A little positive news for all you. Today BirdLife South Africa with the superb expertise of Linda McClure from JASA, the Junior Achievement South Africa NGO launched the first day of the tourism entrepreneur training programme, helping to bridge the gap in basic business and entrepreneur skill development for our local bird guides. Guides from both the Southern KZN and Zululand Birding Routes travelled up to Wakkerstroom over the course of the weekend. From far afield as Bulwer and the famous Marutswa Board Walk with its well-established Cape Parrots to the famous Ongoye Forest team championing the Green Barbet and Zululand.
Their first day involved engaging pressing debates centred around responsible tourism, bird conservation and community issues such as traditional medicinal harvesting. Quite a rich and interactive first day one might say. Our varied sessions were often interrupted by the antics of the foraging Bokmakierie’s around the training room, the diverting chatter of the Pied Starlings and the various birds that caught our interest as we delved into such key issues.
The guides popped off to research and do some ground work on what kind of tourism ventures are operating in the town for their business planning and market research activities as part of their programme. In order to ensure they received a warm and hospitable reception we caught up with various business owners to prepare them for the visits by our learners tomorrow. It was lovely to see that both André and Kristi who manage the centre have been true ambassadors for BirdLife South Africa and its centre. Townsfolk were friendly and engaging and it seems that old Wakkerstroom charm is still there and thriving.
We ended our afternoon with a wetland birding walk. As usual we were not disappointed. A pair of Grey-Crowned Crane flew in, calling ponderously before they landed delighting us with their proximity and their natural grace. A male Black-bellied Bustard joined the party declaring his availability far-and-wide with much gusto, with his little pop at the end of his call bringing much mirth and enjoyment. A juvenile Black Stork was grooming itself rather nonchalantly towards the Oude Stasie road and we had a terribly humourous view of a pair of Yellow Mongoose searching for nesting birds, only to be collectively pummelled by a flock of Pied Starlings who then promptly handed over their duties to a pair of very accurate Pied Kingfishers who seemed to be quite fearless and finally an African Marsh Harrier adult which the Yellow Mongooses seem to take rather more seriously. On recognising the more threatening harrier they literally turned tail, quickly raised their tails and put on some speed, which even a Cheetah might have been proud of and made as much distance as possible between them and the rather relaxed harrier. That was definitely a first for me in mammal-bird interactions.
On the migratory note, there are a few Barn Swallows lurking around, mainly skimming over the wetland in the late afternoon. Our biggest highlight though undoubtedly was seeing the arrival of a fairly large number of Banded Martins whose plumage was lustrously lit by the late afternoon sun as they flew directly westwards. It’s good to have them back and no doubts the migrants are coming in rapidly. Enjoy the late Spring all.
Showing posts with label Wakkerstroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wakkerstroom. Show all posts
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
A restful yet invigourating stop
Dear All,
Our last stop at Wakkerstroom with André Steenkamp and Kristi Garland has been absolutely great. The Barn Swallows are back and seem to be growing in numbers here. We had several sightings of them flying into the reed beds to roost at Sunset. We also noted the arrival of Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper and a Little Stint at the Wakkerstroom wetlands. The paleartic migrants are beginning to match their afro-tropical cousins and are inbound earnestly. Our late afternoon birding yesterday at the wetlands was brilliant, as only Wakkerstroom can deliver. We had African Snipe, a reed bed quartering pair of African Marsh Harriers causing some fuss for their intended prey, a range of ducks and one pair of South African Shelduck, always a lovely sighting for us more easterly birders.
African Rail did a little display whilst nipping between clumps of reeds and our highlight of the day was a sunset interaction between a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron stalking a juicy looking Little Bittern (Payessi race) along a Willow tree overlooking the water’s edge. Our rather nervous Bittern did a slow creep away from the impending threat of the Night Heron who did its very best to look incognito, but was rather unsuccessful. When it got too close for the Bitterns sense of survival it dashed off flying across the road and settled in a stand of reeds in its typical upturned ankle posture watching for reprisals from the now forlorn Night Heron.
Most birds are breeding and we witnessed a few matings of Coots and Ducks. The Wakkerstroom Centre itself is lovingly developing into a new refreshed look under André and Kristi’s care and visitors to the Centre will enjoy the changes no doubts. The surrounding vegetation and fields are a mix of recently burned patches and flush emerald green meadows. The winter rains have certainly ensured a good start to the Spring here.
Kind regards
Ashwell Glasson
Our last stop at Wakkerstroom with André Steenkamp and Kristi Garland has been absolutely great. The Barn Swallows are back and seem to be growing in numbers here. We had several sightings of them flying into the reed beds to roost at Sunset. We also noted the arrival of Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper and a Little Stint at the Wakkerstroom wetlands. The paleartic migrants are beginning to match their afro-tropical cousins and are inbound earnestly. Our late afternoon birding yesterday at the wetlands was brilliant, as only Wakkerstroom can deliver. We had African Snipe, a reed bed quartering pair of African Marsh Harriers causing some fuss for their intended prey, a range of ducks and one pair of South African Shelduck, always a lovely sighting for us more easterly birders.
African Rail did a little display whilst nipping between clumps of reeds and our highlight of the day was a sunset interaction between a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron stalking a juicy looking Little Bittern (Payessi race) along a Willow tree overlooking the water’s edge. Our rather nervous Bittern did a slow creep away from the impending threat of the Night Heron who did its very best to look incognito, but was rather unsuccessful. When it got too close for the Bitterns sense of survival it dashed off flying across the road and settled in a stand of reeds in its typical upturned ankle posture watching for reprisals from the now forlorn Night Heron.
Most birds are breeding and we witnessed a few matings of Coots and Ducks. The Wakkerstroom Centre itself is lovingly developing into a new refreshed look under André and Kristi’s care and visitors to the Centre will enjoy the changes no doubts. The surrounding vegetation and fields are a mix of recently burned patches and flush emerald green meadows. The winter rains have certainly ensured a good start to the Spring here.
Kind regards
Ashwell Glasson
Super Sefapane and Tremendous Taita Falcons
Dear All,
After our long trip back towards KZN, we stopped at Sefapane Lodge a Bird Friendly Establishment at Phalaborwa to see Idah, the local bird guide based there and see how she was doing. To our delight Sefapane’s bird list was really good and we managed to pick up on a few extra-birds that we dipped on in Kruger due to the dry-weather. The three dams and the lodge gardens were filled with birds and we managed to get African Mourning Dove, Brown-headed Parrot, Greater-blue Eared Starling, Groundscraper Thrush, Lesser Masked Weaver our first Dierderick Cuckoo of the season. Black Crake and White-faced Duck was also added to the tally. Idah is progressing well and will be taking the early morning bird walks around the lodge and thanks to Brenden Pienaar the Kruger to Canyons Project Manager also getting to know the birds and sites in and around the BaPhalaborwa area.
Evening calls by Scops Owl and the general bird viewing at the dams made for a welcome respite with an early morning cup of coffee to jump-start tired batteries. We proceeded on to JG Strydom tunnel for our longest leg of the trip, which would lead us down to Wakkerstroom via Blyderiver Canyon, Graskop, Sabie, White-river, Nelspruit, Barberton and Piet Retief. It makes for some rewarding back route driving through some spectacular countryside. We stopped at the Abel Erasmus Pass looking for Michael Kumako the local guide with no luck, but managed to track him down at home via cell-phone. Not wanting to disturb him we were going to push on and forego his services and catch up with him on our next training visit in a few weeks. Michael’s unflinching spirit and good nature won as over and we drove up to his home village and picked him up and returned to the site. He sacrificed one of his mornings off for us from his four children, he has two sets of twins unbelievingly, and judging from their fathers influence are fast on track to becoming hard-core Taita custodians themselves. Further conversations with other members of the community demonstrated how almost all adults and a good amount of teenagers knew about the Taita and its importance. That can only be ascribed to Michaels great work and ongoing commitment to the birds, the environment, the area and its people.
Amazingly, without his Bushnell Spotting Scope which is in Johannesburg for repairs, or binoculars he detected the male bird in under thirty seconds at arriving at the viewing site. The male bird was at perch scanning for its staple diet of Rock Martins high above us, but through binoculars and our scope we had lovely clean views of the bird. The birds are nesting and the female is currently out-of-sight unseen waiting for her regular meals to be dropped off by her attentive partner. Interestingly Michael had worked out the average numbers for successful strikes whilst they have been nesting. He witnessed 4 to 7 success strikes per day by the male bird. That is pretty impressive by any margin. Rock Martins feature the highest on the Taita’s diet according to Michael. Michael also showed us the nesting site which for obvious reasons we will not describe and if anyone was actually silly enough to attempt having a crack at it would no doubts be pulled off the mountain by angry stall vendors and local people and would probably conveniently disappear from life. For those passing through wanting to see the Taita’s try and ring Michael (079 261 1559) if you do not find him and check the second stand of stalls after the JG Strydom tunnel. Michael has a stand dead centre amongst the others, with a sign board donated by BirdLife Inkwazi and Bushnell Optics hanging from the roof. Michael also demonstrated his broad knowledge of all the birds in the Abel Erasmus Pass and we completed our pre-assessment planning with him. A short stop at the Blyde River Canyon was a lovely closure to those awe-inspiring mountains. Cape Vulture graced us with their poise and balanced flight and the sight of the Three Rondavels nestled against each other in the early afternoon light was spectacular.
Our journey on to Wakkerstroom was a fairly relaxed drive, although long but we noted the changes in the pasture and vegetation as it transitioned from dry and khaki to light green and eventually deep emerald at Wakkerstroom. Thank you must go to Michael Kumako, Idah, Nelke and Keith Macivar at Sefapane, Brenden Pienaar at Kruger to Canyons and André Steenkamp and Kristi Garland at Wakkerstroom for having us and for all their hospitality and hard work.
Kind regards
Ashwell Glasson
After our long trip back towards KZN, we stopped at Sefapane Lodge a Bird Friendly Establishment at Phalaborwa to see Idah, the local bird guide based there and see how she was doing. To our delight Sefapane’s bird list was really good and we managed to pick up on a few extra-birds that we dipped on in Kruger due to the dry-weather. The three dams and the lodge gardens were filled with birds and we managed to get African Mourning Dove, Brown-headed Parrot, Greater-blue Eared Starling, Groundscraper Thrush, Lesser Masked Weaver our first Dierderick Cuckoo of the season. Black Crake and White-faced Duck was also added to the tally. Idah is progressing well and will be taking the early morning bird walks around the lodge and thanks to Brenden Pienaar the Kruger to Canyons Project Manager also getting to know the birds and sites in and around the BaPhalaborwa area.
Evening calls by Scops Owl and the general bird viewing at the dams made for a welcome respite with an early morning cup of coffee to jump-start tired batteries. We proceeded on to JG Strydom tunnel for our longest leg of the trip, which would lead us down to Wakkerstroom via Blyderiver Canyon, Graskop, Sabie, White-river, Nelspruit, Barberton and Piet Retief. It makes for some rewarding back route driving through some spectacular countryside. We stopped at the Abel Erasmus Pass looking for Michael Kumako the local guide with no luck, but managed to track him down at home via cell-phone. Not wanting to disturb him we were going to push on and forego his services and catch up with him on our next training visit in a few weeks. Michael’s unflinching spirit and good nature won as over and we drove up to his home village and picked him up and returned to the site. He sacrificed one of his mornings off for us from his four children, he has two sets of twins unbelievingly, and judging from their fathers influence are fast on track to becoming hard-core Taita custodians themselves. Further conversations with other members of the community demonstrated how almost all adults and a good amount of teenagers knew about the Taita and its importance. That can only be ascribed to Michaels great work and ongoing commitment to the birds, the environment, the area and its people.
Amazingly, without his Bushnell Spotting Scope which is in Johannesburg for repairs, or binoculars he detected the male bird in under thirty seconds at arriving at the viewing site. The male bird was at perch scanning for its staple diet of Rock Martins high above us, but through binoculars and our scope we had lovely clean views of the bird. The birds are nesting and the female is currently out-of-sight unseen waiting for her regular meals to be dropped off by her attentive partner. Interestingly Michael had worked out the average numbers for successful strikes whilst they have been nesting. He witnessed 4 to 7 success strikes per day by the male bird. That is pretty impressive by any margin. Rock Martins feature the highest on the Taita’s diet according to Michael. Michael also showed us the nesting site which for obvious reasons we will not describe and if anyone was actually silly enough to attempt having a crack at it would no doubts be pulled off the mountain by angry stall vendors and local people and would probably conveniently disappear from life. For those passing through wanting to see the Taita’s try and ring Michael (079 261 1559) if you do not find him and check the second stand of stalls after the JG Strydom tunnel. Michael has a stand dead centre amongst the others, with a sign board donated by BirdLife Inkwazi and Bushnell Optics hanging from the roof. Michael also demonstrated his broad knowledge of all the birds in the Abel Erasmus Pass and we completed our pre-assessment planning with him. A short stop at the Blyde River Canyon was a lovely closure to those awe-inspiring mountains. Cape Vulture graced us with their poise and balanced flight and the sight of the Three Rondavels nestled against each other in the early afternoon light was spectacular.
Our journey on to Wakkerstroom was a fairly relaxed drive, although long but we noted the changes in the pasture and vegetation as it transitioned from dry and khaki to light green and eventually deep emerald at Wakkerstroom. Thank you must go to Michael Kumako, Idah, Nelke and Keith Macivar at Sefapane, Brenden Pienaar at Kruger to Canyons and André Steenkamp and Kristi Garland at Wakkerstroom for having us and for all their hospitality and hard work.
Kind regards
Ashwell Glasson
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