Marutswa Forest Boardwalk

What does commitment look like?
Today best descibes what commitment means to me for this Big Birding Year. Its one of the coldest weeks of the year here, so the 5am wake up felt extreme, dark and cold and I was creeping around Doreen's home trying not to wake up all the family members snug in their beds. Pulling on layers of clothing, gulping down a mug of coffee and hitting the road from Hilton to Bulwer in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Southern Midlands.
Commitment also means solitary birding, I turned up the heater and navigated the 100 or so kilometers to the Marutswa Forest Trail, quietly marvelled at the sunrise over the Umkomaas River and realised that I did not feel lonely. I felt relief that the wind has subsided and excitement as my early morning target was the endangered Cape Parrot.
The advertising for Marutswa positions this mist-belt indigenous forest as a real birding treat:

"Birds:The forest is home to a vast number of rare and interesting birds. Cape Parrots, sadly endangered and dwindling in numbers in South Africa are attracted by the seeds, and the nesting potential of the plentiful yellow wood trees and are often found in flocks of up to 100 birds in the forest. They have also been seen as a flock harrying a Long Crested Eagle for up to a kilometre at a time out of the forest. Bush Black Caps have been spotted, shyly foraging in the dense forest undergrowth. The Knysna Turaco with it’s restless bouncing and bounding and The Orange Ground-Thrush with its melodious whistling phrases are often sighted here, as well as the Southern Black Tit, and in the last few weeks five gloriously booming Ground Hornbills have also been spotted nearby.


I arrived at dawn in time to see a handful of parrots arriving and settling on a huge dead tree at the start of the trails, wonderful, I then relaxed and enjoyed the rest of my time walking the trails.
Fred and I have a pact, we do lifers together and have done so for more than fifteen years, so imagine my delight and dismay when an Orange Ground-Thrush popped out of the dense forest underground and quietly crept across the path right in front of me - a lifer and no Fred! I was preparing a whole lot of scenarios in my mind from not telling him, to pretending we had already seen the bird... anyway I called him later in the day, just before the Springbok-Lions rugby game and asked him nicely to let me use the sighting for the Big Birding Year. Such a special sighting and the only new bird for June.
After loads of coffee and a bacon, onion and cheese sandwich at Birds in the Barley in Bulwer, I went back to the forest trails to find robins. Did eventually find the Chorister as well as Olive Sunbirds as I was leaving.

Marutswa was good birding, Bush Blackcaps, Turacos, Tits, Forest Canaries, and much more. Worth the commitment.