Magoebaskloof & Polokwane Bird Sanctuary birding, Feb 2018

One of several waterfalls along the Woodbush drive

This post is also published as trip report on CloudBirders.com.

Links

• List of birds
• List of mammals

On an impulse we decided to have a quick weekend break in Magoebaskloof (Limpopo province of South Africa, between Polokwane and Tzaneen) as we have not visited the area in several years. A forecast of heavy rain throughout the weekend made us decide to not sleep too far from the tar road as we’ve previously struggled on some of the dirt roads in the wet. We stayed at Cheerio Trout Fishing and Holiday Resort, booked through Hotels.com. For the two nights, we paid ZAR1,557, a reasonable price for the self-catering Stone cottage. There was ample room inside with a well-equipped kitchen, small lounge complete with fireplace, comfortable bedroom and en-suite bathroom. The resort has an extensive garden surrounded by indigenous forest and would most likely yield quite a few species but as we didn’t spend much time at the resort, we didn’t explore these. We didn’t plan to target specific species but rather have a relaxed birding weekend, hoping to connect with some of the specials the area has to offer: Cape parrot, Black-fronted and Olive bushshrikes, Olive woodpecker, Green twinspot, Red-backed mannikin, Narina trogon, Knysna turaco Barratt’s warbler, etc. Ultimately, heavy overnight rain on Saturday night forced us to make alternate plans for Sunday and we ended up spending a couple of hours at the Polokwane Bird Sanctuary, about 60kms west of Magoebaskloof. Having logged only 62 species in the forests on Saturday, this added a significant number of new species and we ended the weekend on 126 species.

Mountain wagtail

Swee waxbill

Friday
Friday afternoon after work we hit the road for the 300km drive to Haenertsburg. Traffic was predictably rough but got worse as we entered Roedtan – a convoy of two abnormal load trucks, their support vehicles and two police vehicles turned onto the road just in front of us. The abnormal loads were so big that we were not allowed to overtake and we had to stick behind them for over 40kms. Several other cars made matters worse by trying to push in front of us as the queue behind got longer. At Zebediela township they finally pulled over and allowed us to pass and we arrived at Cheerio just before 7pm without further issues. It had obviously rained a lot in Magoebaskloof as the 3km dirt road to Cheerio was very wet and severely pot-holed. Luckily this is still a “main” gravel road and the surface quite solid – just very bumpy and unpleasant to drive. Jady, the manageress, arrived shortly after us and led us to the Stone Cottage. Soon after unpacking, we enjoyed dinner in front of the TV.

Olive woodpecker

Spider web

 
Saturday
It was quite overcast as we left Cheerio around 05:30 but it wasn’t raining and the temperature was very pleasant. Just before turning onto the R71, a chip, chip, chip… in some Eucalyptus trees caught my attention – it was an African goshawk, but after five minutes of searching, we gave up trying to locate it. Ten minutes later we were on the forestry road towards Woodbush drive. Around the De Hoek hut, I heard some squawking that was obviously parrots. Scanning the skies we quickly located one sitting high on a dead tree – it was the endemic and vulnerable Cape parrot! An open patch covered with fern, grass and bracken at the Diepgelegen junction yielded Swee waxbill, Red-backed mannikin and Forest canary with Cape batis calling from the surrounding forest. Around 7am we turned onto the Woodbush drive and slowly descended. About 300m down the road we heard Orange ground thrush calling and soon also had decent views of Terrestrial brownbul and Yellow-streaked greenbul. A little further on we stopped when we heard Olive bushshrike calling and discovered that we were in the middle of a feeding party. We heard and then saw both male and female Black-fronted bushshrikes, Olive woodpecker, Fork-tailed drongo, Grey cuckooshrike, Cape batis, Cape white-eye, Sombre greenbul and Bar-throated apalis. Good sightings further down the road included African olive pigeon, Tambourine dove and Knysna turaco. We reached the end of Woodbush drive (at the R71 tar road) shortly after 10am, and then made a quick stop in Tzaneen to fill up with fuel. There was still a form to complete at Cheerio since the manageress was too drunk yesterday to worry about it, and since they closed at 12:30, we decided to head back to Cheerio for lunch and sort out the paperwork. The form was done quickly and we then sat outside our cottage eating some tuna/mayo rolls. I was hoping to head up towards Dap Naude dam for the afternoon so after finishing lunch we drove up the forestry road just outside Cheerio. It soon became evident though that this was not going to be easy as there were several very muddy patches where we slipped and slid our way through. A friendly local stopped next to us while we were watching five Common buzzards gorging themselves on termites; he strongly advised against us going to Dap Naude dam, saying we would almost certainly get stuck. We heeded the advice and after continuing only for a short section up into some high-altitude grassland, we turned around. At least we found a few new birds in the grasslands: Zitting-, Wailing- and Levaillant’s cisticolas, Red-collared widowbird, Cape longclaw, African firefinch, Jackal buzzard, and Long-crested eagle. Heavier clouds darkened the skies and since we knew the condition of Woodbush drive to be fair, we decided to give this another go. Predictably, it was much quieter in the afternoon and although we saw/heard a number of the same birds from this morning, the only new bird we added was a Square-tailed drongo. Around 15:30 the clouds finally opened and we decided to call it a day. Although the rain eased up and we even had some bright sunshine before we got back to Cheerio, it started raining heavily again at dusk and carried on throughout the night.

African dusky flycatcher

Yellow bishop

Sunday
It was still drizzling when we woke up and the prospect of driving on more wet and slippery forestry tracks didn’t appeal to us – we thought we could go do a few quick hours of birding at Polokwane Game Reserve, around 50kms west at Polokwane, since it’s on the way home anyway. Leaving behind a very wet Magoebaskloof, we arrived at Polokwane Game Reserve exactly at opening time (07:00) but discovered that we wouldn’t be allowed into the reserve as they also had quite a lot of rain and some of the roads were impassable. We didn’t want to waste the entire morning so quickly decided to pay a visit to Polokwane Bird Sanctuary instead. This is a sewerage farm on the north western outskirts of town. We visited here only once before and distinctly remember two things: the birding was very good; and someone got married at the lapa on the premises. Not exactly my first choice of a wedding venue! Anyway, we found the entrance road to the sanctuary quite easily (it’s not that obvious if you haven’t been here before) and quickly started adding birds: Blue waxbill, White-throated robin-chat, Spotted flycatcher, Swainson’s spurfowl, Lazy cisticola. At reception, while we patiently waited for clueless guards and a “manager” to sort out our receipt (I had to show them how to use the carbon-copy and fill out the receipt myself), we heard Brown-hooded kingfisher, Spectacled weaver, Red-eyed dove, Golden-tailed woodpecker, Southern boubou and Croaking cisticola. Finally letting us through the gate, we spent the next 90 minutes exploring the smelly maturation ponds. The abundance of flies didn’t make the experience any more pleasant and the rains they had made several sections of track difficult or even impossible (in my car anyway). But the birding was as good as we remember and by the time we left, we had notched up almost 80 species. Good sightings included African jacana, lots of White-winged terns, Wood- and Common sandpipers, Ruff, Terrestrial brownbul, Glossy ibis, Jacobin cuckoo, Black crake, Great sparrow and several warblers, most of them calling: Willow-, Lesser swamp-, Little rush-, African reed- and Great reed warblers. A long muddy stretch back towards the gate looked particularly nasty so we turned around, only to get stuck in some mud that we just drove through. Luckily I was able to rock the car and get traction again without having to resort to more labour-intensive methods. We left the stink and flies behind just after 9am and turned south to go home. The 3.5 hour drive back was much calmer than Friday afternoon and we got back with plenty of time to put some laundry on and get takeaways for dinner.

Common (Steppe) buzzard

Ruff

Tips/Advice

• Cheerio Trout Fishing and Holiday Resort is located at -23.895668, 29.952847 (Google maps). Our cottage (Stone cottage) was very comfortable and if the weather was really bad, we could easily have sat out the weekend here. There’s no air-conditioner or fan so in summer it could be a little humid but at least the air is always fresh here in the mountains and we never felt too hot. The lady managing the place admitted to being drunk when we arrived on the Friday and we did not feel particularly welcomed. The parking space (a roundabout accessing four different cottages) wasn’t great either and our neighbors, a large group of friends, kept us awake until 11pm.
• The 14km Woodbush drive, although rocky and uneven, was actually in better condition and easier to drive than sections of the much wider forestry roads. Woodbush drive isn’t used by logging trucks so there are essentially no muddy, chewed-up ruts. To access Woodbush drive, head east along the R71 past Haenertsburg. 11.7kms after the stop street at Haenertsburg (where the fuel station is), turn left at -23.868678, 29.995308. There are several signposts here, including ones saying “Woodbush” and “Kuhestan”. There are several tracks leading off from the main road but stick to the most obvious main road, past Kuhestan Organic farm and Woodbush hut for about 4.9kms to -23.838738, 29.985722. Woodbush drive starts from here (turn to the right). There’s a signpost here saying “4x4 only” but we’ve done this road in a Honda Jazz and even when wet, we had no issues at all. There are two access roads forming a small triangle – the first one might be a bit muddy (it was for us on this occasion) but the next turn-off, just 100m further on, is almost always better. If you follow these directions you will start the drive at the top and gradually descend over 14kms before reaching the tar R71 again. Doing it in the opposite direction will be an uphill battle, literally, and is not recommended – there’s also a chain across the road at the entrance to Debengeni waterfall at -23.818928, 30.030445 and although an attendant is there throughout the day and will come running when you approach from the top, we suspect he might not allow you through if you come in from the bottom. You can visit Debengeni falls easily as well – there’s a ZAR10 per person and ZAR10 per vehicle entrance fee. We’ve seen Mountain wagtail every time we’ve been to the falls (we did not visit on this trip) and Grey wagtail’s been spotted here several times in the past. There are lots of picnic spots though and it can get a bit busy and noisy over weekends.
• The entrance to Polokwane Bird Sanctuary is at -23.866042, 29.433860 with the reception and lapa at -23.856532, 29.436695. The access road is not easy to find but this should help: drive north-west out of Polokwane on the Dendron/R521 road. Just after crossing the Sand river, there’s a Sasol fuel station on the left. The entrance to the Bird Sanctuary is 350m after the fuel station on the right and sign-posted by a small brown sign. Be careful here as you need to turn across oncoming traffic. From here, follow the gravel road (there are a few very thin side tracks – just stick to the obvious main road) for about 1.5km to the reception and lapa. After paying the entrance fee, a security guard will open the access gate to the maturation ponds. Keep in mind that this is a sewerage farm: you can never get away from the stink, and flies can be a bit of a nuisance. The roads inside can also become pretty nasty after rain – even with my high-clearance Nissan X-trail, we had to power through muddy bits several times and got stuck briefly once. We also decided to turn around when we saw a long stretch of mud with deep ruts. It really is not a pleasant place to bird but the birding itself is fantastic – we notched up almost 80 species in less than 2 hours. If you can tolerate the smell and flies for a couple of hours, it’s absolutely worth a visit
•  

White-winged tern

Maturation ponds at Polokwane Bird Sanctuary

Polokwane birding Oct 2011

Links

• List of birds

Leaving home around 14:30 we immediately ran into problems. The N11 past Loskop dam was closed due to a truck overturning and we had to detour via Stofberg. When we finally got onto this road, we got stuck behind a queue of almost 2km long, caused by three trucks driving right behind one another and no-one being able to overtake them. It took us 30km to get to the front and overtake and we only arrived in Polokwane after 7pm. Luckily we had ready-made boerewors rolls for dinner.

We were up just after 5am and as Polokwane Game Reserve only opens at 7am, spent about 20 minutes picking up a decent number of birds at our accommodation, including African palm swift. Driving slowly towards the reserve, we added Black-headed oriole and Amethyst sunbird. At the reserve entrance, Black-faced waxbills were flitting in a bottlebrush and just beyond at the picnic site, three Hamerkops were disturbed from their roost by noisy campers. Driving around the reserve we picked our way through the regulars but were disappointed not to hear any cuckoos. By 10am we had around 80 birds on the list, including Northern black korhaan, Coqui francolin, Wahlberg's and Steppe eagles, Greater honeyguide, Yellow-fronted tinkerbird, Ashy tit and Violet-eared waxbill. The reserve was obviously very dry and not producing any water birds so we drove out to Polokwane Bird Sanctuary for these. Our previous visit to the Bird Sanctuary produced little more than lots of flies but this time it was much more productive with Wood sandpiper, Ruff, African jacana, African snipe, a few warblers, Orange-breasted bush-shrike and African fish eagle added to the list. We ate lunch at the picnic site and a fly-by Yellow-billed kite became our 100th bird for the day. It was still early so we decided to head off to Magoebaskloof. Despite a Stop/Go roadworks section just after Zion City we started the Woodbush Forest drive shortly before 3pm. We didn't expect to find much so late in the day but the calls of African emerald cuckoo, Sombre greenbul and Purple-crested turaco made good ticks on our list. Doing the Forest drive in Nicola's Jazz was entertaining but going very slowly did the trick. It was a very scenic drive and having added also Olive woodpecker, Scaly-throated honeyguide, Swee wasbill, Grey cuckooshrike, Chorister robin-chat and Olive bush-shrike, we ended with 114 species for the day. Still 12 short of our record but a really nice day's birding. Arriving back in Polokwane after dark, we got some take-aways for dinner.

Despite a late night, we were up early again. Not wanting to spend money for entering reserves again, we birded the suburbs for an hour or so before making our way slowly back home. So unfortunately unsuccessful in our record-breaking attempt this weekend but it was a very enjoyable outing and we are looking very much forward to Mkhuze next weekend.

Mapungubwe NP and north west Limpopo Jan 2011

Links

• List of birds

26 Dec 2010 - Day count: 90, Trip count: 90
Our trip had an auspicious start when we left home at 4am, drove 2km before remembering the jerry can, turning back to fetch it and then lighting up a Spotted eagle owl on the side of the road. As dawn came over Groblersdal and then Roedtan, lots of birds were seen in the crisp morning, not least of these was a small flock of Abdim's stork - a lifer for both of us. Stopping for a leg stretch delivered another lifer - Chestnut-backed sparrowlark. We filled up in Polokwane around 7am, then drove onwards to Blouberg Nature Reserve. Blouberg itself is an impressive mountain, despite half of it being obscured by cloud. At the entrance gate we paid a small fee and entered. Very few people were around; in only saw a single other vehicle the entire time we were in the reserve. Blouberg delivered some good sightings: Striped kingfisher, Violet-backed starling, Red-headed weaver, Little, European and Swallow-tailed bee-eaters and White-crested helmetshrike among others. Unfortunately the roads in the reserve are in places pretty bad, either very sandy or very rocky and we couldn't access the vulture colony on the southern side at all. But the reserve provided really good birding and we drove onwards towards our accommodation. Langjan Nature Reserve appeared to be closed and desolated but we still picked up our third lifer for the day at the park entrance - Monotonous lark. Our accommodation was a few kms back at Wintervelde hunting lodge. The place looked decidedly dodgy when we arrived. Run-down, ill-kept, no-one around. A local care-taker eventually came out and showed us our room. We didn't mind that it was very basic, but we did mind paying a hefty price for it - certainly will not use this place again. We had leftovers for dinner before hitting the bed early.

27 Dec 2010 - Day count: 110; Trip count: 144
Up again at 4am and added Barn owl (lifer for Nicola) before we left at 5am. Southern carmine bee-eaters and Southern pale chanting goshawks were all over the place as we drove to Alldays where we filled up with petrol. Just before the Mapungubwe entrance we added Tawny and Brown snake eagle and then checked into the park. It was overcast but still hot and humid and the Mopani veld was rather quiet. However the drive alongside the Limpopo was lovely and yielded several new species for our trip, such as the Meves's starling, African Palm Swift and Common greenshank. Lunch at the Confluence viewpoint overlooking the Limpopo and Shashe rivers was spectacular and rewarded us with another lifer: Horus swift. The Tree Tops walk was a little noisy with workers repairing the deck but we did see and Broadbilled rollers really well. We took a leisurely drive back to reception to collect our keys and arrange access to the Den Staat wetlands. This proved to be a bit difficult and it took some talking to get access arranged for Den Staat. As our keys were not at reception but at Leokwe camp, we then drove to the camp and got into our huts - these are aesthetically well-designed and spacious. We immediately switched on the aircon, tested the outdoor shower and spent the hottest part of the afternoon reading before venturing outside again around 5pm. We drove slowly back to the Tree Tops walk where we saw the Broadbilled rollers again and just after dinner back at our hut, we also heard Freckled nightjar.

28 Dec 2010 - Day count: 122; Trip count: 189
Since my alarm didn't go off hits morning we overslept and had to rush coffee and rusks before leaving the hut at about 05:15. We picked up many of the usuals but also got a Shikra (first for Nicola) and spotted a Red-crested korhaan as it made its queer flight straight up in the air and then dropping like a puffed-up parachute. We reached the park gate just after 6am and drove over to the Den Staat wetlands. The gravel road to get there was shocking. Literally. Its easily the worst corrugation I ever had to drive but we had to grind our teeth and bear it. Just after crossing into the farm area we took our time identifying a Striped pipit as a lifer. At the first dam immediately picked up many water birds, including Black crake, Green-backed and Squacco heron, Giant, Pied anad Malachite kingfishers, White-winged tern and African purple swamphen. Further on we were stopped by a guy holding a receipt book who demanded R200 entry fee from us. Even after we explained we were jsu tbirding and already got permission from Mapungubwe, he still insisted and eventually we just had to pay up. Annoywed we drove on but sightings of Meyer's parrot, Bronze mannikin, Acacia pied barbet, African palm swift, African paradise flycatcher and the calls of Orange-breasted and Grey-headed bush-shrikes, soon made us forget about it. We drove up to the homestead which seemed to be run by the local community. No-one seemed to have a clue about what to do with us and we were stared at like zoo animals. Eventually a lady came out who said we could drive around anywhere if we paid, which we obviously did. So we proceeded to drive where we wanted and almost immediately were stopped by another man who said we're not allowed on this part of the farm, but we can go to the other side. We followed his directions and then turned off onto a very overgrown track running through the wetland. We eventually reached an old ruin where I decided not to drive any further due to the condition of the track. We locked the car and went on foot. Immediately we were extremely happy when Nicola spotted something landing at the water's edge which turned out to be a Yellow wagtail. Then we also picked up Yellow-billed and Saddle-billed storks, African mourning dove, Sanderling, Common greenshank, Hottentot teal, Goliath heron and Ruff. It was now blisteringly hot and we returned to the car to gulp down ice water. Driving back I spotted a Blue-cheeked bee-eater, thereby completing all the bee-eaters (six) we could possibly see here. From Den Staat we visited the Western section of Mapungubwe, once again driving some really horiffically corrugated gravel roads. This part was a bit disappointing, perhaps because it was now already well past 10am and very hot. We only added 7 new birds for the day of which the most interesting was Scaly-feathered finch. We ate lunch outside Maloutswa pan hide and I thought I spotted a Tropical boubou but couldn't confirm the call with either Robert's or Guy Gibbons's call recordings. After lunch we had enough of the heat, closed the windows, switched on the aircon and jarred our way back to the hut to a cold shower and an afternoon nap. We made early dinner, then drove out again just before 6pm for a quick visit to Tree Tops walk. We were on 110 birds for the day and added 11 more, including Broad-billed roller and Red-billed oxpecker, before driving to the main gate for our night drive. Although our guide drove all over the park, we only managed to add a Spotted eagle owl. We did scare up a nightjar but it was gone before we had time to ID it. The only other highlight was a large spotted genet. On our way back to camp, just after 10pm, my headlights picked out two more Spotted eagle owls.

29 Dec 2010 - Day count: 106; Trip count: 202
This time the alarm did go off at 4am and after we listened to teh pow-wow of Freckled nightjar, we were off at 5am. We stopped at the Tree Tops walk and added Broad-billed roller once again along with Meyer's parrot, Comb duck (Knob-billed duck), Retz's helmetshrike, Long-billed crombec, Yellow-billed stork, African mourning dove and a few more common ones. Then we followed the river road along the Limpopo and all the way back to the main gate, ticking Amur falcon, Fawn-coloured lark, Brown-crowned tchagra, Lesser kestrel, White-browed robin-chat and Red-headed finch. At 10am we were back at the gate and went on the heritage tour of Mapungubwe hill. It was ridiculously hot and we slathered ourselves with suncream. Our tour truck was packed with local and foreign tourists showing off their lack of knowledge quite admirably. Our guide talked at length at the main excavation site and although it was very interesting, standing around in teh searing heat was not fun. We then walked to the top of the hill where the guide explained where the Mapungubwe people stored grain and water, lived and had lookouts over the area. Just after noon we were back at the gate. Our guide from last night's night drive said we can go look for wetland birds at Samaria - a citrus farm recently bought by SANParks. At Samaria we added our fifth bee-eater for the day (Blue-cheeked) and also Giant kingfisher, Whiskered tern, Water thick-knee and a nice surprise: another Yellow wagtail. We had some lunch under the shade of a fever tree before switching the aircon to high and driving the 50kms odd to Ratho farm, west of Pontdrift. An unbelievably stunning setup with furnished tent accommodation, a beautiful thatch lapa and kitchen as well as a splash pool and deck looking towards the Limpopo about 100m away. Marabou storks circled their vulture restaurant and an African harrier-hawk flew in as we sat in the shade, trying to cool down. Just after 5, Susan Boshoff collected us for a short trip out to a small pan to view some birds. Plovers, stilts, geese, lapwings and a number of other water birds were present and we scanned the pan for about 20 minutes before driving back to the farm. A quick walk through the crocodile pens where some Water thickknee and Cattle egrets were getting ready for bed and then we also went back to the camp to start dinner.

30 Dec 2010 - Day count: 60; Trip count: 203
We were in need of sleep and for a change, we didn't get up until well past sunrise. After breakfast, while the temperature was still tolerable, we went for a walk down to the Limpopo. We've already seen or heeard most of the birds from our tent's deck so we added few birds but it was pleasant in the tall riverine trees and we were able to get reasonably close to some Marabou stork on the banks, who flew off into Botswana when we got too close. Just past the vulture restaurant we got both Cape and White-backed vultures. Back at the camp we went for a slow drive to a nearby koppie where a Black stork has apparently nested. Unfortunately it was now already 10am and if it was there, it was long gone. Back it camp it was now getting very hot with the temperature reaching for 40 degrees. We cooled off in the splash pool and then sat in teh shade for the rest of the day. Dinner consisted of crocodile steak, potatoes and sweetcorn.

31 Dec 2010 - Day count: 92; Trip count: 213
Notching up the usual birds while eating breakfast, we decided to pack and try and escape the heat. By 06:30 we were on our way and drove all the way to Polokwane, picking up a few roadside birds along the way. In Polokwane we made a quick visit to Polokwane Bird Sanctuary which had a serious shortage of flycatchers, considering the over-abundance of flies. We stayed only long enough to pick up the obvious birds before heading off to Polokwane Game Reserve. Here we added our first Scaly-feathered finch for the trip and then picked up another lifer - Short-clawed lark. Black-faced and Violet-eared waxbills were expected and it wasn't long before we saw these pretty birds. We finished our short trip here with two African hawk-eagles and then drove to our accommodation for the night. We had rolls for New Year's Eve dinner and went to bed early

01 Jan 2011 - Day count: 64; Trip count: 221
We popped in to Polokwane Game Reserve again and ticked off similar birds compared to the previous day's visit but also added a single Lizard buzzard before deciding its time to go home. The drive home was uneventful and we arrived back around 2pm, tired but satisfied with our trip.