Abundance of the Okavango Panhandle

The Kavango river has a feel of abundance with flocks of birds either flying along the waterways or moving among the papyrus and reeds. I added African Openbill to my list and we saw loads of them along the grassy flood plains.

I was amazed to see about 10 Wattled Cranes on the flood plain too, an unexpected highlight for the trip.

Grunting or snorting hippos and crocodiles complete the scene as we floated past the birds.

We saw one Slaty Egret and flocks of the Black Herons flying side by side with the Little Egrets - why did I work so hard in Gauteng to find one for the list....

"Water: vehicle and idiom of all the inner voyaging that keeps us alive"

In Praise of Water, John O'Donohue

No trip to the swamps is complete without seeing the beautiful bee-eaters. Carmines were breeding along the banks near the Camp.

And the White-fronted seemed to be panting in the late afternoon heat. Loved being in this beautiful place again, another gem of a day for the Big Year.

Okavango Panhandle for African Skimmers

It's Sunday the 25th October, the heat is coming off the Kavango River and I am under the huge trees outside Chalet 4 at Drotsky's Camp in Botswana. Our boat trip up the river with Salvation was idyllic, we had time to take in the bountiful bird life and watch the African Skimmers, our purpose for coming all this way to the north west of Botswana. It is so thrilling to see them dip their unique lower mandible, no other bird has a lower mandible longer than the upper and skim the water surface for prey items.

The water levels are still high and the birds are social, breeding together on the few exposed sandbanks. Fred was able to get take photos of the eggs and chicks.

I have had the priviledge of seeing Black Skimmers too in the USA on a business trip to Amelia Island in June 1998. I was walking along the beach early in the morning before the conference got started and noticed a bird hurtling towards me at knee height. It was my first ever skimmer and I was beside myself with excitement, even called Fred to share the expereince.

The last time I saw the African Skimmer was in December 2004 with Brian and Di, same boat from Drotsky's, also with Salvation, but a very different photographic experience - Fred dropped his camera overboard! Brian did check-in with me to see whether we had any issues this time round, fortunately not!

Finfoot in the Bag

'Ky dya hiku engeta', Shangaan for 'once you have tasted, you will want to return'

Return we did, we are back in Louis Trichardt with a African Finfoot on the Big Year list. Another 4.30am start before meeting up with Samson. We had a fly-over of a group of noisy Grey-headed Parrots before going to a private dam for the Finfoot.


The dam is quite beautiful, restful, quiet and we waited quietly too for well over an hour before Samson noticed a female out in the dam feeding. Incredible to be seeing this bird at last and we were treated to special views. At one point the bird left the water and climbed onto the dam wall with a fish in its mouth. Yet another quite extraordinary moment in a year of many such moments.



We have just put in petrol and are headed for Botswana and will stop over in Francistown before going up to Shakwe....

Much Anticipation

I was up early this morning quietly at my desk with its view into the front garden, finishing off some work commitments. The irises are in flower in the pond, the Cape White-eyes are loving playing in the fountain and I can feel the excitement building. We are on the road again this afternoon.
Fred had lunch with Bernie and Neil a little while ago and Bernie had seen African Skimmers and Slaty Egrets on his trip up to Chobe. When Fred was relating the story to me I thought how can I have a Big Year without Skimmers! Immediately I got onto the phone with Piet at Drotsky's and we are booked in for this weekend. What a treat to be going back to the Kavango River, in April it was in flood conditions and I look forward to seeing it six months later.
We are driving to Botswana via Loius Trichardt, nothing like a small detour, to bird again with Samson and to have another go for African Finfoot.
I had a frustrating morning last Sunday birding along the Zaalkuildrift Road, my heart was not in it and my birding felt like an effort, I am now rested, ready to do this trip and to be in special places.

African Broadbill before Breakfast.

By the time we stopped for breakfast on Saturday morning at Roodewal Nature Reserve we had already seen the Scaly-throated Honeyguide, African Firefinch and African Broadbill which brought the year list to 610. We had been joking about the possibility of breakfast as a certainty whereas seeing a Broadbill seemed such a long shot. And that's when we had magnificent views of both the male and female.

The destination this weekend was the Soutpansberg to meet up with Samson Mulaudzi. I had been following his emails on the Birdnet and noticing the specials he clocks up for his clients, so could not resist a trip that held the potential of a Broadbill, Trogon, Finfoot, Blue-spotted Wood Dove. As luck would have it, as we were unpacking our breakfast Samson when pointed out the Narina Trogons too. Such a treat and well worth a 1200 kilometer round trip.

Samson then tried for both the Green Twinspot at Entebeni and for the Dove at Muirhead Dams but no luck. We will just have to go back at some stage which is no hardship as we found such a wonderful mountain farm lodge called Madi a Thahvu, run by Marcelle and Aart which is a keeper.

This little Painted Reed Frog is a gem that I noticed while walking along the trail around Muirhead Dam. In November 2001 Martie and I organised a Frogging Course out at Chrissiesmeer. It was one of my more daft outings that the family still teases me about and I decided that wading through water at night, with a flashlight, to catch frogs was not going to be my next 'big thing'.

I am now going to pass on my book and CD to Samson as he can make better use of it.


We dipped on Sunday for the Grey-headed Parrot too, so I was feeling rather flat, but nothing that a good breakfast on the veranda didn't solve though. I nagged an unwillingly Fred to stop on the way home to attempt to find Fawn-coloured Larks along the roads of the Seringveld Conservancy to the north-east of Pretoria. Armed with the 'Birding in Gauteng' recommendation and our PDA we did manage to call out a lark and get a lifer for the weekend.

Good to be on the couch at home again, a treat of home-cooked soup from Anabela's Mom, 'Strickly Come Dancing' and Shawni's Malva pudding. .

Samsons post:

This past weekend I was out with clients Sharon Kersten and husband from Wits Bird Club.

On Saturday morning 10th October 2009 I took out Sharon Kersten and husband to Roodewal Nature Reserve and their main target species wereAfrican Broadbill,Scaly Throated Honeyguide,Narina Trogon and AfricanFirefinch.

By the time we stopped for our breakfast we already had agood close up sightings of a pair of African Broadbill, Scaly Throated Honeyguide, African Firefinch, African Crowned Eagle, Purple Crested Turaco and Lesser Honeyguide.

While sitting in the picnic site having breakfast the cherry on the cake were a magnificent views of both male and female Narina Trogon.We went to Muirhead Dams and Entabeni Forest. I tried for both BlueSpotted Wood Dove and Buff Spotted Flufftail but had no luck but nevertheless amongst other birds we had a beautiful sightings of a pair of Bat Hawk, Grey Cuckooshrike, Jackal Buzzard, Lizard Buzzard, African Goshawk, African Fish Eagle and all the species brought their year list to 610.

Beaufort West - Bloemfontein - Bapsfontein- Bryanston - Benoni

Odd coincidence, all the B's.

We left Beaufort West on Tuesday after watching handfuls of Sclater's Larks coming to drink at a farm watering hole that Japie uses as a stake-out. Yet another endemic under the belt. I have now seen 83% of the Southern African endemics and 85% of the near-endemics. Even though it was cold and windy I sat sheltered and spent time watching these birds with their distinctive facial markings, good way to finish our Karoo birding.

We over- nighted in Bloem to visit my cousin Ian who has been in intensive care for over 5 weeks already after an aweful headon collision. We both appreciated the opportunity to pop-in and to spend time with Julie too.

Callan's book Birdfinder mentions the road bridges along the N1 as possibilities for seeing the South African Cliff Swallows. We stopped just north of Kroonstad and ticked them off for the year as they were flying in and out of their nests under the road bridge.

Our trip total was over 140 birds and added 14 to the Big Year, of which 7 were lifers.

After the 3000 km roadtrip and a hectic few days of work we took it easy this weekend popping out to the dams in the East Rand to find White-winged Terns, which we eventually found at Korsman Bird Sanctuary in Benoni. Also had a special sighting of a handful of Marsh Owls flying at dusk out at Elandsvlei while sipping a G&T next to the Jeep.

On our back from Bapsfontein, Ross called and we detoured to Bryanston for an impromptu braai. Thanks June - ribs and salad are becoming firm summer favourites.

Big Year List gets to 600!

Birding with Japie Claassen in the Karoo.

Reading my post about the Karoo makes me smile, I was rather naive about the 'restful'. Our drive from the Karoo National Park into the heart of the Tankwa or the succulent Karoo, via Sutherland, took us into new territory.

The weather was so variable: we experienced mist as we woke up at Jakkalsdans, our farm stay 60 kilometers beyond Sutherland; rain over the Gannaga Pass; cold conditions and a howling wind all night while we bunkered down at the Tanqua Guesthouse after watching the sunset over the Cedarberg..
The Tankwa has space in abundance, a vast plain encircled by mountains, the Cedarberg to the West and the Roggeveld Escarpment to the East and the Klein Roggeveld to the South.
I had organised this trip with Japie Claassen not only for the opportunity of the rich endemic bird life that he knows so well but also to be guided through this unknown place. I am pleased we did so as we leant about this National Park that is still in its developmental and land consolidation phase.

The other more obvious reason to be in the Karoo, was to indulge in the legendary Karoo lamb which we did with gay abandon each night.

The Tankwa is a place of contrasts, the rainfall up on the Roggeveld Mts is as much as 400 mm so the Karoo vegetation feels lush, whereas down on the gravel plains the annual rainfall drops to 15 mm. Even though we were not in the peak spring flower period there was lots of colour and beautiful 'vygies' wherever we looked and walked.

These plains were our destination to bird for the elusive Burchell's Courser. Japie regaled us with many stories on this legendary bird of the Karoo, the challenge of scanning for movement in an area spanning some 12 by 5 kilometers! We arrived around noon, inched and birded along the access road to the Guesthouse mostly looking out from the passenger side of the Jeep. We were almost at the gate when Japie yelled 'Stop' and 'Chicks' all at once.

He had seen a pair of Burchell's right near our vehicle, not to the left but to the right, with their chicks which he estimated were about 5 days old, in all the years of following these birds he had yet to see chicks. What another amazing story for the Big Year and a momentous sighting of these beautiful birds.

Pair of Burchell's Coursers and their chick, immobile through all the panic....

As the birds were been ticked off along the way and we got to 599 with a sighting of the Grey Tit. I was waiting in anticipation which bird would be the momentous 600th for the year.

It was unexpectedly a bird I was not even targeting in the Karoo, a lone Black Stork in a small dam along the road on our drive to Sutherland. Sitting in the back of the car, reviewing how far I had come with my birding in the past 10 months, was deeply satisfying.

Japie's Post:

I went with some SA clients on a birding trip trough the Karoo and Tanqua Karoo. The Karoo areas around Beaufort West were dry but as it is early spring, birds were quiet active.We first birded the Karoo Nat Park and the surrounding areas where we picked up:Karoo Nat Park:Southern Tchagra, Booted Eagle, Ludwig's Bustard, Karoo Korhaan, Karoo Longbilled & Spikeheeled Lark, Cape Penduline Tit, Chat Flycatcher, Longbilled Pipit, Black-throated Canary & Larklike Bunting.

Molteno Pass north of Beaufort West:Cinnamonbreasted Warbler building nest, Layard's Titbabbler, Hamerkop, Longbilled Crombec, Pririt Batis, Fairy FlycatcherPlains east of Beaufort West:Several Doublebanded Coursers with chicks, Sclater's Lark, Greybacked & Blackeared Sparrowlarks, Karoo Korhaans, Namaqua Sandgrouse, Yellowbellied Eremomela.

The next day we took the road to Tanqua via the off beaten tracks via Fraserburg and Sutherland. On the road to Fraserburg we had good views of Jackal Buzzard, Ground Woodpecker breeding, Grey Tit, Short-toed Rock Thrush, Pririt Batis & Black-throated Canary.

The road between Fraserburg and Sutherland delivered Blackheaded Canaries, more Blackeared Sparrowlarks and a Black Stork.We stayed at Jakkalsdans Guest Farm (www.wheretostay.co.za/jakkalsdans. ; e-mail: info@jakkalsdans.co.za ; tel +27 23 5712745 ) which is a lovely place along the Fish River (the Karoo's Fish River). It is completely furnish with everything for self-catering and if you would like to treat yourself, organize with Lien Barnard and she will supply you with delicious salads, a perfect home-baked bread and some excellent chops and wors. It can be highly recommended!Birding around the guest farm is also excellent and there are different trials, but you can almost walked anywhere on the farm. Some birds we saw, were a large flock of Greater Flamingoes on a dam nearby, Common Greenshank, Namaqua Dove, Eur. Bee-eater, Common House-martin, Grey Tit, Namaqua Warbler, first Afr Reed-warbler of season, Dusky Sunbird, Blackheaded Canary, Afr Black Duck and all the common doves and ducks. During the night Barn Owl and Spotted Thick-knee were calling.

The next morning was very foggy and drizzling as we moved down to the Tanqua. Along the way to Gannaga Pass we saw some wettish Greywinged Francolins. Down the mountain the weather cleared and we pick up Karoo Eremomela, Karoo Lark, Black-chested Snake Eagle, Greater Kestrel, Capped Wheatear, Tractrac Chat and Ludwig's Bustard.

The best pick of the day was a pair of Burchell's Coursers with 2 small chicks in the eastern entrance road to Oudebaaskraal. The chicks "hide" on the open stony area and gave us splendid views of them and the adults. What a sight!!

The dam at Oudebaaskraal hosts the usual ducks including Maccoa Duck and Southern Pochard, a large flock of Greater Flamingoes, all three grebe species, Marsh Sandpiper and Common Greenshank.

The wooden area below the dam in the Tanqua River delivered inter alia Klaas's Cuckoo, Pearlbreasted Swallow, Namaqua Warbler and Fairy Flycatcher.

Another splendid trip through the Karoo.

JAPIE CLAASSENKAROO BIRDING SAFARISBOX 112, BEAUFORT WEST, 6970TEL +27 23 4142980FAX 086 6060267CELL +27 83 724 7916

E-MAIL: claassen@cybertrade.co.zaWEB: www.karoobirding.wetpaint.com.