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Early on Saturday morning we left home, first dropping the cats off at Nicola’s parents, then heading north to the start of the Zaagkuildrift road. We got there around 7am and despite the April chill, the birds were out and calling. African fish eagle was one of the first birds on the list – interesting since we were barely two kilometres from the N1 highway, but since we knew the proximity of a fair sized dam, it had to come from there. As we drove west, we ticked the usual thornveld birds and by late morning had reached the Kgomo-Kgomo flood plain. It was amazing to see the difference just six weeks had made – all the water was gone and the river under the Kgomo-Kgomo bridge was a small little stream. Grasses were lush everywhere and only the bigger birds like egrets and herons were visible. Adding only a few more birds here, we carried on towards Borakalalo, entering the reserve sometime after noon. We stopped at Klipvoor dam’s picnic site for lunch but were very disappointed at the neglect of the facilities and lawn. Feeling fairly tired after the early morning, we made a quick turn at the bridge below the dam wall and at the quarry on the way to Moretele camp site, but then headed towards our safari tent at Phudufudu bush camp. A calling Lazy cisticola on the way to the camp became our first new annual bird for the trip and later that afternoon, a calling Greater honeyguide became the second. Phudufudu camp was OK, but considering what we paid for it, not worth the extra money compared to Moretele’s safari tents. At Phudufudu there’s a small kitchen with a useless stove that gets crowded very quickly during meal times. The bathrooms have only two toilets and two showers for the gents and ladies and the tents are just a tad too close to each other in our opinion. This became quite a problem as we had a group of two rather loud and obnoxious families that used three tents close to us. They were a constant annoyance but since we planned not to spend too much time at the camp, we tried to ignore them. As dusk set in and we were busy eating dinner, Pearl-spotted owlet and Fiery-necked nightjars started calling but we were both too tired to go and look for any other nocturnals and turned in early.
Hoping to catch some early African finfoot, we left before dawn, stopping now and then to listen for owls and nightjars, and then parked at the bridge below Klipvoor dam wall for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately all we got were cormorants, darters, herons and kingfishers – no finfoot! With the sun starting to peek over the horizon we turned west towards the Ga Dinonyane bird hides. Again the usual bushveld birds did not disappoint and we quickly got up 40 species before we saw our first new bird for the year (for the day) – Bronze mannikins. Not long after we bagged the second one when I heard the soft trilling whistle of a Grey tit-flycatcher. Around 9am we pulled into the Ga Dinonyane hides and were pleasantly surprised at the flooded plains and lush vegetation. On our previous visits these hides were nice but certainly not spectacular with only a small circle of water surrounding an island. Now there was water everywhere and Red-billed teal, Egyptian goose, Green-backed, Squacco and Purple herons, Black crake and Blacksmith lapwing were all over. We spent an hour at the hide and picked up a few more species but the highlight was a juvenile Gabar goshawk that pestered something hiding in the grass about fifty metres from the hide. There were a number of Red-billed teal chicks about so we thought this could certainly make a good target for the small raptor. At 10am we left and drove the back route (Tholo loop) to return past Klipvoor dam and then entered the game drive area on the southern end of the reserve. With the morning becoming quite warm, we saw fewer birds and at the dam’s edge it was obvious that the migrants have now left for good – we could only pick up Great crested grebes. Sefudi dam hide was not as nice as previous years and considering the level of Klipvoor dam and the flooded Ga Dinonyane hides, it was rather surprising to find Sefudi dam very shallow and with few birds. But it was lunch time so we spent a long time at the hide relaxing and did pick up a few more birds before leaving the hide around 2pm. A very slow drive out of the game area saw us back at Phudufudu camp at 4pm. With a cup of tea in hand we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon until our noisy neighbours pitched up. Dinner and an early night followed.
Next morning we were up bright and early, and quickly packed the car and headed straight for the Ga Dinonyane hides, thermos flask of tea in hand. We arrived before dawn and breakfasted in the parking lot, before heading into the hide, blankets wrapped around us. We spent a good hour and a half there, picking up Red-billed teal, White-faced duck, Green-backed heron, Black crake and Common moorhen. To our delight we heard the soft booming of Kurrichane buttonquail, quite miraculous considering the racket the Egyptian geese were making. An African fish eagle soared overhead, and some Cape penduline-tits darted amongt the trees in front of the hide. We picked up another new bird for the year, Coqui francolin calling far in the distance. At 8am we climbed back in the car and took a slow drive along the Tholo loop on our way to the exit. We picked up the usual bushveld birds and after a quick stop at the bridge for the cormorants and larger herons, we started the drive back home.
All in all a good weekend’s birding considering the migrants had all left for warmer pastures, and certainly the best we had ever seen Ga Dinonyane hides
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