skulky Sulphur-breasted Bushshrike, Southern Penduline Tit singing from the top of a bush, Black-faced and Violet-eared Waxbills, the melodic notes of White-browed Scrub Robin and White-throated Robin Chat, and a party of Chestnut-vented Warblers. There weren't many Palearctic migrants, which was sadly the case throughout this trip (perhaps we were slightly too early), but a few Spotted Flycatchers sallied from the trees and the familiar song of Willow Warbler was heard in the bushes.
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| Pearl-breasted Swallow - dull light unfortunately made for some rather uninspiring photography! |
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| Pied Cuckoo |
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| Scaly Weaver |
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| Violet-eared Waxbill |
As the morning warmed a few larger birds began thermaling, and we soon picked out our first eagles - three Wahlberg's and an African Fish Eagle. Less expected were a flock of three Black Storks, an uncommon migrant in this area, and not a guaranteed tick for this trip! We were also pleased to see the distinctive silhouette of a Hamerkop in flight, our first sighting of this common but exceptionally weird looking bird, which is now placed in its own taxonomic family.
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| Black Stork |
After many stops we eventually reached the start of the Crake Road, and were surprised to find it flooded. We debated whether to try taking the car down, but decided that it wasn't worth potentially ruining the hire car on the first day and parked up, changing into sandals to beginning wading through on foot.
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African Monarch
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Great birding along here and really atmospheric - our only sighting of Lesser Spotted Eagle (confirmed at length by checking photos), along with Marabou Stork, Gabar Goshawk, Whiskered Tern and African Darter. Small numbers of wildfowl were feeding on the floods (White-faced Whistling, Yellow-billed and Red-billed Ducks, as well as the huge Spur-winged Goose), but we failed to find any of the rarer Crakes or Rails. Mayur speculated that the water levels were perhaps too high to be suitable for these birds.
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| Lesser Spotted Eagle |
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| A tricky identification but hopefully these photos show the structure and dark plumage with white spotting along the underwing coverts and pale rump. Please let me know if you disagree! |
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| Immature African Fish-Eagle |
Driving back through Zaagkuilsdrift, we added Pale Chanting-Goshawk, Black-chested Snake-Eagle and Brown-crowned Tchagra. We stopped on the bridge over the floodplain at Kgomo-Kgomo and in the baking midday heat we attempted to assemble some sandwiches on the car bonnet, ticking African Jacana, Yellow-billed Stork, Southern Pochard, African Pipit, Cape Wagtail and several rather more familiar waders and terns. Two Black Herons were a nice find(and a key target), as was Barred Wren-Warbler and Black-throated Canary. We drove on through the heat.
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| Bridge at Kgomo-Kgomo |
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Southern Masked-Weaver
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Further down the track, we flushed a small group of finches out of a puddle, which revealed themselves to be Quailfinch through their distinctive calls. Not that I would have recognised that, as I was still struggling with even the most common birds! Throughout this trip I grappled with the idea of ticking birds that I would not have been able to identify myself - a situation quite alien to me in a British context - but which was inevitable given the fact that we were birding with two vastly more experienced guides. Most of my other overseas birding, e.g. my recent Hong Kong trip, was done solo, and therefore anything that I ticked I had to have gone through the process of working out what the bird was myself. I tried to accept that at the beginning I had to mostly take their word for the more briefly seen birds, although made a mental note to try and get better views of these species later on. Quailfinch, as it turns out, was not seen again, and is probably one of my more dubious ticks of the trip!
We arrived at our last stop for the day, Polokwane, at around 5pm. What an amazingly birdy place - rather like Zaagkuilsdrift, with most of the birding simply done along the road. We enjoyed excellent views of our first Golden-tailed Woodpecker, whilst Brown-backed Honeybird remained a frustrating heard-only - although luckily for me, a very distinctive call! Eurasian Golden Oriole was good to connect with, being a fairly uncommon Palearctic migrant, and a group of Greater Striped and Rufous-chested Swallows were added to our growing hirundine list. As dusk fell, the song of a Rufous-cheeked Nightjar was heard distantly, and a Spotted Thick-knee was on the road.
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| Golden-tailed Woodpecker |
The first of our target owl species was unexpectedly picked out deep in a bush - a stunning Southern White-faced Owl. Although well hidden, it was luckily very close to the car, and with a bit of manoeuvring, we were able to get mostly unobscured views. It was quite skittish and constantly hopped away through the branches, so we spent only a short while admiring it before moving on. A Black-backed Jackal posed on the road as the moths lifted.
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| Southern White-faced Owl |
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| Black-backed Jackal |
Then, it all got a bit strange. As we were driving along I suddenly noticed a rather dark-looking owl flying away from us on the right-hand side of the car, although wasn't sure what it was. We screeched to a halt, and Cameron got the torch on it just as it called. "It's a Grass Owl!" he exclaimed. It then disappeared into the gloom. Now, I confess that I did not manage to see it in the torchlight, as by that point it had flown behind the left-hand side of the car; although James did, and described is as being so dark when lit that he "thought it was a Marsh Owl". The call is diagnostic, being shorter and harsher than a Barn Owl screech - but did I really register it as such, and do I have the requisite knowledge of the full suite of Barn Owl calls? I find this one as bit difficult, especially as we did not get a recording of the call. I am confident in the identification abilities of our friends, although whether I would tick it myself is an ongoing question. In the meantime, it remains on our eBird checklist. Amusingly, shortly afterwards we all called a Barn Owl flushed from the side of the road as African Grass Owl, although I'll blame our excitement over the sighting for that one! Clearly it had all got into our heads by that point, and it was time to retire for the night. Luckily no attempts to braai our food that evening.
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| Barn Owl - hmmmm... |
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| All very happy to see this African Bullfrog! Accidental Renaissance vibes here |
The itinerary for the third day took us to Vaalkop plains bright and early to target some larks, which I was very excited about. In fact, it turned out that this small area of nondescript drylands was some sort of lark paradise. We quickly connected with the near-endemic Grey-backed Sparrow-Lark, Spike-heeled Lark and Pink-billed Lark, and the endemic Short-clawed Lark - all with their unique songs and flight calls. White-quilled Bustards were displaying over the hills, and a pair of Yellow-bellied Eremomela were collecting nesting material. Some other semi-arid specialists included a flock of Red-headed Finch and a Kalahari Scrub Robin.
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| Grey-backed Sparrow-Lark |
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| Spike-heeled Lark |
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| A wonderfully confiding individual |
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| Short-clawed Lark |
Raptors were surprisingly abundant, and I was pleased to see my first Greater Kestrel, along with Lesser Kestrel, Cape Griffon and Lappet-faced Vulture. A pair of Lanner Falcons also showed amazingly well, and I took hundreds of photos.
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| All of these photos of Lanner Falcon were taken with the 2x extender - aside from some heat haze I'm pleasantly surprised with how well they have come out. |
As we walked through the scrub we were startled by an owl flushed from close underfoot. James called it as a Marsh Owl - the real thing, this time - and we got some brief, but close views as it glided away over the undulating plains. Try as we might, we couldn't locate it again on the ground, despite being sure that it had gone down again in this area!
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| Marsh Owl |
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| Also in this area was an unknown, possibly abandoned nest |
As we explored further from the car I spotted what looked like a distant group of three Bustards, which were clearly different from the White-quilled Bustards that we had been seeing all morning. They were pale and long-necked, and I suspected that these could be our other main target in this area - White-bellied Bustard! We moved closer to confirm, and got some pretty good views of this elusive and uncommon resident. Clearly a family group, with a male, female and immature, and as they noticed us they moved slowly and quietly away through the grass. One of my favourite moments of the trip.
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| Female White-bellied Bustard |
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| Family group together |
On our way to Tzaneen we stopped briefly at Flora Park Dam (a park in Polokwane), ticking Lesser Swamp Warbler and getting some close views of Southern Red Bishop and Bronze Mannikin. Further along, we had our first views of the iconic Long-crested Eagle, characteristically perched on a roadside post.
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| Bronze Mannikin |
We had coffee and lunch at a surprisingly bougie cafe, with an outdoor seating area offering some good birding - Yellow-streaked Greenbul, Cape Batis, Southern Double-collared Sunbird, Klaas' Cuckoo and best of all, Knysna Turaco. An overhead flock of 66 Marabou Storks failed to reveal the hoped-for Abdim's, so we continued on.
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| Marabou Storks |
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| Knysna Turaco - so close that I struggled to fit it in the frame |
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| Cape Batis |
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| Cropped detail |
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| Southern Double-collared Sunbird |
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| Samango Monkey - one of a troop across the road |
Our next target was Bat Hawk at a nesting site at New Agatha Forest Reserve. This species was high on each of our most-wanted lists, so we had researched a few locations to potentially connect during the trip. The pair at the reserve use a line of Eucalyptus trees where some nest platforms have been installed specifically for the birds, and most sightings on eBird were of the birds at roost near the platforms during the day.
We pulled up, filled with anticipation, and for the next hour proceeded to see... nothing. It's been a while since I spent that long craning my neck looking up into empty trees. We tried from all angles and even began searching the forest adjacent to the Eucalyptus stands just in case they were perched up there. No sign. Discussions were had about whether this was simply a skill issue, although we eventually decided that we couldn't possibly be missing multiple large black birds sitting in branches at relatively close range. They must have roosted elsewhere that morning, and so, defeated, we mopped up a few random forest species before heading out of the reserve.
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| Olive Woodpecker |
Our final target for the day was Blue-Spotted Wood Dove at a known site near Tzaneen. On the drive in we picked up Black Sawwing and Horus Swift, as well as flyover Purple Heron and African Wooly-necked Stork. Grosbeak Weavers were busy nest-building in the reeds, and a Dusky Indigobird perched on the wires above the houses. It was a surprisingly urban area, and as usual I felt a bit awkward handing around people's homes looking into the trees with optics. This is especially the case in South Africa, where I feel that many people are much more wary of strangers (presumably due to areas with high crime rates). When we did finally hear the Blue-spotted Wood Dove calling, it was unfortunately buried deep in a heavily vegetated garden. Peering through the security fence, we attempted to get a glimpse of the bird, but had only false starts with Tambourine Doves. Ah well. Some good views of Purple-crested Turaco were a minor consolation.
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| Dusky Indigobird |
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| Grosbeak Weaver |
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| Tambourine Dove in the gloom |
We arrived at our accommodation deep in the woods at Whispering Creek Mountain Lodge as the sun was setting, and didn't have much time for birding. As we set up the moth trap, though, we were delighted to hear a pair of African Wood-Owls calling to each other nearby. We quickly located one in the trees out the back of the lodge, and enjoyed some fabulous views at close range using a dim torch, before letting it be.
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| African Wood-Owl |
Day 4 was packed with sites and travelling, and remembering back now, it really felt like the longest day of the trip. Our plan was to spend all morning birding the Woodbush Forest Reserve at Magoebaskloof before driving to Kruger, with some additional stops along the way for extra birds.
We were up early and arrived on the entrance track at dawn. Dirt roads for built for logging lead through the forest here, and our tactic was to drive along slowly with the windows down, listening for birds and getting out on foot when we encountered a mixed flock moving through. A Lemon Dove flushed from the side of the road was the first new tick, before Cameron pointed out the low, breathy call of Narina Trogon. This was one of our most-wanted targets, but frustratingly, all of these calling males on our initial drive in were too far away from the road to try for.
Our first stops along the road produced Grey Cuckooshrike, Square-tailed Drongo, Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler and Bar-throated Apalis. Brown Scrub Robin sang from the undergrowth, but remained very elusive, whilst an African Goshawk was flushed skywards before "chwik"-ing from up high. The theme of the day was of great birds showing poorly, with African Crested Flycatcher and White-starred Robin similarly escaping the camera. The exception to this was Chorister Robin-Chat, which we could hear singing everywhere. One individual posed up particularly well, producing a memorable photo.
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| Chorister Robin-Chat - one of my favourite photos of the trip, and a perfect composition for me. I don't like completely blurred backgrounds if the backgrounds are interesting! |
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| Olive Woodpecker, taken I think at the same time as the photo above - if only the background had been completely dark! |
Another key target here was African Emerald Cuckoo, which, like the Trogon, we had heard distantly a few times throughout the morning. We eventually located one when we realised that it was singing from a bare, protruding branch that was just about visible through a gap in the foliage if you aligned yourself perfectly. Even at distance, its metallic, scale-like feathers were surprisingly obvious. Just fantastic.
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| African Emerald Cuckoo |
Rounding another corner, we heard a Narina Trogon close to the road and decided that this was the one we had to try and see. It sounded close, but the trees were tall, and we had no idea how high up it was. Cameron and Mayur began attempting to imitate the call, and for the next twenty minutes it played ventriloquist, the sound seemingly bouncing around without any indication that it had moved. A couple of times, we thought we caught glimpses of something flying, but these invariably turned out to be Greenbuls. Finally, just scanning with bins and focusing at different distances through the foliage, it materialised in my field of view. The red chest was breathtaking, and I was amazed that I hadn't seen it before. Now I had to try and get everyone else onto it. It wasn't close, and perhaps lower down in the canopy than we expected, which caused some confusion. James in particular was really struggling to connect, but luckily we all got onto it before it literally melted away again - I don't think any of us saw it fly.
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| Narina Trogon - appalling shot at ISO 12800 but was quite grateful to get any record of this bird especially given the amount of foliage in the way |
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| Happy birders! |
Soon afterwards we managed to find our next target, Black-fronted Bushshrike, an important bird and a lifer for Mayur. Luckily, the canopy here was more open and we quickly located it moving through some high branches. In the same area we ticked Barratt's Warbler and Orange Ground-Thrush (picked up by song), but actually seeing both of these birds caused some issues for James again. The Ground-Thrush in particular had a habitat of sitting motionless directly above us, and the combination of neck-craning and frustration eventually meant that he had to go away with these as heard-only ticks.
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| Black-fronted Bushshrike |
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| Attempting to see Orange Ground-Thrush |
We emerged from the deep forest just before lunch, and headed down to the Debegeni Falls in search of Mountain Wagtail. In contrast to the rest of the morning, these were easy to find, and performed very well for photography. I love how the background contrasts with the Wagtails in these shots.
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| Mountain Wagtails - not sure which of these shots is my favourite! Second could probably benefit from some upscaling |
We attempted to have lunch here, but came under attack from a particularly persistent Samango Monkey, which forced us to relocate!
We ended up eating our sandwiches in a lay-by next to the main road, which produced one of the most surprising sightings of the trip so far. We had been scanning the skies for Crowned Eagle all morning, and I was pretty disappointed to have missed it as Woodbush would have probably been our best chance to see this spectacular bird soaring over the forest. I was therefore amazed to pick one up high and distantly over the road, which I only saw as I was looking at an African Harrier-Hawk through my bins. Our lunch stop also produced a pair of Broad-billed Rollers, so this random lay-by was surprisingly productive!
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A terrible record shot of the Crowned Eagle, but one which captures the essence of the sighting quite well! |
We were in high spirits as we began our journey towards Kruger, although sad to say goodbye to Cameron in Tzaneen. We stopped briefly at Modjadji Cycad Nature Reserve to admire these prehistoric trees, but had to press on after just half an hour in order to reach the Punda Maria Gate before 18:30 - there is a substantial fine for latecomers! The drive produced just one new tick, a Great Spotted Cuckoo perched up on wires (which only I saw).
Our arrival at Kruger was magical, and as we drove to Punda Maria rest camp we had our first sightings of Elephants and more in the setting sun. We had managed to see approximately 270 species in the first four days. The start of our journey through the park will be covered in the next blog post!
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| Mantis at dinner in the Punda Maria restaurant! |
