Durban pelagic and St Lucia birding, Nov 2015

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In November 2014, a pelagic trip off Durban arranged by Niall Perrins produced a Grey petrel and among a whole bunch of other goodies; with initial plans for my 2015 Africa Big Year already underway, this prompted us to add a 2015 pelagic trip to the plans.

It was a long drive to Durban and we only arrived at 9pm. Our accommodation at Bentley “lodge” was truly awful and I’d rather not dwell on it here – they will certainly not see us again. Saturday morning we were up very early and on our way before dawn. The confusing Durban roads took some time to negotiate but we made it to Wilson’s wharf in time to meet the rest of the group. The weather was overcast and cool and although there wasn’t much of a wind, the skipper told us a two metre swell was predicted. At 6am we were off and in the harbour we ticked our first birds: Caspian and Common terns, Grey plover, Terek sandpiper (very distant), Grey-headed and Kelp gulls. Raptors were also out and about and a Western osprey and Lanner falcon were nice additions. The moment we got past the breakwater it was obvious it was going to be an interesting day as the swells came in at a 45 degree angle and were as large as predicted. Our first pelagic birds were the predictable White-chinned petrels but it wasn’t long before a Flesh-footed shearwater and Great-winged petrel were spotted. Trying to look for the distinguishing features on the heaving boat was distinctly unpleasant. The motion sickness tablet I took that morning made me so drowsy I had to sit down for a while and close my eyes but this was perhaps not a good idea and twenty minutes later I was heaving as well. Throwing up did make me feel much better though and I was practically fine for the rest of the day except that I really struggled to keep my eyes open. A couple of Indian yellow-nosed albatrosses and Wilson’s storm-petrels got interested in the chum that was put out but we had barely started looking for interesting birds when there seemed to be a problem with the engines. It turned out something was wrong with the clutch and the skipper couldn’t get the boat to reverse at all. Disappointingly, the call was made to return to Durban. We puttered back for the next two hours and although it was now more pleasant since the sea was calmer and we were sailing with instead of against the swell, it would’ve been nice to stay out for another 1-2 hours. The Flesh-footed shearwater was a lifer for both Nicola and I and the Great-winged petrel was new for the year too. So at least not a complete waste. We were back in the harbour just after 1pm and after saying goodbye to everyone, headed up the coast to look for Red-headed quelea that was reported from Umhlanga Nature Reserve. Although we couldn’t find the queleas, we added Knysna turaco, Thick-billed, Spectacled and Yellow weavers, Sombre and Yellow-bellied greenbuls and Terrestrial brownbul. By early afternoon we took to the road again for the 3-hour drive to St Lucia. Arriving there with an hour or so daylight left, we stopped at the bridge over the estuary and then the estuary itself for a few more birds. Jo-a-Lize lodge smack in the middle of town was our accommodation for the night and although there was no-one at reception, the security guard had our room keys. The room was a little run-down and parking a long way away, but the air-con worked and we had a small kitchen too. After a quick shower we were in bed and asleep by 8pm.

Another early wake-up call saw us at Banghazi gate (iSimangaliso wetlands park) at 5am. The birds were already calling: Livingstone’s turaco, Black-collared barbet, Red-capped robin-chat, Terrestrial brownbul, Diderick and Red-chested cuckoos were all very vocal. We drove the Vlei loop through the forested coastal dunes but the “vleis” were sadly bone dry and an obvious result of the now year-long drought in Kwazulu Natal. The birding was still good though: Collared, White-bellied, Marico and Grey sunbirds, Green malkoha, Chinspot and Woodward’s batises, Crowned and Trumpeter hornbills, Narina trogon, Crested guineafowl, Square-tailed drongo, Black-bellied starlings etc. At Catalina bay the lake’s water had receded so much that you could almost not make out the flamingos standing in the shallows more than a kilometer from us. There were some waders on the shore but even with a scope we would’ve struggle to ID these. The forest at Cape Vidal produced absolutely fantastic views of Blue-mantled crested flycatcher, Brown scrub-robin, Woodward's batis and Rudd’s apalis. The beach was a bit crowded though and there were no birds around – after getting some ice-cream from the kiosk, we got moving again. Disappointingly, the Dune, Pans and Banghazi loops were all closed and with temperatures rising towards mid-day we thought we’d see if we could re-enter the park at Dukuduku gate west of town. Annoyingly, they wanted to charge us another R140 to enter the same park (it all falls under iSimangaliso wetland park) so instead we picked up a few more birds at the estuary before deciding to take a break from birding. For dinner we pigged out at the local seafood dig, Ocean Sizzler.

Initially we were going to drive back via Muzi pans and Mkuze, but the terrible drought has given us second thoughts and instead we decided to enter iSimangaliso again, but go through Dukuduku gate and then drive up to Charter’s Creek. A quick stop at the St Lucia bridge was totally worth it as it was low tide and there were thousands of waders out: Little stint, Grey plover, Pied avocet, Common, Wood and Curlew sandpipers, Ruffs and a bunch of others just too far away to ID. Other birds included Goliath and Purple herons, Great egret, African purple swamphen, Black crake and Caspian terns. We’ve never seen the western side of the lake before and the riparian forest immediately beyond the gate was simply teeming with birds: Crested guineafowl, Sombre and Yellow-bellied greenbuls, Terrestrial brownbul, Orange-breasted bush-shrike, Eastern nicator, Dark-backed weaver, Black-crowned tchagra and Burchell’s coucal were just a few. Beyond this forest patch though, we were back in grassland dotted with palms, much like the road up to Cape Vidal. This still produced Yellow-throated longclaw, European bee-eater, a few cisticolas and swallows, but the glut was over. It was obvious though that this part of the reserve would be magical in wet years and we could just imagine the likes of crakes, rails, flufftails and Black coucals all over the place. However, now it was dry and windy and although we spotted lots of giraffe, a couple of Red-billed oxpeckers and some cracking Collared pratincoles, the birding wasn’t great. We stopped briefly at Charter’s Creek but this was so sad (chalets are no longer in operation, lake shore is almost a kilometer from the jetty and picnic/ablution facilities dilapidated) that we turned around quickly. The drive home was uneventful.

Despite some under-average accommodation, slightly disappointing pelagic and horrendously dry conditions, it was a really great birding weekend. Although our species count wasn’t that high, the quality of birds was amazing and I added nine new birds for the year, bringing my African bird tally for 2015 to 989.

Wakkerstroom birding, Nov 2015

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It’s been a while since we visited Wakkerstroom and with many possible new annual birds, including the possibility of a lifer (Rudd’s lark), we planned and booked our trip here a number of months ago. Knowing how difficult it could be to locate the area's specialty larks, we employed a local guide for most of the weekend: Lucky Ngwenya.

Friday afternoon we arrived at dusk and made a quick circuit of the wetlands in town, getting some excellent views of several African snipe and African rail. The weekend’s accommodation was at Chetnole cottages on the outskirts – a really fine place with self-catering facilities, comfortable beds and a cozy lounge. Saturday morning we met Lucky at the Wakkerstroom Post Office and headed north east out of town. Before heading into the hills we made a quick stop at the pans and picked up about twenty odd birds including Little bittern and Grey crowned crane. On a dirt road outside Wakkerstroom we stopped in a large patch of Ouhout. We picked up a bunch of birds here including Cape canary, Cape weaver, Drakensberg prinia, Bokmakierie, Black-headed oriole, Lazy and Wing-snapping cisticolas and Dark-capped yellow warbler. Lucky could hear Barratt’s warbler calling as well but it was far away and we were just not able to distinguish it between all the other bird calls. A few kilometers further we stopped near a wooded gully and we barely got out of the car when Lucky spotted a Bush blackcap. The guy’s got brilliant eyesight and it took a while for the two of us to latch onto the bird. A calling Red-throated wryneck distracted us and when we heard another noise close-by we looked up to find the Bush blackcap perched in the open about five metres from us. At this point we were high up on a hill with a vast valley spreading below us. At this higher altitude we also saw Greater kestrel, Banded martin, Steppe buzzard, Secretarybird and Buffy pipit, but as we headed lower down, we got a different suite of birds: Red-chested, Diderick, Klaas’s and Black cuckoos, Barrow’s korhaan, Denham’s bustard, Long-billed pipit and Cape crow. We stopped next to a field with grass grazed very short by cattle, followed Lucky through a fence and then fanned out, looking for African quailfinch. It wasn’t long before we flushed a few but despite them dropping back into the grass less than ten metres in front of us, we just couldn’t see them. It took some careful scanning and even more careful tip-toeing before we finally managed to sneak good views before the whole flock disappeared to another corner of the field. Reaching Dirkiesdorp still in the morning, we headed back to Wakkerstroom with a quick stop at a few rocky outcrops where we ticked Mocking cliff-chat, Cape rock-thrush and African black duck (at a small stream). Back in Wakkerstroom we turned north west into the lark loop roads and we got good views of Eastern long-billed, Spike-heeled and Red-capped larks, Blue korhaan and Mountain wheatear. By mid-afternoon we were back in town and with over a hundred species already seen, we gave Lucky a break and dropped him off close to his home. Nicola and I continued birding and drove back up the dirt road we started on this morning, mainly to finish off some of the pentads we started atlassing. Heavy clouds and a cold wind had started moving over the mountains and we only added Malachite sunbird, Cape bunting and Red-winged francolin before driving back. Our evening was very pleasant inside our cottage while wind and cloud streaked across the hills and delivered a little bit of much-needed rain.

Sunday morning we picked Lucky up from his home but heavy fog and drizzle made birding very hard. We turned around on a dirt road high in the mountains that was so socked-in that you couldn’t see ten metres. Instead Lucky directed us on a long drive to Daggakraal township where we stopped at various points looking mainly for Botha’s lark. With the first two spots producing nothing, we tried for a last chance in a cattle-grazed field on the outskirts of the township. Leaving the car, we fanned out again and walked for about ten minutes before Lucky spotted a few larks in the grass. Walking a bit closer, we flushed them and were then able to get closer for good looks before they flew off  – Botha’s lark ticked! The heavy cloud had started to lift and we raced back in the direction of Wakkerstroom and made a quick stop at Fickland pan where we finally saw our most-wanted bird for the weekend – Rudd’s lark. Lucky even showed us a nest briefly – it really was just a few grass tussocks twisted together and without knowledge of exactly where it is, we would obliviously walk right over it. Mongooses are a serious threat to the lark’s eggs and Lucky told us they were watching where we walked. So in order not to draw attention to the nest for the mongooses, we only took the briefest of glances at the nest and then walked a few more circles, pretending to be interested in something somewhere else. At Fickland pan itself there were Spur-winged geese, Great crested grebe, Maccoa duck, Southern pochard, Grey-crowned crane and Levaillant’s cisticola. We headed back up the mountain where we were fogged in this morning; now it was clear and sunny but a very strong wind made conditions unfavourable. Even so, Lucky quickly found us a Yellow-breasted pipit before we drove some beautifully scenic tracks down into Kwazulu Natal. The wind was becoming rather uncomfortable and by noon we were back in Wakkerstroom. Thanking Lucky for a wonderfully successful weekend, we stopped off at Chetnole cottage to gather all our stuff and then slowly birded out towards Amersfoort and then headed for home.

With 148 species seen (and 1 heard only) for the weekend, it was by far our best effort in Wakkerstroom, almost entirely thanks to Lucky who really is a fantastic guide and highly recommended.

Hazyview to Kruger NP birding, Oct 2015

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Friday after work we left for Hazyview and drove without incident via Sabie. This was our first weekend out with the Middelburg Bird Club and our chairman arranged some decent accommodation for all of us just outside Hazyview. There was still a bit of daylight left when we reached Sabie and we started atlassing on the last stretch towards Kwambali Riverside Lodge. It was early evening already so not many birds were around but we did pick up some African black swift, Black saw-wing, a great view of a Yellow-rumped tinkerbird and in the dark gloom of a pine plantation, an African goshawk. We checked in at Kwambali at 6pm, met Billy (Middelburg Bird Club chairman) and a few others and enjoyed views of a family of Mountain wagtails in the Sabie river flowing just outside our cottage. Feeling hungry, we decided not to braai and threw a couple of steaks in a pan and some roasties in the small grill in our cottage. It was quite humid but luckily not too hot and the fan in our lounge and bedroom helped a lot. After dinner we headed straight for bed, anticipating an early start on Saturday.

After a quick breakfast just after 4am, we started birding in the overcast dawn. The thick clouds did not help birding but hopefully it would ensure that the day didn’t become too hot. By the time we reached Kruger National Park’s Phabeni gate, we’d already logged twenty birds, including Purple-crested turaco, White-browed robin-chat, Black and Red-chested cuckoos, Sombre greenbul and Black-shouldered kite. Once inside the park, a light drizzle began to fall and we couldn’t hear too many birds. Still, a bedraggled small raptor gave us adequate views to ID it as a Eurasian hobby. We turned north onto the Sabie river road with the drizzle persisting. Despite this, we kept adding new species and just before the road started curving east, we were up to seventy birds for the day. A grassy clearing just on the curve had two cracker Senegal lapwings (our first sighting in Kruger NP) and by the time we reached Paul Kruger gate, we had IDd over a hundred birds and the drizzle had cleared. However, a quick visit to Lake Panic was a bit disappointing – only a single Squacco heron, Water thick-knee and Blacksmith lapwing were added. There was no sign of the usual weaver cacophony and kingfishers were limited to a couple of Brown-hooded and one Pied. We decided to make a quick turn through Skukuza camp to see if we could find more water birds in that section of the Sabie river. This proved fruitful but not because of the water birds! We parked at reception and walked through the gardens where we added both White-browed and White-throated robin-chats, African paradise flycatcher, a stunning view of a Yellow-bellied greenbul and a soaring Martial eagle. At the river things were quiet again but we did see Goliath heron, Wood sandpiper and Great egret before we left. With the afternoon dragging on and getting hot, we re-traced our drive from the morning. At 5pm we reached Phabeni gate again and stood at 133 species for the day. Hoping that we could get a few more back at Kwambali lodge, we rushed through Hazyview and got to our cottage at 17:30. Although we couldn’t find the Mountain wagtails again, we did pick up a calling Little rush warbler and finished the day on 134. It was the rugby world cup semi-finals between us and New Zealand today so we all sat nailed to the TV for the remainder of the game which sadly ended in a narrow loss. The whole group then got together at Kwambali’s communal lapa for a nice braai and chat. We saw some old acquaintances and met up with other members of the club. During dinner we all presented our tallies for the day – there were additional counts specifically for birds of prey, hirundines (swallows, martins, swifts) and club-defined specials. It seemed like we were on top of the birds of prey list and second from the top on the total species count – an excellent day’s birding! As the early morning started catching up with us, we bid a good night to all just after dinner and retired to our cottage.

Instead of birding a different area today, we thought that an early morning visit to Lake Panic could get us some new species, especially weavers. It was still dark when we left Kwambali but the sun rose into a clear sky just as we reached Paul Kruger gate around 05:15. The queue was short and soon we were heading for Lake Panic. Thankfully, only four other vehicles were there and we stayed for a good half an hour. The weaver nests were still ominously quiet but we did get a single Lesser masked weaver. A Malachite kingfisher and Wire-tailed swallow were further welcome additions and when we left the hide, we were already over fifty species. On the other side of Skukuza camp we saw a tall circling tower of vultures. Luckily we were able to stick with them as they started descending, finally ending up on a dirt road following the southern banks of the Sabie river. There was obviously a kill but unfortunately it was in the middle of the river and completely obscured. Strangely, there were no other cars and we had the spectacle all to ourselves – we worked our way through every single bird and ticked White-backed, Hooded, Lappet-faced and White-headed vultures, Marabou storks (lots) and a couple of Yellow-billed kites. With the day now heating up seriously we headed back to the Sabie river road and worked westwards to exit the park just after 11am. We had already seen over a hundred species on the day and figured we could get quite a few more on the drive home. A quick stop at Kwambali to drop our completed checklist and cottage keys, got us Cape white-eyes, Yellow-fronted canaries, Kurrichane thrush, Bar-throated apalis and a Long-crested eagle. Then we took a slow drive up towards Sabie, finished off our atlassing and added more birds (Southern double-collared sunbird, Steppe and Jackal buzzards, Bronze mannikin, Pied crow). With Long Tom pass behind us we descended into Lydenburg where we saw a Long-tailed widowbird and a Mallard at a small pond. Through Dullstroom we only added Ant-eating chat and both inland cormorants but in Belfast we were happy to add Pied starling and Speckled pigeon. Feeling confident that the lack of rain so far this season had created good mudflats at Wonderfontein and Leeuwfontein pans, we decided to make small detours to these. Without planning it, we now realized that we actually had a small chance of breaking our own daily record of 153 species. We reached Wonderfontein around 16:30 and it delivered big time! Right in front of us were three White-backed ducks – hands down the best view I’ve ever had of these uncommon ducks. Other birds included both White-winged and Whiskered terns, Wood sandpiper, Red-knobbed coot, Grey and Purple herons, Little and Great crested grebes, Grey-headed gull, Cape shoveler, Spurwing goose and Southern pochard. Surprisingly, no teals or other ducks. Adding a large raft of Greater flamingo from one of the other pans, we ticked twenty new birds for the day just from the pans – we now stood at around 150 species, give or take - we were in for a real good chance to break our record! Screeching to a stop just off the N4 highway at Leeuwfontein, it was obvious that this was going to be good stop. So we made the effort and drove to Alzu’s petrol station from where we picked up the farm track to the pan. Just driving the short 2kms to the pan was fantastic – Cape sparrow, Greater striped swallow, Capped wheatear (!), African stonechat, Pin-tailed whydah and Swainson’s spurfowl were all new. At the pan, the water level was so low that what is normally a small island, had grown into a bridge, splitting the pan in two shallow ponds with lots of waders around. African snipes were the most obvious birds around – there were probably about twenty of them. The waders were more difficult as they were almost impossible to approach on foot and just a bit far for our binoculars in the fading light. The only ones we were confident to add were Kittlitz’s plover, Little stint and Curlew sandpiper – there were lots of these three around and some were close enough to ID 100%. There probably were some Ruff and Common greenshanks too but they were so far off that we just couldn’t tick them with certainty. Other birds seen were African spoonbill, Cape longclaw, African pipit and flying around the bridge over the N4, Little swift and South African cliff swallow. Not entirely sure of our total count at this point, we decided to see what we can find at home. We rushed home as dark and angry clouds built in the west and got to Middelburg just before 6pm. Not expecting too much so late in the day, we were quite surprised to add a further eight new birds: Karoo thrush, Little egret, Cape weaver, Little rush warbler, Fan-tailed widowbird, Yellow-billed duck, Red-collared widowbird and Crowned lapwing. Wew! We parked at home and unloaded the car in the evening gloom and decided to have pizza for dinner. Still unsure of our final count we figured we could have pizza either in celebration or commiseration – time would tell!

Early on Monday morning I quickly entered all our birds into our database and found two duplicate entries we had to delete. But when I ran the final query and the total came back, I was ecstatic! One hundred and sixty eight species! And we weren’t even trying for the record until about 2pm! It was a wonderful weekend and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip so ably organized by Billy and the club. We finished with a total count (for the entire weekend) of 206 species, 17 (!) birds of prey, 11 hirundines and 15 specials (as defined by the club).