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After a long work day we arrived at the airport at 5pm. Check in was uneventful and we headed to the lounge for a short rest before our flight. At just after six we headed towards our gate, but found our gate had changed. We rushed off to the new gate and learned that the flight was delayed due to a late incoming flight. So we sat on the floor and waited. And waited. When our plane finally arrived we were further delayed by a storm, lightning prohibiting the ground staff from refueling, loading the luggage etc. Finally they let us on the plane. After the plane was finally ready to leave we got an announcement from the captain about another delay: Air Traffic Control had ordered a complete stop on all flights due to the weather. After an hour of sitting in the crowded plane, we finally took off. Fortunately we managed to get a message to Tony our guide, and organized a later start on Friday, so when we finally crawled into our beds at midnight, we knew we could get some sleep in.
Tony Wood, our birding guide, picked us up at 8am the next morning, and we drove a short distance to Mukuvisi Woodlands, prime Miombo habitat. We walked around for several hours, but typical for miombo woodland it was mostly completely silent. But every now and then we stumbled across a bird party and then you didn’t know where to look. The bird parties allowed us to pick up birds like Miombo blue-eared starling, Variable sunbird, Miombo double-collared sunbird, Green-capped eremomela, Yellow white-eye, Cardinal woodpecker and plenty of honeybirds (Brown-backed). After a lot of careful looking, Tony finally managed to turn one of the Brown-backed honeybirds into a Green-backed, allowing us to pick up both specials. We also saw a Black sparrowhawk, Common scimitarbills and Green wood-hoopoes. In the afternoon we took a turn past a local dam, but found it almost bone dry, El Niño having hit Zimbabwe hard. We did hear a Red-chested flufftail call, and saw a pair of African black duck swimming in the remaining puddle. We went past the local Pick n Pay to get ourselves some food for the weekend, and then went back home where an early night followed as we were still fighting off the fatigue of the past long week.
Next morning we managed a more acceptable birders wake-up call and were heading to our first birding spot by 6am. We headed towards Haka Park, where we met up with a few of Tony’s birding friends, who had come along to help us flush crakes and Locustfinches. We formed a long line and started bashing our way through the tall grass. Along the way we saw Yellow-mantled widowbirds, Yellow- and Rosy-throated longclaws, we heard Pale-crowned, Croaking and Levaillant's cisticolas, but no Locustfinches or crakes. Considering how dry the grassland was though, it would've been surprise to find any crakes at all. We turned around eventually and headed back to the road, hoping to flush Locustfinches but again dipped on them. However a Marsh owl did pop out of the grass and floated away on silent wings before dropping into the grass cover again. On our walk back to the car we saw a Black-chested snake eagle fly overhead. We headed to the dam itself hoping to find African pygmy geese that were reported here the week before, but no such luck, so we headed back into the Miombo. This time we were more lucky and produced two specialists: a Southern hyliota and a Whyte's barbet. We left the woodland and took a drive through the grassland towards a good picnic spot for lunch and were delighted to come across a veritable swarm of Cuckoo finches. Although found relatively frequently in Zimbabwe, these birds are nomadic and therefore pretty much impossible to track down when you’re looking for one. So to find 15+ birds sitting atop a bush not more than a meter or two from the road was pretty special. We took our fill of pictures before leaving the park. In the late afternoon we took a quick turn past Greengrove wetland, a medium-sized pond flanked by thick reed beds. In amongst the floating lilies we saw numerous Hottentot teals, and had a lively discussion about whether or not they really were the same size as a Red-eyed dove. Eventually Tony won that argument by pulling out his bird book and proving that the little ducks really were that little! We moved on and spotted a Little sparrowhawk raiding some of the Golden weaver nests, while Red-chested flufftails called from the reeds. A quick stop to buy some dinner and we went home.
Another early start found us waiting outside for Tony with all our luggage packed. Tony’s wife Janet joined us for the day where we birded some more Miombo at Christonbank. We wandered around for half an hour or so and picked up Black-eared seedeater, another Whyte's barbet and Southern hyliota. Nicola brushed against a plant, and faced death by hairy caterpillar. The weird flattened oval-shaped hairy worm was hiding underneath a leaf and nicked Nicola’s elbow as she brushed past it. Tony saved the day however by taking out his pocketknife and stripping some bark from a soap bush. Plastering the bark over the ‘bite’ allowed the alkaline fluids to absorb into the skin and it was not long before the sting faded. Continuing our walk around the hill we picked up Miombo rock-thrush and a beautiful Boulder chat. Tony showed us a few Bushman paintings that seem to be undiscovered and unprotected on a few boulders hidden on the overgrown slopes of Christonbank. Walking down the hill a bit we found a Tree pipit and both Golden-breasted and Cabanis's buntings.Other birds of interest included Red-faced crombec and Retz's helmetshrike. As the late morning sun heated up, the bird calling cooled down and it wasn't long before we weren't picking up any new birds. It was also getting time to start home and Tony took us on a scenic route back to Harare, arriving in the early afternoon. We spent some time at the Woods' house chatting and having lemonade before Tony drove us to the airport and an uneventful flight home.
It was a very pleasant weekend in Harare and Tony is probably one of the best birding guides there is in Zimbabwe. It was a great privilege spending time with him and we will certainly look him up on our next trip up there. We identified 149 species for the weekend and picked up ten Southern African lifers: Cuckoo finch, Yellow-mantled widowbird, Green-capped eremomela, Miombo tit, Southern hyliota, Red-faced crombex, Tree pipit, Whyte's barbet, Cabanis's bunting and Miombo rock-thrush.
