Winter specials in Gauteng

...a confiding garden bird here in Johannesburg, I have noticed the Fiscal Flycatchers in my garden this year...

Seeing that we were home this weekend it was time to tackle some of the winter migrants to Gauteng. The target was the diminutive Fairy Flycatcher which comes to us from the Karoo. I dipped into Etienne and Faansie's book 'Birding Gauteng' which gives really good insight into where one has the best chance of seeing these beautiful birds.

So early Saturday morning I dragged Fred off, with the promise of being back for a mid-morning rugby game, to the gardens of the Voortrekker Monument on the outskirts of Pretoria. It was certainly one of my more bizarre birding attempts, we arrived along with 100's of runners, live bands, spectators and the intercom system blaring out instructions and encouragement to the runners. Needless to say, no Flycatcher.

Sunday, along with a still rather reluctant Fred, was the next attempt this time at Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, which is a special place of Highveld grasslands, rolling hills and rocky outcrops south of Johannesburg. We particularly love the cabbage trees dotted around the grasslands - or Kiepersols as they are also called. Our 10 kilometer hike through the reserve was a treat and very good training to get me fitter for our planned walk in Spain next year. Also had good views of another winter migrant, the Sentinel Rock-Thrush, along the trail.

Our early morning drive was very successful, great views of Red-winged Francolins calling from a rocky knoll and then quickly disappearing into the grass.

Further down the road, along a burnt grass verge, we had our first views of Grey-winged Francolins for the year.

A group of about 10 birds were moving quickly away from us and I needed to make sure they were the Grey-winged, so much panic to get ahead of them and confirm the black and white neck pattern before they disappeared over the hill. Much fist pumping when I confirmed the sighting. Suikerbosrand is about the only place to find Grey-winged in the greater Gauteng region too, so an important tick for the year.

The Fairy Flycatcher was also added to the list just before we started our hike and I noted that we had first seen the bird at the same picnic spot in 1998!

I have just finished reading Sean Dooley's book 'The Big Twitch' about his record breaking big year in Australia, loved his quirky humour and dedication.

Certainly has hardened my resolve and I have been booking trips, just confirmed access to the Bearded Vulture Hide at Giant's Castle for September seeing that I dipped on this bird in June because of the howling winds around the Sentinal. Holding thumbs, cannot do a Big Year and miss this amazing vulture.

Kwa-Zulu Natal North Coast Birding

Its Monday morning and I am watching sunrise over the Indian Ocean here at Tinley Manor, Martie's home away from home at the coast, with Gannets and even the odd Albatross making an appearance.

This must be one of the few trips I have made this year that has not been about birding, I am down here with friends and our purpose is designing quilts. We are up to our elbows in gorgeous fabrics, there are sewing machines dotted around the huge table and fabric is slowly being transformed into quilts. Our group has been friends for two decades and our annual retreats have become a feature of our shared interest.

Even though I have been cutting and sewing with the Tour de France on in the background, what an amazing event, I am quietly birding too. I dragged Martie and Jan to Dlinza Forest near Eshowe early on Sunday morning to find some of the Kwa-Zulu Natal forest specials. Our time with Jotham Maduna as our Birdlife Guide was very rewarding - eventually saw the Spotted Ground-Thrush on our second attempt near Bishops Seat, we had almost given up for the morning when Jotham heard their low pitch winter call, a faint scratchy sound!

We started the morning with a sighting of an African Goshawk calling from the entrance to the Aerial Boardwalk, such a treat to see the raptor but he spoilt our chances of seeing the Narina Trogon which usually hangs around the entrance.

A Green Malkoha showed itself too high up in the forest canopy and I was so pleased to get onto the bird quickly as it is so secretive and a difficult bird to find, Olive Bush-Shrikes, Square-tailed Drongoes and the White-starred Robin made for a most productive morning of birds for the Big Birding Year list.

Talking about the list - I have less than 100 birds between my Life List of 659 and the Big Year list which is on 566. Great motivation to keep going.

The Splitting of Birds.

The splitting of birds is a reality world-wide as research happens, Phoebe Snetsinger's book 'Birding on Borrowed Time' mentions that in the 1990 publishing of Sibley and Monroe's 'Distribution and Taxonomy of the Birds of the World', approximately 500 new species were added. It is no mean feat to keep abreast of all these changes in the bird world.

Here in South Africa our list has also been swelling over the last decade and I had not paid enough attention to these splits.. So I have been in catch-up mode this year to see the birds such as the split of the Long-billed Larks (to date seen 4 of the 5 in this group which has taken me from Agulhas to Namibia to do so), as I do not keep rigorous field notes like the professional birders do.

Etienne Marais' website Indicator Birding has an article on one such split-
'Karoo Thrush and Olive Thrush were split on the basis of genetic work conducted a few years ago. However fieldguides have been rather vague and even error-prone in attempting to guide birders in relation to the identification of these related species.'

Fred's photo of the Karoo Thrush clearly shows the grey flanks, Orange Eye-ring, the plain yellow bill without dark base to upper mandible; so I had quite a rude awakening to realise that the birds I was seeing on our Sunday morning trip to the Wonderboom Nature Reserve in Pretoria were in fact Karoo Thrushes rather than Olive Thrushes!

Suddenly we had a new species to record that has been in the Johannesburg gardens all along. I did find the field guides confusing as well but I think we have the measure of these two birds now. We also climbed the hill up to the Wonderboom fort trying for the Stripped Pipit but with no luck so need to keep trying.

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.