Dear All,
We have just concluded a whirlwind working journey across the Limpopo Province culminating in our final stop in the Kruger at Shingwedzi. Our mission was to meet up with the individual guides that have been trained over the last two years or so by BirdLife South Africa and to evaluate their working conditions, assessment readiness and support needs as guides.
We spent a wonderful few days at Kurisa Moya and spend some memorable times birding with Paul who works with David Letsoalo. With poor weather and various meetings to get to, I literally had one hour on our first morning to get some birding in. Woodbush was definitely not on the cards, but the indigenous forest patch Msenge on the Kurisa Moya farm provided more than ample birding as I was to find out. Within 45 minutes of walking into the forest Paul had located and shown me Yellow-streaked Greenbul, two Black-fronted Bush-shrikes, Chorister Robin-chat, a male Narina Trogon perched at a mere 4 to 5 meters away, Forest Canary, a horde of Olive Bush-shrikes, Grey Cuckooshrike, Sombre Greenbul, Terrestrial Brownbul, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Swee Waxbill, Olive Woodpecker and a run of an amazing amount of birds. We were visited by Samango Monkeys doing their early morning foraging in the trees.
A short trip to visit some guides at the Thabametsi/Georges Valley Canopy Tour was also very rewarding with Southern Double-Collared Sunbird, Cape Batis, Knysa Tauraco, Rufous-breasted Sparrowhawk and quick few other birds doing the fly-by. Birding via Canopy tour is highly recommended for the more adventurous of us. Jeremia and Moses the two bird guides have mastered their site admirably and are expanding their knowledge of the surrounding areas quickly with the support of David Letsoalo, their bird guide coach.
A visit down to the Tzaneen Country Lodge netted us African Cuckoo-hawk, Wahlbergs Eagle, Yellow-billed Kite and a few other good local species. Here we saw Sydwell Mkhari who is enjoying the lowveld birding and building his knowledge of the area around Northern Kruger. We then proceeded on to visit Idah at Sefapane Lodge at Phalaborwa and along the we picked up African Hawk-Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Purple Roller, Magpie Shrike, Grey Penduline Tit, our first Wood Sandpipers of year, a deluge of all the hornbills (yellow, red and grey), Dark Chanting Goshawk and Gabar Goshawk. We immediately noticed that the drought this winter has been particularly harsh (perhaps a dose of climate change added to the El Nino mix) with vast tracts of Mopane Shrubveld severely overgrazed and quite a few cattle looking rather forlorn and wishing for greener times.
We returned to the mountain heights and struck out to obtain a long standing bogey bird of mine. The Short-clawed Lark, which thanks to the directions provided by David Letsoalo and Lisa Martes at Kurisa Moya we managed to find on our second attempt. Admittedly my first one took us to the wrong place and the cattle and various members of the community looked at me quizzically. My iShiVenda is not particularly strong so back to David we went and under the guidance of the master we eventually made our way to Mamabolo grasslands where we picked up the Short-clawed Lark within a few minutes of our arrival. David’s inputs were impeccable and we enjoyed excellent viewing of this bird. With much sad feelings at our departure we headed deep into Venda, stopped at Thouyandou picked up Samson Mulaudzi and drove into deep territory amongst those magnificent Soutpansberg mountains and eventually arrived at the famous Golwe-Vhurivhuri camping and picnic site.
Once again the lads were indefatigable and we had saw a pair of Narina Trogon, Pink-throated Twinspots, Collared Sunbird, Cape Batis and tons of birds around us. Our trip through the community area was really enlightening, local Venda people directed us to the Golwe site with many-a-smile and grin. Christopher is an absolute gem and I would really recommend spending time there with him. The facilities are absolutely lovely and the Twinspots and Grey Waxbills literally hopping about the campsite, jostling for space alongside more common birds.
We then pushed on through the normal road through the mountains to Mhinga just outside the Punda Maria Gate and we spent a night at the Punda Guest House, a bird-friendly-establishment run by a local entrepreneur. Self-catering and it was really lovely. In the late afternoon on our way there we got a really diverse range of Fire-finches and a pair of Orange-winged Pytilia an absolutely awesomely beautiful bird. We also were blessed with Retz’s Helmetshrike in the mixed habitats flying in-between a Baobab and open woodland. It was a wonderful day to say the least.
The next day took us into Kruger on our way to visit Phanny the guide based at Shingwedzi. For a change the northern area seemed in a better state than further South. Reminiscent of the drought of the early 90’s. We managed to get Arnot’s Chat outside the Punda Maria Camp and we headed South to Shingwedzi. Seeing lots of Elephants on the move.
Good birding although often sparse and almost unbirdlike for the Kruger. We saw more bird parties than single species sitings. Picking up the usual Kruger bird mix and we noted that very few migrants had made their way back yet. It was a quiet time for the Park. Red-crested Korhaan, African Hawk-Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Red-headed Finches, Brown-headed Parrots and lots of Wahlbergs Eagles already nesting on a variety of Baobabs, Jackalberries and so on. We noted that most White-backed Vulture chicks were well on to the way of fledgling and leaving their natal nests. The raptors seemed healthy as ever with some decent Bateleur viewing all-round.
Our entry to Shingwedzi was a welcome stop and there we spent some great time with Phanny who is doing very well, but the Palm-thrush is not present, but he seems to be high-spirited as ever. Shingwedzi was great, we picked up allot of African Mourning Dove right in the camp and around it. The usual Natal and Swainsons Spurfowl were abundant with a sprinkling of Crested Francolin too. We had a fantastic sighting of 4 Southern Ground Hornbills at perch tucked away from some marauding Lions. We managed to get some decent views of all their legs and did not see any rings and presumed that this was a fully-wild flock. No reintroductions apparent there. We had some lovely bird-mammal feeding associations with Dwarf Mongoose assisting some Natal Francolin and Greater-Blue-Eared Starlings with a few snacks.
Our trip was beginning to draw to a close but we enjoyed our drive out of the Kruger heading to Phalaborwa via Mopani and we picked up Lappett-faced and Hooded Vulture plus a few other mixed savannah birds.
A thanks must go to all the great guides for their input and energy in the course of our time and stay with them. To those of you that have an active interest in the guides development you will be pleased to know that quite a few are ready for their Level 3 regional assessments and even a couple for their Level 4 assessments. Not only that but many of the guides are contributing to education and schools projects as well as environmental awareness and site conservation initiatives. For those of you heading into the Park and the region I really do recommend considering a Mountain, Forest to Savanna combination. A big thank you must go to Lisa at Kurisa Moya and Grace their wonderful chef, Paul as well as David. To Samson, Christopher, Idah, Sydwell, Jeremia, Moses, Phanny and so many others. A big ngiyabonga from myself and the BirdLife team. For those of you interested in more specifics on my trip, on localities, guiding information please do not hesitate to contact Brenden Pienaar on taita@birdlife.org.za or check out the www.birdingroutes.co.za website or email me and I will assist you where I can.
Kind regards
Ashwell Glasson
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