Although all the migrants are gone and it's cold, winter birding can still be rewarding

Well, winter has unfortunately arrived with a vengeance and it’s been very cold, particularly in the interior of the country (although someone sent us pics of Cape Town with the partly frozen sea – brrr!).  Birding traditionally gets quieter in the winter months but we have found some great places where you can still expect to see a number of species even when it’s very cold.  Here are our suggestions for birders based inland…

If you don’t want to go far out of town or don’t have much time (if you’re based in Johannesburg or Pretoria), Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve is still offering up several different chat species in the grasslands – look out for Common Stone Chat, Mountain Wheatear, Mocking Cliff-chat (in rocky areas) and Ant-eating Chat.  At picnic sites and public areas, you’ll find several Familiar Chats (begging for food scraps usually) and Cape Robin-chats.  A large section on the southern side of the reserve has been subject to a massive grass fire and this has resulted in an unusual congregation of birds.  Look out for Cape Longclaw, Crowned Lapwing, Cape Glossy Starling, Fork-tailed Drongo, Black-headed Heron on the burned areas.  In the bushveld areas, you may find Lemon-breasted Canary, White-browed Sparrow Weaver, Fairy Flycatcher (only at this time of year), Tawny-flanked Prinia, Bar-throated Apalis, Chestnut-vented Titbabbler, Brubru and Southern Boubou, to name but a few.  Black-shouldered Kite may also be seen sitting on tall, leafless trees on the reserve looking out for food (rodents and other small creatures).

Black-shouldered Kite - a small raptor you'll often find surveying the grasslands from a bare tree during winter

Another nearby reserve is the Rietvlei Nature Reserve, where you can see many of the grassland chat species, Ostrich, Woodlands Kingfisher, Cape Glossy Starling, African Pied Starling, Black-shouldered Kite, Cape Longclaw, Wattled Lapwing, Crowned Lapwing, Southern Boubou, Blue Waxbill, Common Waxbill and various other grassland and bushveld birds.  Rietvlei Dam is home to Common Moorhen, Reed and White-breasted Cormorant and African Darter.  If you’re lucky, you may also see Malachite Kingfishers in the reedbeds at the picnic site.   The Otter’s Bridge area is also home to Hamerkop, Egyptian Goose, Little Egret, Black-headed Heron and other wetland and wetland-associated species.  We’ve often heard African Fish Eagles (and on one occasion actually saw one flying overhead).  Another raptor you may see is the Black-breasted Snake Eagle.  At this time of year, many of the smaller raptors such as falcons are not around as most of them are migrants as are the cuckoos and European Bee-eaters.  However, you will definitely see White-fronted Bee-eaters at the picnic site as there is a large colony of these birds in residence. 

Crested Francolin may be seen at both Pilanesberg & Borakalalo during winter, often in a sunny, open patch

Our best birding experiences are still in North-west Province and we are equally divided between Pilanesberg National Park and Borakalalo National Park, both of which have excellent birding.  The Pilanesberg is situated in a transition zone between the bushveld and arid western regions of the country and is an Important Bird Area with about 400 recorded bird species.  At Borakalalo, even though it does not appear to be an IBA or have any other birding status, has proved a “win” for us and we regularly see almost 80 bird species in a day, even during the winter.  We are looking forward to going in summer and seeing how the bird count increases then…  Here are some details of birds you can expect to see at these Parks in winter (remember this list is NOT exhaustive!):

Wetland Birds:  Great Crested Grebe (Borakalalo), Great Egret, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Black Crake, Little Dabchick, Egyptian Goose, African Spoonbill, Green-backed Night Heron (Pilanesberg), Pied Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Giant Kingfisher, Red-billed Teal, Yellow-billed Duck, Three-banded Plover, African Jacana (Borakalalo), Hamerkop, Blacksmith Lapwing

We've seen lots of Bennett's Woodpeckers at Borakalalo recently - interestingly, the birds eat ants!

Bushveld & Grassland Birds: Martial Eagle (Pilanesberg), Black-breasted Snake Eagle (Pilanesberg), African Fish Eagle (especially at Borakalalo)  Gabar Goshawk, Black-shouldered Kite, Speckled Pigeon, Cape Turtle Dove, Red-eyed Dove, Pearl-spotted Owlet (Borakalalo), Brown-hooded Kingfisher, White-fronted Bee-eater (Pilanesberg), Crowned Lapwing, African Hoopoe, Green Woodhoopoe, Greater Scimitarbill (Borakalalo), Crested Barbet, Burchells’ Coucal, Lilac-breasted Roller, Bennet’s Woodpecker (Borakalalo), Cardinal Woodpecker, Grey Hornbill, Red-billed Hornbill, Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Southern Grey Tit (Borakalalo),  Arrow-marked Babbler, Pied Babbler (Borakalalo), Ground-scraper Thrush, Olive Thrush, Cape Robin-chat, White-browed Scrub-robin (Pilanesberg), Fairy Flycatcher, Long-billed Crombec, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Fiscal Shrike, Fiscal Flycatcher, Marico Flycatcher, Cape White-eye, Chinspot Batis, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Magpie Shrike, Lesser Grey Shrike, Three-streaked Tchagra, White-breasted Sunbird, Amethyst Sunbird, Grey-headed Sparrow, Cape Glossy Starling, African Pied Starling, Red-winged Starling, Brubru (Borakalalo), Black-backed Puffback (Borakalalo), Red-billed Oxpecker (Pilanesberg), White-browed Sparrow Weaver, Southern Masked Weaver, Red-billed Quelea, African Firefinch, Jamesons’ Firefinch, Scaly-feathered Finch (Pilanesberg), Green-winged Pytilia/Melba Finch, Yellow-fronted Canary, Streaky-headed Seed-eater, Black-throated Canary (Pilanesberg), Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Golden-breasted Bunting

Red-crested Korhaan (female) - we've seen a few of these at Borakalalo

Ground Birds:  Ostrich (Borakalalo), Natal Spurfowl, Swainsons Spurfowl, Crested Francolin, Red-crested Korhaan (Borakalalo), Helmeted Guineafowl

ENJOY YOUR WINTER BIRDING!

Borakalalo N.P. - View of the dam

Well, we’ve been there often before, as regular visitors to this site and readers of this blog will know!  However, we never tire of it as each visit always yields a brilliant crop of birds – not to mention some wonderful surprises.  The weather in South Africa has become very cold as winter sets in in earnest.  We wondered whether this would affect the birding but reflected that it would be slightly warmer at Borakalalo, which it was!  It didn’t affect the birding either – our final list numbered around 76 species – about three more than last time.

The birding was quiet at first on account of the weather and we drove slowly around the dam.  The water levels had dropped and the reed beds died back significantly due to the cold, so we were better able to see wetland species hugging the shoreline.  Today, there were a number of Squacco Herons, together with the inevitable Reed Cormorants and African Darters.  A few White-breasted Cormorants were also on show.  Majestic, white Giant Egrets perched on rocks, while small flocks of Egyptian Geese sailed past.  Hippos grunted as we pulled into a small inlet, which revealed several African Jacanas.  (Jock took some particularly beautiful photographs of these birds framed by their reflections in the still water.)  A Grey Heron waded slowly and somewhat regally through the water while a trio silhouetted against the light formed an odd freize according to size (African Spoonbill, then Squacco Heron and then a Pied Kingfisher).  We saw a few of the latter hovering and perching but none seemed to catch anything. 

An African Jacana contemplates its reflection

The bushveld side of the dam was relatively empty of Lilac-breasted Rollers today.  However, we did see a wide variety of birds including several Crimson-breasted Shrikes, together with Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Southern Black Tit, Blue-billed Firefinch, Fork-tailed Drongo (making an effort to find and catch insects by flying into the firebreaks staff were burning along the roads), Long-tailed Crombec, Common Waxbill, Crested Francolin, Magpie Shrike and a Burchells Coucal, who hid in the long grass and defied Jock’s efforts to photograph it.  We heard African Fish Eagles calling but did not see them today – apart from one individual perched on the edge of the dam wall, from which we gathered he had an amazing view of the water course.

We drove north along the reserve’s main road beside the river stopping to photograph impala running by.  However, this part of the veld was quiet, so we decided to try for the bird hides and see what we might find there.  As often happens, there wasn’t much at first.  Presently a flock of Blue Waxbills flew in, followed by a Marico Flycatcher and Cape Penduline Tit.  A pair of Burchells Coucals made an appearance while a Brown-hooded Kingfisher perching prominently made for perfect photographs.  Fork-tailed Drongos amused us with their antics and a few Magpie Shrikes alerted us to their presence as they flew in, uttering their raucous calls.  A Malachite Kingfisher slipped onto a perch above the pool almost unnoticed.  We also saw Crimson-breasted Shrikes.  The sound of lapping water alerted us to a Red-billed Teal accompanied by a flock of goslings (very unusual for this time of year and very late in the season), which were very sweet to watch as they paddled and up-ended through a pool.  Interestingly, they appeared to be accompanied by a juvenile Great Crested Grebe (there was no sign of the adults anywhere); I wondered if the mother teal had noticed that she had acquired an unusual hanger-on! 

Cardinal Woodpecker

We left to drive back to the day visitors’ area, where we hoped to see a few good sightings before heading for home.  As always, we were not disappointed.  The late afternoon sun shone on Red-billed Hornbills in the grass, while Bennett’s Woodpeckers searched for ants in the ground and flew into the trees.  Chinspot Batis, Blue Waxbill, Golden-breasted Bunting, Brubru and small flocks of Lemon-breasted Canaries also graced the spot.  The best were the woodpeckers, however – a tapping Cardinal Woodpecker flew everywhere and quite stole the show!

As the shadows lengthened and the cooler weather came in, we decided that it was unfortunately time to leave.  When I tallied up the bird list this time, I was astounded to find that it recorded an incredible 76 species – in the middle of winter on a rather chilly day!  Not all of them were birds we had seen at Borakalalo before either, so it goes to show…

Borakalalo can be combined with Pilanesberg National Park for an extension to an overnight excursion.  It is highly recommended for birders winter and summer.  Contact us to arrange your accompanied, tailor-made itinerary incorporating both these excellent reserves and birding spots.  (Min 4 pax; max 8 pax).

Zebra are found in large herds at Pilanesberg at this time of year (winter)

We were delighted to have some conservation students and ecology enthusiasts on our Pilanesberg Day Safari recently.  Management have been doing controlled burning in the Park (veld needs to burn every few years or so to promote good grazing and get rid of the accumulation of dead material over time) and we saw herds of wildebeest and zebra grazing on the burnt areas.  Research done in Kruger National Park during an extensive fire season some years ago revealed that burning veld also creates a source of carbon for animals, which will tend to graze on the burnt grass during winter to obtain additional carbon in their diets.  We also saw the female rhino and calf we have seen before – it is amazing how quickly the young grow within a few weeks!  This was just the start of the amazing wildlife and birding experience we were to enjoy that day…

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Pilanesberg National Park - View of Mankwe Dam from picnic site

Due to popular demand, we are now offering wildlife day safaris in Pilanesberg National Park – and the Soccer World Cup was an ideal time to kick off our new nature-based tours, giving clients and excellent opportunity to see a wealth of game including some of the Big Five during a one-day visit to the Park.  Here we report back on some of our recent experiences in the Park.

On our first visit with World Cup visitors from Finland on 11 June 2010, the day started off quietly, with a few herds of impala and little else.  But the bush always surprises and a quiet start does not necessarily mean that the day will continue that way.  We drove westwards through the Park and were pleasantly surprised to happen upon a collection of tourists and operator minibuses at a place where a dead rhino seemed to have collapsed beside a dam (of natural causes, there were no signs of hunting injuries).  The carcass had been found by two Pied Crows – and a lion, which skulked beneath the trunks of two nearby trees, presumably guarding the prey.  Not much could be seen of the lion which, typically, was sleeping and the most we saw of it was the top of its mane and ears.  Then, it yawned, tilting its head back, and we got a glimpse of its face!  We went on to find a host of general game including warthog, baboons, herds of impala and giraffes.  The latter were eating old bones – not part of their regular diet of leaves and browse - which we presumed theywere doing in order to obtain additional calcium.  This is quite unusual to see, so as guides we found this quite interesting.  We stopped at a hide on a large dam, where we served up hot coffee and rusks and the clients found the terrapins swimming in the water below rather engaging.  Then we saw

Hippo heading for water

the hippo.  This was out of the water and seemed to have a calf with her – we watched her plunging repeatedly into the water and getting out again, perhaps encouraging her calf to do the same.  We guessed that as the calf was quite young, it might not have been able to remain underwater for long as the dam appeared relatively deep.  (Hippos do not swim strictly speaking but walk along the bottom of the dam or river.)  We saw a variety of general game after that including impala, wildebeest, zebra, springbuck and various other animals.  As usual, we had our delicious picnic lunch at a picnic area overlooking beautiful Mankwe Dam, before finding various white rhinos en route to the hide.  Things at the hide were quiet, although we found Pied and Malachite Kingfishers, Great Egret, Reed Cormorant, African Darter, Little Grebe and African Fish Eagle there.  We had still not seen elephants and one of the clients really wanted to see these, so we took a drive around a loop road to find them.  We found white rhino extremely close to the road and a lot of signs of elephants (broken trees and dung) but none of the gentle giants.  As the sunset deepened to dusk, we finally found a small herd next to a tar road – together with the day’s surprise: a rhino with a calf which could not have been more than two weeks old!  Clients were ecstatic and it again demonstrated that Pilanesberg is a prime game viewing area a mere 2 hours from Johannesburg.

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Bad News for the African Penguin:  The beleagured African Penguin’s problems are not over yet.  The bird was recently uplisted on the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red Data List from Vulnerable  to Endangered as population declines continue to be recorded.  Historically, the birds were used as a food source by South Africa’s first European settlers who arrived at the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town) in 1652.  The leader of the Dutch settlers, Jan van Riebeck, in fact banned catching penguins for food as he foresaw that the penguin populations would decline to unsustainable levels if hunting continued.  In the 20th century, the penguins’ real problems began.  Their eggs were collected until as late as the mid-1960s.  Guano was scraped from off-shore islands where the birds breed to be used as fertilizer.  This had a tremendous negative impact as the birds make burrows in the guano to nest in; this protects the eggs from the elements and predators and keeps the incubation temperatures constant.  This practice was eventually stopped. Then, in the 1950s, disaster struck again. 

African Penguins as well as other seabirds occurring along the southern African west coast rely mainly on sardine and anchovy fish species for food.  These fish used to occur in huge numbers off the west coast due to the tremendous supply of nutrients available as a result of the cold Benguela Current moving north from Antarctica.  The Namibian and South African fishing industry promptly cashed in; in those days, there were no quotas and it was not long before the region became over-fished and the populations of these species crashed as a result.  This not only caused the demise of the fishing industry in those areas, particularly in southern Namibia, but it also had a severe impact on local African Penguin and Cape Gannet populations.  Being good fliers, the Cape Gannets were less affected as they were able to fly north to better feeding grounds.  Not so the African Penguin, which is largely flightless and mainly forages in the water.  Its foraging range is restricted to around 40 km, so it was unable to find food.  Studies have confirmed that there is a direct correlation between lack of food availability and poor breeding success in African Penguins.  While populations of these anchovy and sardine species have recovered somewhat, they are still subject to unexplained population fluctuations.  The purse-seine industry also continues to trawl off the southern African west coast.  It seems that there is still not sufficient food for the African Penguin, whose population continues to plummet.  It is only found off the southern African west coast, although populations have migrated further east and there is also a population on various islands off Port Elizabeth (Eastern Cape), where access is restricted and the birds are protected.

In addition, large populations of African Penguins are found perliously close to one of South Africa’s harbours, Cape Town.  There are constant oil spillages.  Apart from well-documented disasters such as the grounding of oil tankers, there are continual small oil spills from a variety of accidental and intended causes (such as ships washing out their bunkers illegally off-shore).  While the problem is containable as volunteers and organizations such as SACCOB (a South African NGO dedicated to saving threatened seabirds) actively de-oil penguins, enabling the vast majority to return to the wild, it is a further problem for the birds to contend with.

Will exploding human populations competing with wildlife and birds for food and resources result in the ultimate demise of the African Penguin?  We hope not.  For too long the oceans have been seen as an limitless food basket, as well as a dumping ground for waste and contamination.  It’s time countries (including South Africa) began cleaning up their act, sticking to fishing quotas and ensuring that there is some food left for the birds and wildife who share this planet with us.

Good News for Cape Gannets:  Here’s a wonderful story of people doing good.  An extended summer and late winter led to an unexpected later-than-usual breeding season for the Vulnerable Cape Gannet.  However, nature called and the adults responded to their age-old instinct to migrate to their winter breeding grounds leaving hundreds of chicks too small to make the journey behind (many were still dependent on the adults for food and other resources).  SACCOB came to the rescue, taking quantities of birds to their facilities, where they will be hand-reared until they are old and strong enough to be released into the wild again.  The process should take about two months.

Rust de Winter Dam & Reserve

Rust de Winter Dam and Nature Reserve lie only about 80 km north of the city of Pretoria, South Africa.  The dam covers approximately 500 hectares and is surrounded by the reserve, measuring around 1 800 hectares.  This is fairly small by South African standards but we were amazed to discover that the area boasts around 400 recorded species!  We visited the reserve in May to see what it has to offer.

The area was extremely misty and the dam looked like a place born out of Autherian legend with billowing clouds and silvered waters.  We took a ride down a fairly muddy and watery road to discover hosts of African Jacanas among the water lilies and along the shore.  Black Crake were also in evidence, hurrying away into the undergrowth at our approach.  The tangled thornbush around the dam revealed Speckled Mousebird, Cape White-eye and Crested Barbet. 

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Saddle-billed Stork - a rare species finding refuge at Mapungubwe. But for how long?

South Africa’s No. 1 Important Bird Area (IBA) is threatened by coal mining in the Limpopo River Valley – a good example of a short term, unsustainable activity ending a valuable natural heritage, perhaps forever.  (Forever is a long time!)  South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources has recently approved a new order mining right to Australian-based CoAL of Africa for a coal coking project in one of the most ecologically and culturally valuable places in the southern African region.  It appears that the enviornmental impact assessment process was flawed and South Africa’s Minister of Environmental & Water Affairs was also opposed to the granting of the mining rights and lodged an official objection to the application.

The mining area is situated in the buffer zone of the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area spanning three countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe & Botswana).  This conservation area includes the Mapungubwe National Park, Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape (a valuable archaeological site), Mapungubwe World Heritage Site AND an Important Bird Area (No. SA001 on the country’s list of IBAs).  Mapungubwe is the archaeological site where a famous gold rhino statuette was discovered among numerous other archaeological treasures, many of which would be destroyed by the mining operation.  The area includes part of Botswana’s Tuli Block and a section of the Shase River in eastern Zimbabwe.  BirdLife SA and other environmental NGOs have rejected the approval of the new order mining right, especially when taking the area’s tremendous cultural and natural history value into consideration.

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Reed Cormorant Feeding Young

High, blue skies and fresh mornings and evenings usually categorise Highveld late autumn and early winter.  The grasses are loaded with seed – and all, some shoulder-high.  Although most of the migrants have left and birds have changed their summer breeding plumage with plain winter colours to blend into the gold and brown winter landscapes to come, there are still plenty of birds to be seen in this area.

At Rietvlei Nature Reserve (near Pretoria), we have had some wonderful sightings.  Reed Cormorants feeding juveniles; Lesser Moorhens (uncommon to locally common summer visitors – and still here); Black-breasted Snake Eagles soaring into the clouds; a juvenile African Darter playing with a stick, throwing it high into the air and catching it.  Wetland birds we have encountered recently include the Hamerkop, with its distinctively-shaped head, Egyptian Goose, Common Moorhen, Pied Kingfisher and White-breasted Cormorant.

Cape Longclaw - in autumn grasses

The grasslands, besides being home to herds of zebra, wildebeest, eland, and other plains animals have revealed Long-tailed Widowbirds in transitional plumage, together with numerous Cape Longclaws.  We have also found Wattled Lapwings, Stone and Ant-eating Chats, Capped Wheatear, Fiscal Shrike, Fiscal Flycatcher and Swainsons Francolin.  Thorn tree thickets have revealed Brimstone and Lemon-breasted Canaries and flocks of Blue Waxbills.  One afternoon, we also found a buffalo grazing near the road (those warning signs we were ignoring all the time weren’t kidding!) as well as a small mongoose.

The picnic area on Rietvlei Dam is home to a large and very mobile flock of White-fronted Bee-eaters (European Bee-eaters seem to have gone off to warmer climes), which we have seen eating bees.  Boubou and a juvenile Malachite Kingfisher have also been seen among the reeds.  The hide there has afforded us wonderful views of African Darter, the occasional Yellow-billed Duck and plenty of White-throated Swallows but not much else. 

Long-tailed Paradise Wydah

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve has been a bit quieter than usual for birds – although we are of the opionion that some of that can be attributed to the very tall grasses, which have grown prolifically after this summer’s excellent rains, hiding a number of the grassland birds.  Until recently, we were still seeing Red-collared Widowbirds in summer plumage but they are now matching the females.  We have also seen Red-wing Francolin, one of the reserve “specials”, together with Eastern Paradise Wydah (still with its long, black tail and bright yellow and orange colours) and several Cattle Egrets.  Streaky-headed Seed-eaters are very much in evidence now, together with the usual plethora of Mocking Cliff-chat, Ant-eating Chat, Common Stone Chat and Mountain Wheatears that favour this area.  Familiar Chats continue to keep their eye on visitors to the picnic area near the car park, flicking their wings and descending close for bread crumbs and food scraps.  Several Cinamon-breasted Buntings still delight us with their striped heads.  On a recent visit to the reserve, we found an entire flock of Wattled Starlings feeding on berries in white stinkwood trees near the ablution blocks. 

Red-headed Finch pair

Our garden in Benoni (east of Johannesburg) has also responded to the changes.  The Miombo Blue-eared Starling is an occasional visitor and we have suddenly found our feeder attracting Red-headed Finches in addition to the usual crowd of pigeons and doves.  The Crested Barbets feed on the apples but are having competition these days from Speckled Mousebirds; we have even seen weaver birds eating the fruit.  Speaking of which, the Thick-billed Weaver (usually a forest bird) has made his appearance again.  Cape Robin-chats, Karoo Thrushes, and Laughing Doves continue to forage on the ground for spilt seed, fruit scraps and insects.  I rather wish the mousebirds would stay out of the remaining tomato plants in our vegetable patch; they eat them before we do!

We often hear the Red-throated Wrynecks at present, both at home and at reserves such as Suikerbosrand, where there still seem to be a number in residence.  Jock saw a Long-crested Eagle at a golf course in north-western Johannesburg earlier this week, together with a Giant Kingfisher at the same location. 

Just because it’s winter does not mean the birds have abandoned us; they’re just a little different.

Egyptian Goose

Introduction

 

 Contrary to the impression given to golf course members and facility greenkeepers and staff, Egyptian Geese are not generally regarded as “pest birds” in southern Africa – unlike Red-billed Queleas, where the population numbers literally millions of birds, which cause severe damage to cereal crops throughout the subregion, many of which crops are staples for the local human populations in areas where these queleas occur.  Egyptian Goose populations increased dramatically during the 1900s due mainly to the proliferation of manmade dams and impoundments in rural areas.  Population estimates are around 30 000 birds in the north-eastern Highveld of South Africa and between 200 000 – 500 000 birds in East and southern Africa combined (Roberts Birds of South Africa, VII ed).  In wild areas such as nature reserves and national parks and even on farms, however, the geese rarely congregate in the type of numbers found on golf courses but tend to be spread over very large areas.  So why do golf courses in particular find that Egyptian Geese are the equivalent of “bird pests”, congregating in large numbers?

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Elephants at Pilanesberg National Park

We took a group of Americans to Pilanesberg National Park on Sunday, 11 April 2010 and – although they were not birders – we had some fabulous birding and wildlife experiences nevertheless.  The day was cool and overcast mostly but seemed to be perfect for seeing birds and animals.  The elephants are very active in the Park at present and we see a lot of evidence of these enormous creatures – in the form of dung or broken trees and branches.  One of the picnic areas in the Park also showed signs of elephant damage as the animals simply pushed down the fences to get at the trees inside! 

The first birds we saw as we entered the Park included a Familiar Chat, African Hoepoe and several Grey Go-way Birds as well as small flocks of Blue Waxbills.  We also saw several White-backed Helmet Shrikes – a bird we do not often see and they rather took us by surprise.  As we continued on, we came across two or three elephants, which disrupted the Park’s Sunday drivers, all of which had to wait while they demolished the Rhus trees on either side of the road!  We saw more elephants moving up a hillside before continuing on to find herds of wildebeest as well as various giraffes and impala herds. 

Malachite Kingfisher

We circled Mankwe Dam and found an African Fish Eagle, as well as African Darters, Reed Cormorants, Great Egrets and the colourful White-fronted Bee-eaters (which are not migratory but resident throughout the year in South Africa).  At the hide, we found both Pied and Malachite Kingfishers, a small flock of five Egyptian Geese, Great Egret and a bevy of Reed Cormorants and African Darters.  We also saw a Green-backed Heron, which we have not seen at that locality before.  Near the hide, we found herds of female impala, some still suckling young.

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