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After a slap dash drive to make it into Kruger National Park before the gates closed, we took a slow drive towards Berg-en-Dal camp, counting a few birds in the late afternoon. The campsite was rather full and we had to use a bare earth site smack in the middle and nowhere near the fences. After a dinner of cold boerewors rolls we settled to an early night as we planned to get up at 05:30 the next morning.
After making some coffee and tea for the morning, we left the campsite shortly after 6am and turned north towards Matjulu waterhole. Having heard Fiery-necked nightjar, Pearl-spotted owlet and African scops owl early in the morning, our hopes were up and we got rewarded quickly with a pair of Southern ground hornbills turning over rocks for a bite to eat. We saw a glimpse of a lion's behind and shortly after some elephant and buffalo before reaching the waterhole. This was decidedly devoid of game and birds, possibly due to the crowds of people sitting in their noisy diesel 4x4s, craning their necks every time something stirred in the distance, only to be wrought with disappointment upon the appearance of another impala. We, on the other hand, enjoyed the early morning screeches of Brown-headed parrots and the Tarzan-like call of African green pigeons. However, no coursers or sandgrouse showed up in the half an hour we sat there and we took the drive up Steilberg slowly, eventually reaching the tar road again somewhere before 10am. We had a brief stop at Afsaal where Nicola took some excellent pictures of a patient Southern yellow-billed hornbill and also got pretty close to a female Chinspot batis but always just partially obscured by the foliage. From Afsaal we took a turn north before turning east and almost immediately south along the Biyamiti river. A few more birds were added, in particular a juvenile Dark chanting goshawk of which we managed a few photos before it disappeared. At our lunch spot under a shady tree, overlooking the James waterhole, we added three Woolly-necked storks and shortly after a adult and baby White rhino. With the afternoon wearing on we made our way back to Berg-en-dal and decided to go and sit at Matjulu for the remainder of the day. We sat for almost 2 hours in which time all hell broke loose when a leopard stalked from behind the small reservoir, out of sight from us, and then crossed the road smack in front of a very lucky van, with us once again only catching a glimpse of bum-spots through the grass - but it did mean we actually saw the Big 5 all in one day, without actually looking for them. Probably to the utter dismay of all the superficial sods chasing after sightings of these creatures with sheer indifference to everyone around them. We decided to make dinner our wedding anniversary dinner, even though its a few days early, and ate a fairly disappointing meal in the restaurant.
Sunday morning saw us up even earlier and at the gate before opening time. Still sticking to the speed limit, we legged it to Matjulu where we sat for two hours and added about 20 birds and 2 lions before heading back to the camp and packing up. We made a last trip along the Mlambane river adding birds like Bushveld pipit, African wattled lapwing, Ovambo sparrowhawk, Little bee-eater, Yellow-breasted apalis and Spectacled weaver before exiting at Malelane gate. We took an easy drive back via Schoemanskloof and got home by 4pm.
Unfortunately no lifers for the trip but did get 111 birds for the weekend including about 15 new ones for the year!
After a slap dash drive to make it into Kruger National Park before the gates closed, we took a slow drive towards Berg-en-Dal camp, counting a few birds in the late afternoon. The campsite was rather full and we had to use a bare earth site smack in the middle and nowhere near the fences. After a dinner of cold boerewors rolls we settled to an early night as we planned to get up at 05:30 the next morning.
After making some coffee and tea for the morning, we left the campsite shortly after 6am and turned north towards Matjulu waterhole. Having heard Fiery-necked nightjar, Pearl-spotted owlet and African scops owl early in the morning, our hopes were up and we got rewarded quickly with a pair of Southern ground hornbills turning over rocks for a bite to eat. We saw a glimpse of a lion's behind and shortly after some elephant and buffalo before reaching the waterhole. This was decidedly devoid of game and birds, possibly due to the crowds of people sitting in their noisy diesel 4x4s, craning their necks every time something stirred in the distance, only to be wrought with disappointment upon the appearance of another impala. We, on the other hand, enjoyed the early morning screeches of Brown-headed parrots and the Tarzan-like call of African green pigeons. However, no coursers or sandgrouse showed up in the half an hour we sat there and we took the drive up Steilberg slowly, eventually reaching the tar road again somewhere before 10am. We had a brief stop at Afsaal where Nicola took some excellent pictures of a patient Southern yellow-billed hornbill and also got pretty close to a female Chinspot batis but always just partially obscured by the foliage. From Afsaal we took a turn north before turning east and almost immediately south along the Biyamiti river. A few more birds were added, in particular a juvenile Dark chanting goshawk of which we managed a few photos before it disappeared. At our lunch spot under a shady tree, overlooking the James waterhole, we added three Woolly-necked storks and shortly after a adult and baby White rhino. With the afternoon wearing on we made our way back to Berg-en-dal and decided to go and sit at Matjulu for the remainder of the day. We sat for almost 2 hours in which time all hell broke loose when a leopard stalked from behind the small reservoir, out of sight from us, and then crossed the road smack in front of a very lucky van, with us once again only catching a glimpse of bum-spots through the grass - but it did mean we actually saw the Big 5 all in one day, without actually looking for them. Probably to the utter dismay of all the superficial sods chasing after sightings of these creatures with sheer indifference to everyone around them. We decided to make dinner our wedding anniversary dinner, even though its a few days early, and ate a fairly disappointing meal in the restaurant.
Sunday morning saw us up even earlier and at the gate before opening time. Still sticking to the speed limit, we legged it to Matjulu where we sat for two hours and added about 20 birds and 2 lions before heading back to the camp and packing up. We made a last trip along the Mlambane river adding birds like Bushveld pipit, African wattled lapwing, Ovambo sparrowhawk, Little bee-eater, Yellow-breasted apalis and Spectacled weaver before exiting at Malelane gate. We took an easy drive back via Schoemanskloof and got home by 4pm.
Unfortunately no lifers for the trip but did get 111 birds for the weekend including about 15 new ones for the year!
