Magnificent landscapes at Pilanesberg National Park

It rained heavily on the way and we wondered whether our trip would be a wash-out but, miraculously, the weather cleared as we neared the entrance gate.  It was not long before we were enjoying the awesome unusual landscapes within the reserve – a mixture of bushveld and open savannas bisected by long rivers and blue dams complete with huge game and bird-viewing hides, all surrounded by green, bush-covered hills.  Birds fluttered and twitered all around us and there were a fair number of animals (many with young in tow) to boot.

We were in Pilanesberg National Park, a fabulous 55 000-hectare game reserve situated in the North-west Province and stocked with a variety of general game species as well as the Big Five.  The place - as we discovered – offers amazing birding opportunities with around 400 recorded species.  We had an awesome experience during our recent visit.  We are now offering day trips to the Park for birders and non-birders alike. 

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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).

We are delighted to announce that we have just been informed that our web site was awarded a Bronze South African Web Award.

We would like to thank all our regular visitors, supporters, Facebook friends and fans for their support.  Congratulations are also in order to our webmaster, Marius Smit, of Fresh Lemon Media/Jam Factory in Knysna, South Africa, who has assisted us in creating and maintaining a top quality site.

Spotted Eagle Owl

There is nothing more incredible than seeing these beautiful bushveld owls perched at the edge of a tree branch, their yellow, saucerlike eyes gleaming in a ranger’s spotlight, mirroring the full, orange moon behind.  They are distinguished from the similar Cape Eagle Owl, which has orange eyes and is found in more isolated populations, particularly in the three Cape Provinces of South Africa.

The Spotted Eagle Owl is distributed throughout South Africa and is fairly common.  They are generally sedentary and resident with little juvenile dispersion.  Conservation-wise, they are not threatened, despite threats including entanglement in barb wire fences, chicks being picked up before they can fly, drowning, and juveniles flying into vehicles.  In their favour, they are able to breed before the age of one year and breed year-round, although egg-laying is more prevalent during the second half of the year (June – November).  Nest survival is high at around 100% recorded, although there are no records for actual breeding success.  They are known to be double-brooded when food is plentiful.

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Birding in flooded wetlands

After a week of rain, our weekend birding was one of water and mud!  We set off on Friday afternoon for our local bird sanctuary near Springs (east of Johannesburg) – only to find that the water not only covered the wetland but also large parts of the road!  We have a large vehicle and were up to the top of the tyres on occasion.  This made our birding quite interesting as most of the birds seemed to regard the road as part of the wetland area and we rounded bends to find flocks of ducks, teals, herons, ibises and more camped in front of us.  Some reed-dwelling species were also in the middle of the road – quite an unusual occurrence.

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Johannesburg – and most of the South African Highveld region in fact – enjoyed very warm weather over the festive season, with temperatures hovering around or over 30 deg Celcius, so we were able to get out and about and enjoy plenty of holiday birding everywhere!  We also visited KwaZulu-Natal to see relatives and saw some lovely birds there, too, even though this was not a “birding” trip as such. 

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve is looking beautiful at the moment after excellent summer rains have turned the rolling hills suddenly green.  Wildflowers are blooming everywhere among the rocks and carpets of yellow cover both grasslands and hills.  We visited twice over the festive season and noticed that there are fewer birds in the picnic areas and car park at the moment (possibly due to all the holiday activity).  We ventured out on the scenic drive  and saw plenty of birds including Rufous-naped Lark, Eastern Long-billed Lark and several cisticolas (little brown birds very hard to identify as they all look very similar!).  Pin-tailed Wydahs chased every other bird in the vicinity, usual behaviour for them during the breeding season.  We saw Cape Rock Thrushes and Ant-eating Chats among the rocky outcrops, while the tall grasses were favoured by both Long-tailed and Fan-tailed Widowbirds, Common Stone Chats and numerous Cape (Orange-throated) Longclaws.  We observed both Tawny-flanked and Black-chested Prinias, the tiny but attractive Bar-throated Apalis, together with Cape Robin-chats, Helmeted Guineafowl and Swainsons Spurfowl.  Golden Bishops were very much in evidence, matching the flowers with their daffodil yellow plumage.  We also saw the Didericks Cuckoo with its lovely green and white colouring.  Our personal highlight was the sighting of a lone Peregrine Falcon, which we have not seen at Suikerbosrand before, although they do occur there.  We also saw a large herd of eland – the largest antelope in Africa – as well as zebra, wildebeest and red hartebeest on the plains.

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Grey Crowned Crane

The town of Wakkerstroom lies close to the border of  South Africa’s Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces/states.  It lies within the Highveld grassland biome and is a verdant area of rolling hills and endless grasslands and wetlands.  Apparently the grassland species here are generally rare and unusual.  Moves are presently afoot to give the area formal protected status and also have the wetlands declared a RAMSAR site (wetland of international importance).

Wakkerstroom in summer is glorious as colourful wildflowers star grasses ranging in colour from tawny gold to purple.  Green hills form a backdrop to the surrounding countryside and the wetland and grassland areas reflect the blue of the sky.  Birdlife abounds and you’ll start seeing birds the minute you enter this avian paradise.  The combination of biomes ensure a wide variety of species – almost 300 species have been recorded here.

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Violet-backed Starling

Polokwane Game Reserve is around 3 500 hectares in area and hovers at the edge of the city of the same name in northern South Africa.  We duly collected all the reserve information from the office and were a little surprised to discover that the place does not appear to have a bird list!  Nevertheless, we checked in and set off across the wide expanse of bushveld and grassland to see what we might find.  We were in for a treat.

Despite it being around midday and very hot (around 30 deg Celcius), the birds were undeterred.  The bushveld was fairly dense after recent and much-needed rains had fallen in the area the previous week; we nevertheless found a plethora of birdlife.  Our final tally was just over 60 species – not bad for less than 24 hours of birding!  First up were Red-billed Queleas, which feed by stripping wild grass stems of their seeds.  When they get into croplands, they become pests and this leads to endless conflict between the birds and crop farmers.  At the reserve no such problems exist and flocks of these avians were everywhere.  We were interested to see that the white-headed variation is present at Polokwane.  Shortly after that, we saw the incredible Marico Sunbird with its irridescent emerald and sapphire plumage and the game was on.

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Summer is here now and the Highveld storms have arrived in greater Johannesburg, bringing much-needed rain to the city and filling rivers, dams and streams at nature reserves around the metropolis. For birders, this is a wonderful time to be out and about.

On a recent trip to Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, we noticed that the place is definitely greening up and a large amount of game is in evidence, not to mention myriad birds. Every time we visit this reserve, we always have a different and special experience. Once it was the Orange-throated Wrynecks, calling loudly near the picnic area; another time, Bar-throated Apalises filled flowering trees; last time we saw Capped Wheatears and Bokmakieries on the grassland plains. Specials like the Grey-winged Francolin remain, alas, elusive but we have seen a number of Swainsons Francolin on the southern side of the reserve. On our last visit, we took a walk along an interpretive trail, which winds its way into the hills behind the administration area, and were amazed at the birds we encountered. Besides the usual Mountain Wheatears, we also found Greater Striped Swallows, Cape Robin-Chats, Speckled Pigeons, Bar-throated Apalis, Barn Swallows, Horus Swifts – and plenty more. While sitting on benches at the end of the trail and drinking in the tranquillity of a late Sunday afternoon, we were visited by a Familiar Chat. These birds are very “familiar” – they like to hang around at very close quarters, ensuring that you notice them. Interestingly, the Afrikaans colloquial name for this bird is pioneer settlers (the Voortrekkers), who greased their wagon wheels with bacon fat. Familiar Chats being rather opportunistic, they often arrived when the wagons drew up for the night, the better to peck the fat out of the axle joints!

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It’s the end of winter in South Africa, spring has definitely “sprung” and the birds are exceptionally active and very much in evidence. 

The country towns of Memel and Wakkerstroom are situated in pristine tawny grasslands, surrounded by rolling, purple-blue hills.  Both regions are home to extremely productive wetland areas, which teem with birdlife and are peaceful havens from the hustle and bustle of city life to boot.  A stream on a private, 6-hectare farm in Wakkerstroom revealed quantities of birds – malachite, pied and giant kingfishers were all in evidence, together with Egyptian geese, yellow-billed ducks and African black duck.  The pied kingfisher appeared to have a territory along the stream as we observed it in the same place on several occasions, catching fish and eating them.  Flowering trees and plants in new leaf revealed dark-capped bulbuls, Cape white-eye, paradise flycatcher, amethyst sunbird, malachite sunbird, red-winged starling and Cape glossy starling, to name but a few.  Overhead, purple herons, spurwing geese, great white egrets and a myriad of other birds flew singly or in formation across blue, open skies.  En route to our next destination we found blue cranes unexpectedly, wandering in a grassy field near the road.

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