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On Friday afternoon we drove to Marloth park, arriving at our accommodation just after 6pm. Renting from a colleague of Nicola's, it was great value for money for the weekend. After hamburgers for dinner it was off to an early night's sleep as we planned on getting up at 04:30 to make it to the Crocodile Bridge at Kruger National Park at 06:00.
Nicola's mobile alarm did not go off as set and when I woke up, it was already 05:20. We quickly rushed to get everything packed and by 05:40 were on our way. We made it to the gate at about 06:15 but luckily the sun had not risen yet so we haven't lost any birding time. Unfortunately, after entering the park, we immediately discovered that the road we wanted to drive via Biyamiti bridge was closed and we had to take a long detour to get back to Malelane. But our disappointment was short-lived when we first saw two spotted hyenas investigating the tourists in front of us, and then a white rhino in the road not 500m further on. Birding was as good as you can expect from a winter's morning and we added Common scimitarbill, White-crested and Retz's helmet-shrikes, African harrier-hawk, Brown snake eagle and Brown-headed parrots among a few others before we reached the Biyamiti weir. At Afsaal we had a quick lunch before spotting a skinny-looking lioness lying in the shade not 5m from the road. On our way out we added Buffy pipit and African palm swift and on the Crocodile river bridge just after exiting the park, Giant and Pied kingfishers, Goliath heron, African jacana, Great and Little egrets, Black-winged stilt, Water thick-knee and a lone White-fronted bee-eater. Back in Marloth around 3pm we did some shopping before returning to our accommodation. At 4pm we started our braai and sized up the very tame warthog for the spit as it came grazing around the house and pool. A couple of Red-capped robin-chats and Sombre greenbul came drinking from the small water hole and Golden-tailed woodpecker and Green-backed camaroptera called from the woodland before the sun set.
This morning Nicola's alarm went off on time and just after 6am we were at the gate of Lionspruit Reserve, the game reserve forming part of Marloth park. After a quite start in the icy morning air, we located our first birding party and noted Black-backed puffback, Chinspot batis, Southern black tit, Cardinal woodpecker, Fork-tailed drongo, Emerald-spotted wood dove and Speckled mousebirds. Driving away from Frikkie's dam we saw our first Crowned hornbills for the year, harassing an African goshawk with load squaks and shortly after we were delighted with a lifer in a Stierling's wren-warbler although our sighting was cut short by another vehicle driving up and scaring the bird off. Some moist woodland in the south of the park yielded Black crake, Brown-crowned tchagra, Green-winged pytilia, Yellow-breasted apalis, Southern yellow-billed and Red-billed hornbills. We exited the reserve some time after 10pm, packed and locked up and did a quick turn next to the Crocodile river where we saw Grey tit-flycatcher and Marico sunbird before exiting Marloth and heading for home.
A very pleasant weekend out with a total of 94 bird species seen. A litte bit on the slim side, but with a lifer added, a very successful weekend indeed!
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