Early on Saturday morning we drove up to Dullstroom with the hope of picking up a few new birds. On the approach to Verloren Valei, just outside Dulstroom we started our day and recorded a number of the regulars. At the top of the road, just inside the nature reserve, we stopped for a break and scanned the marshy bits in the distance with the scope. Nicola managed to pick out a crane in the far distance and as we watched it carefully, we were jubilant when it turned out to be a Wattled crane - our first one for South Africa! At 10am we were at the top of the road just below Die Berg and from here took a slow drive to Gustav Klingbiel Nature Reserve in Lydenburg. At the entrance to Gustav Klingbiel, a Red-throated wryneck called and just inside the reserve, a few Alpine swifts banked across the little dam. Unfortunately the tracks in the reserve are in a pretty bad state and after we struggled our way to a saddle up in the hills, we didn't fancy the even worse tracks further up. After a spot of lunch we drove out to Kingwoody Lodge where we spent the night.
Before dawn we were up and packing and noted our first Red-chested cuckoo for the season. By sunrise we had driven to the turn-off to Mount Sheba and took a very slow drive from here. The pine and gum plantations only produced Cape canary, Cape batis and Dark-capped bulbul but things picked up past the plantations. On the protea-covered upper slopes we picked up Swee waxbill, Bar-throated apalis, Cape robin-chat and Cape white-eye and as soon as we entered the forest, Knysna turaco, White-starred robin, Sombre greenbul, Greater double-collared sunbird and Olive woodpecker. We parked just below the hotel and walked down the road towards the Old Diggings and not 100m down the road, a pair of very confiding Orange ground thrushes (together with one Olive thrush) entertained us for 20 minutes. A Red-chested cuckoo sat still for a picture and we got great views of a Yellow-throated woodland warbler. Olive bish-shrike and Grey cuckooshrike were calling and on our way back to the car, we got quick but good views of a Yellow-streaked greenbul and a Lemon dove. We returned home via Verloren Valei again but things were very quiet in the middle of the day with the only interesting sighting being a pair of Secretarybirds. By 13:30 we were home and unpacking. I switched my computer on and were surprised by emails on SA Rare Bird News of a Red phalarope having been spotted on a pan just off the highway, 30km west of Belfast - a spot we drove past not 30 minutes ago! Feeling tired after two successive early mornings, I decided to take a break while Nicola did some quick shopping but then I realised I was going to regret it terribly tomorrow. When Nicola returned, we jumped back in the car and raced the 40km back to the pan (Leeuwfontein)where a few others have already gathered. We parked, simply walked over to where the others were sitting and there it was, swimming handsomely less than 10m from us! Having picked up a few other waterbirds as well, we drove home in a very happy mood. This was our third serious twitch (cheapest one by far) and we've been successful all three times! (Golden pipit, Pongola Nature Reserve, Dec 2010; Grey wagtail, Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, Jan 2011 being the first two).
