Leaving the Kruger National Park

Lions on our way out.....
The iconic call of the Woodland Kingfisher defines the sound of the park in summer, juvenile waiting to be fed, we were watching while having lunch at Skukuza ....

Excitement of seeing a Double-banded Sandgrouse and the Black-bellied Bustard on our last evening drive.

On may way back saw Long-crested Eagle on the telephone poles, will take the birds as I find them!

One of the juvenile challenges has been solved, I sent a photo to Lawson's Birding and Leon confirmed our sighting was a Dark Chanting Goshawk juvenile, another tick for the year.

Blue Swallow, calling Cisticolas and Lowveld specials

Waiting up on the hills near Kaapsehoop for a sighting of a Blue Swallow with Peter and Enos seemed such a long shot, only one pair has been seen here this year. Wait we did and moved location too. The group was treated to a quick flypast by the female and I felt less than satisfied, it all happened so fast and my brain seems to shut down and I forget to notice details. So, my list now includes a Blue Swallow but I want to now go to KZN to see if I can see a male at some point.

Our day with Peter Lawson started with Cut-throat Finches nesting in abandoned weaver nests outside the Town Lodge in Nelspruit. I have always enjoyed the 'little lads' of the bird world and was chuffed to see the Swee Waxbills too later in the day in the forest at Kaapsehoop.

The photo below was a special visit to the McOnie farm to see the juvenile Crowned Eagle - second time lucky, the chick was born in October and a treat to see from the farmhouse's front garden! Thanks to all for the access to the farm on a sunday and my first upclose encounter with macadamia trees, ended up buying loads of nuts from Halls and eating them all day.

Another treat was Peter flushing the Lesser Honeyguide who was calling from high in the canopy and obligingly flew out on cue and showed itself...

This is Peter and I after a Red-faced Cisticola for my life list and we did get one too - Fred found it calling in the bush next to the road. It was a day for cisticolas - Wailing and Wing-snapping up in Kaapsehoop, Croaking on our drive out of Nelspruit, great help for me as I do not have a good birding ear which can be so frustrating.

Memorable images from the Kruger Park, the European and Lilac-breasted Rollers are common and an eyeful of colour against the sky line. We saw many juveniles on our travels, most of them stumping me but the Fish Eagle is a certainty and a glorious looking bird.

Halfway Mark in the Kruger National Park

The plan is to resee my list and yesterday I passed the halfway mark and saw a lifer at the Nkuhlu picnic stop, the Icterine Warbler.

It was a good day for raptors and we added Tawny Eagle and Brown Snake Eagle to the list. I must admit to filing to identify many of the juveniles though. I realise that I am noticing birds that I have paid no attention to seeing for many a year, like the Village Indigobird which I also found at Nkuhlu. The rain lifted and we had gentle sunlight on the grassy plains. The road from Sukuza to Lower Sabie is overgrown which makes viewing almost impossible but we did see Elephant and Buffalo in the Sabie River. I am enjoying the Phabeni road at the moment and we are seeing herds of Zebra, Wildebeest and Buffalo.

We held our breath waiting for the Red-billed Oxpecker each time we saw Giraffe, then eventually found oodles of them.

Sunset Dam at Lower Sabie was not as productive for birds as had I expected, but we did sit and watch a Goliath Heron moving imperceptively in the water waiting to fish.

The Wire-tailed Swallow watching us put in petrol at Lower Sabie.

Magestic Flypass

The Kruger Park is lush and wet, with rivers and streams bursting their banks. It has been raining all night, the cloud cover is low and the temperature is cool. A very different Lowveld than we expected.
Dad and I had a special afternoon in the park, taking a slow ride in the Jeep from Numbi Gate to Phabeni Gate, with good sightings all the way, elephant, buffalo, rhino, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and more, even though the grass is tall.

We even did some 'spider watching', the water still clinging to the web of this huge spider, size of my palm, along the road!

The exciting birds were the Saddle-billed Stork that flew low past us at Transport Dam, the unmistakable Martial Eagle and my special bird, the Bateleur. Of course it feels like being a kid in a candy shop finding all the Park regulars to add to the Big Birding Year list, like the Yellowbilled and Redbilled Hornbills. The flypass of the thousands of Red-billed Queleas are spectular at this time of year. We saw a handful of White-backed Vultures settling down to sleep in a tree at dusk as we were about to exit the Park.

Cannot wait to get back.

Wild Flower Collage - Millstream

Photo gallery of Millstream

Ambling, fishing and taking in the beauty of Millstream

One of the joys of Millstream is being able to stride out and walk the hills or wander past the fishing dams. Summer time is wonderful for wildflowers and Brian took glorious photos of the different varieties on the farm. One of my favourites is the red lily on the water edges, the colour is startling against the water and reeds. I have a quirky habit and trying to walk all the paths during our stays and make sure that I have covered as much of the farm as possible.

Birding has been good too, some of my usuals have made the Big Birding Year list, like the Buff-streaked Chat that Martie and I first id'ed here at Millstream in the mid 1990's and the Groundscraper Thrush. The glimpse of the Little Bittern in the reeds on Lake Millstream from our veranda having early morning coffee and panettone. I have spent many hours at the reeds looking out for warblers and have seen the Dark-capped Yellow Warbler, the Lesser Swamp Warbler as well as the Little Rush-warbler.

Di caught her first Rainbow Trout and it was smoked and made into pate on the same day - quite yummy.

Millstream near Dullstroom

It all started here.

We bought our timeshare unit in the early 90's and have been visiting 2 to 3 times a year ever since. My Mom had died and we wanted a complete change of climate after the sticky heat of Natal and what better than the high altitude grasslands of Dullstroom. The rhythm is easy; walking, fishing, sitting on the stoep with a view across Lake Millstream, reading on the couch, loads of cooking and good food for friends and family, the kids with their friends visiting over the years as they were growing up, good conversation - it has always been a favoured place. Idyllic.
Dad and I were on the side stoep one year and a Stonechat landed close by. At that stage I had no clue about birds, so the first question of "I wonder what that is?" has opened a new world for me and has become a passion which has taken me all over Southern Africa and into remote, wild parts of the world and less remote places too, like New York.
I have birded in the Ramble in Central Park alongside New Yorkers watching out for migrating warblers; in Churchill on the Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada for waders and Ross' Gull; in the Galapagos Islands off Equador for the Blue-footed Booby and the Waved Albatross; in the Amazon in Equador for Toucans and Parrots; in Australia with Inel; on St. Paul Island of the Pribiloff Islands in the Bering Sea for Puffins and the Alcids; in arctic Norway for the White-tailed Sea-Eagle; in English country gardens watching Tits; in Scotland for Eiders and Puffins, in Fontainbleau Forest in France and in so many other memorable places of the last fifteen years.
Birding has also been about being with friends in these special places, Bri and Di have birded with us in Botswana, Caprivi in Namibia, Phinda in KZN; Sharon walking along the De Mond beach for a Demara Tern; Laura and Anabela at Millstream last year; Bernie and Martie in the Kruger, in Alaska, at Tinley and many other spots over the years of our friendship.
So Millstream is where it started with the dapper, obliging Stonechat.

'CWACing' at Elandsvlei

Another first for the Big Birding Year, joining the Wits Bird Club outing to count waterbirds at Elandsvlei, which is among the farmlands on the way to Delmas.
In mid-summer and mid-winter each year, bird clubs around South Africa count a set list of species associated with some 400 wetlands and have been doing so since Coordinated Waterbird Counts was launch in 1992. The number and type of species are recorded and used for conservation and research.
So sandwiches, coffee and mangoes in hand -thanks to Fred, I overnighted with the small team of Val Odendaal and Murray Slotar at the cottage on the farm. The evening drive to look at the state of the wetlands was a real treat as we had sightings of two March Owls flying low over the grass. It has been 10 years since I last saw the March Owl in the Kruger Park during a Big Birding Day with the Honorary Rangers. A glass of wine and a sunset made for a good day.
I was delighted when Laura called to say she was joining the count as well and we had a good time together ticking, counting and for her even a couple of lifers. The one pan is completely grassed in so we focussed the count today on the large pan, 360 birds recorded in a two hour period and over 20 species. This was poor pickings for a CWAC as some years there are literally thousands of birds on the pans.
African Snipe, Black-winged Pratincole, Fulvous Duck, Wood Sandpiper, Ruff (over 60 counted), Whiskered Tern, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper were among the birds we spent time looking at. The Widowbirds are fabulous at this time of year and the Long-tailed Widowbird seemed to glide and perform for us all morning. Another great moment was watching the gregarious Amur Falcons who were numerous and gathering in the trees on the drive back to the cottage.
My Gauteng Challenge and Big Birding Year lists are 'ticking' up nicely.

On home ground.

The routine of being at home, focused on the tasks that distract me most days, makes me realise what this Big Birding Year will represent for me - consistency. It is all to easy to bird on holiday with a choice of locations that draw my interest.
Gauteng had never represented either being in nature or birding for me, quite the opposite is true. My response has been to 'join' my Bird Club at last. I have been a member since the mid 1990's and have never been an active member or taken part of their local outings. So with much detemination I was up and out on Sunday morning and joined a group of birders at the entrance to the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens.
The gardens were a revelation, pristine and beautiful after all the rains and quiet, we arrived well before the Sunday picnic crowds. I took real pleasure in ambling along the paths, taking in the fresh air, listening to Gail talk about some of the interesting plants and trees. The group watched a female Diederik Cuckoo with a caterpillar in her bill, also spied the Red-chested Cuckoo which is a good start for the Gauteng Challenge as the call is not good enough for a tick.
The eagles are magestic. A rare treat to watch them upclose and its over a decade since I was last in the gardens to see them. No photos to share as the photographer chose to stay home and watch cricket!

Columbine Peninsula

Another good day of birding along the West Coast to finish off our summer holiday here in the Cape. I feel so at home in this part of the world. The dry, sun bleached countryside with interesting rock formations and the opportunity to see a different set of birds along the dusty roads leading from Paternoster to Stompneusbaai. Such a great photo of a Lesser Kestrel!

But before getting there we stopped off yet again for a little bird that has been eluding us. Perseverance eventually paid off and three attempts later we have now seen the Chestnut-banded Plover along the salt pans near Yzerfontein.

One of the objectives of the trip was to see some of the chats found here. The other was of course to sit at a restaurant with endless seaviews and eat freshly caught game fish. Where better than Paternoster and the fish was Dorado. The sticky toffee pudding was also sublime, anyway the two chats were obliging - Sickle-winged Chat and the Ant-eating Chat and the list gently ticks up. It is time to transistion now to Gauteng and I am ready to tackle a different environment and look forward to the planned trips to Mpumalanga at the end of the month with Dad.

2009 Gauteng Birding Challenge

" When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it"
W. Clement Stone


In the spirit of the Clement Stone quote I have registered for another challenge this year, the 2009 Gauteng Birding Challenge. These are the guidelines and my progress will be tracked on the link showed on my blog,( http://www.birding.co.za/GP-challenge.htm ). Will start when I get back home tomorrow.

Objectives:
To see as many birds in the Greater Gauteng area in the year of 2009 as you can. Birders should maintain their own list of birds seen on one of the available checklists of the region. We will keep a monthly tally of the total. It will make interesting reading to see the monthly progress for birders.
This is a fun challenge for birders who live in the region and aims to encourage exploration and a greater awareness and knowledge about the birds of the greater gauteng region. This is one of the most diverse birding regions in Southern Africa and a potential list runs to about 500 species (including vagrants and rarities)

AREA:
The wider Pretoria and Johannesburg Region, defined as no more than 100km from Johannesburg OR Pretoria city centres. Where observers are in doubt about whether a sighting occurred within this area or not, the bird in question should be left off the list.
Only wild species from established free-living populations may be counted. Flufftails and Nightjars may be counted on call. All other species should be counted on good sight observations only.

TIME PERIOD:
Sightings from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009