Pilanesberg and Kgaswane birding, Nov 2012

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• List of birds

A frustrating 5-hour drive with broken-down trucks, road works, choking traffic and getting lost, finally got us to Guland Guesthouse in Rustenburg on Friday afternoon. Having only flown back from Dar-es-Salaam in the morning, I was dead tired and went to bed almost immediately.

My alarm woke us at 04:00 on Saturday morning and after a bite to eat we picked our way through the outskirts of Rustenburg, reaching Pilanesberg's Manyane gate shortly after 05:30. The sky was heavily clouded and as soon as we entered it started spitting. But we still picked up some easy birds like Rufous-naped lark, Diderick cuckoo, Chestnut-vented tit-babbler, Southern yellow-billed and African grey hornbills. Orange-breasted bush-shrike, Red-chested cuckoo, Grey-backed camaroptera and Chinspot batis were calling all over but when it started to rain more heavily we had to close our windows. Eventually it cleared a little and we had excellent views of bushveld birds like Kalahari scrub-robin, Blue waxbill, Arrow-marked babbler, Crimson-breasted shrike, Long-billed crombec and Golden-breasted bunting. Heading steadily west, we spotted our first raptor for the day, a Gabar goshawk, sitting long enough for a positive ID but just too far away for a photo.A few other common birds made it onto our list until we stopped at the shop for a quick break and cold drinks. At Mankwe dam we added a whole bunch of birds: Black-winged stilt, Marsh and Common sandpipers, Little and Great egrets, African darter, African jacana, Reed and White-breasted cormorants, Pied kingfisher, Grey and Goliath herons, African black and White-faced whistling ducks, and both African and Greater painted snipes - the painted snipe was our first for South Africa! Heading further west, the birds started to quite down as we reached a hot noon despite the morning rain. Martial and Brown snake-eagles were the only other raptors we added but a Violet-eared waxbill and Green-backed heron were very obliging for the camera. Around 15:30 we exited the park at Bakubung gate and with heavy thunderstorm clouds building, attempted to locate Yellow-throated sandgrouse at some of the locations pointed out by a local birder, Stuart Groom. Unfortunately it started raining and the light grew so bad that even if there were any sandgrouse close to the road, we probably wouldn't see them anyway. We headed back to Rustenburg, arriving just before 6pm, had dinner and got into bed, happy that we got 114 birds for the day.

A runny tummy kept me up from 1am and when we left the guesthouse shortly after 5am, we went looking for a 24-hour pharmacy at the private hospitals. Disappointed that neither of the two hospitals we visited had an open pharmacy we headed up to Kgaswane Mountain Reserve. It was a clear and cool morning but the birds were calling already and Diderick, Red-chested and Klaas's cuckoos, Rattling and Zitting cisticolas, Yellow-fronted tinkerbird, Rufous-naped and Flappet larks got onto our list quickly. We had great views of Black cuckooshrike before reaching the plateau where a Jackal buzzard waited quietly in a tree. The grasslands produced Desert and Wing-snapping cisticolas, African stonechat, African wattled lapwing and Cape longclaw. At the information centre a pair of Mocking cliff-chats were very entertaining and driving through the marshy bits we thought we heard Red-chested flufftail but couldn't be sure. On our way out we stopped at the big waterfall and picked up Sentinel rock-thrush and Red-winged starling but we had a long way to drive back and started heading east for Pretoria.

Mpumalanga birding Oct 2012

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).

Magoebaskloof hiking and birding, Sep 2012

Links

• List of birds

Returning from a Malawi site visit late on Friday afternoon made it impossible for us to drive through to Magoebaskloof before the weekend started. Instead, we left very early on Saturday morning, arriving in Magoebaskloof around 9am. Along the N11 we added a few common birds including Southern yellow-billed, African grey and Red-billed hornbills. We decided to drive down the Forest Drive and quickly picked up Knysna turaco, Sombre greenbul, African emerald cuckoo, Cape batis, Southern double-collared sunbird and Barratt’s warbler. In one of the many shady spots we stopped and picked out calls of Olive bush-shrike, Green-backed camaroptera, Southern boubou, Yellow-fronted tinkerbird, and for the first time in Southern Africa – White-starred robin! A few other birds were also on our list by the time we exited the Forest Drive and returned to the Houtbosdorp entrance to meet up with the rest of the group at Waterfall hut. From the other side of Dap Naude dam we could see them lounging in front of the hut and we quickly drove around and joined them for lunch. Later in the afternoon other hikers arrived and this prompted us to go and park the car at Broederstroom hut (no parking available at Waterfall hut) and walk the short distance through the marshy bits above the dam. A braai fire was started in the late afternoon and after a splendid dinner we crawled into bed, a little apprehensive of the 18km walk of the next day.

Mist hanging thickly over the dam and above the forest greeted us as we woke up. With a long day’s hiking ahead of us, Nicola and I got away first, intending to do some birding along the way. Unfortunately it was cold and the few birds that were out were almost impossible to see against the bad light. We made good progress through the forest though, and Shirley, Eddie and George only caught up with us about 2km into the walk. The thick, cold fog did make for excellent walking conditions but after about two hours walking it started drizzling. Some members of the other two groups on the trail overtook us while we were bird-watching but after they stopped for a tea-break, we passed them again. About 10km into the walk my feet became annoyingly sore and I had to stop every 20-30 minutes for a short rest. However, the cold and wet kept us all on our feet most of the time and we arrived at the beautiful Dokolewa Pools hut around 1pm. Shirley had strained her back along the way and had difficulty sitting and lying down. Nicola gave her a massage after lunch but we also started discussing alternative options for the last day, including walking out on the Forest Drive rather than the normal trail. Nicola and Shirley took a slow walk up towards De Hoek hut to see where the Forest Drive ran and along the way heard Scaly-throated honeyguide and took nice pictures of a White-starred robin. Having discovered exactly where to pick up the road, they returned and after a bit more rest in the afternoon gloom, we made dinner. The still overcast sky turned dusk into night very quickly and by 18:30 we were all in bed.

We were up early again and it was quickly clear that Shirley’s back was not doing too well and she wanted to walk out on the Forest Drive. Eddie was going to go with Shirley either way and as my feet were still painful from yesterday, I decided to walk the road as well. Even though the road was a longer walk, we knew the gradient would be much easier and anticipated it taking us not longer than three hours. George wanted to stick to the trail and started out shortly after breakfast on his own. At 06:45 we were on our way too and after picking up Scaly-throated honeyguide, White-starred robin, Chorister robin-chat and Long-crested eagle, we emerged on the bottom section of the Forest Drive and started the easy walk up. Today the weather was completely clear but it was still cold in the shade and the walking extremely pleasant. As we rose higher on the slopes we added some more birds in the forests and then stopped briefly at one of the streams crossing the road. A large group of birders were actively spishing as I came around a corner in the road – I walked up softly and was very happy when a Blue-mantled crested-flycatcher appeared just at that moment. Where the normal trail crosses the road higher up, we were surprised to see George and a few of the other group just emerging from the forest. We had another short rest with them before George went up the trail again and we carried on up the road. My feet were becoming sore again but I was determined to finish in style and pushed on ahead of the others, reaching Woodbush hut shortly after 9am, having walked about 2.5 hours. Nicola, Eddie and Shirley arrived within another 10 minutes and while Shirley and Eddie had a quick shower and waited for George, Nicola and I drove off to Broederstroom hut in Shirley’s car to fetch ours. Thirty minutes later we were back and we left for a well-deserved coke in Haenertsburg.

This was Nicola's first and my fifth Magoebaskloof hike - an evergreen (literally and figuratively) trail with fond memories!