Our new minibus

We have decided to invest in our own vehicles for a number of reasons and here’s a photograph of our new Toyota Quantum mini-bus.  The vehicle seats 10 people and has all the luxury features including a spacious interior with very comfortable seats, air-conditioning front and back, cup holders and webbing for binoculars and bird books and safety features including ABS brakes and air bags.

We took our new purchase for a spin at Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve this weekend and got caught in a violent storm with very heavy rain and were pleased to note that the vehicle handles extremely well in wet conditions.  The weather put a damper on our birding but we DID see a Suikerbosrand “special” we’ve been looking for for some time – a Grey-winged Francolin.  When the weather cleared, we saw numerous birds including Rufous-naped and Sabota Larks, Red-collared and Long-tailed Widowbird, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Didericks Cuckoo, Fiscal Shrike, Fiscal Flycatcher, Nedicky, Yellow-fronted Canary, Cape Wagtail, Cape Longclaw, Common Stone Chat and several other birds.

Other News from Lifers & Twitchers Birding Tours

Eland - Africa's largest antelope

The purchase of our new vehicle will enable us to also offer day trips to people staying in South Africa.  Our trips will visit Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve south-east of Johannesburg (for visitors staying on the eastern side of town) as well as Pilanesberg National Park in North-west Province.  The latter is home to all of the Big Five, a variety of general game species and around 400 recorded birds.  We will be visiting the reserve next weekend so look out for our blog early next week.  For people staying in the northern suburbs (Sandton, Randburg, Pretoria), we will also be offering day trips to Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, where there are a variety of birds as well as the very special Vereaux (Black) Eagles, which nest on a cliff above the waterfall during the South African winter (May – August).