Atlasville, 2 March 2008
Just back from a week away, having taken up our timeshare week at Sobhengu Lodge on the Nibela Peninsula at the northern end of Lake St Lucia from 22-29 February, for the first time since 2004. That year saw the level of Lake St Lucia at the lowest level in living memory and it had completely dried up at Sobhengu. It has taken 6 years to recover to a level still somewhat short of the 2002 mark, but at least there is water at the lodge again. Sobhengu is situated in a nature reserve that borders the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park (now iSimangaliso Wetland Park) a World Heritage Site.
Our chalet is the most remote from the main complex, nestled in thick sand forest, and it requires a 4×4 vehicle to negotiate the track to the chalet. Even then parking is some 100 m from the chalet and access to the chalet is via a raised boardwalk. There is, however, a shortcut via boardwalk to the main complex. Indeed these boardwalks are everywhere at Sobhengu due to this area having one of the highest snake densities in South Africa – and we have seen several.
Not long after our arrival on the first day I heard a call emanating from the treetops next to our chalet and it took me no time at all to locate a Sombre Greenbul. This must be its regular haunt as it turned up just after sunrise and just before sunset every day.
On the first two full days I hit the walking trails, of which there are a good network here at Sobhengu, with Canon and binoculars at the ready, while my wife relaxed with her latest Kindle reads. I only had to go as far as our braai area to tick Black-bellied Starling and not too much further to add White-throated Robin-Chat and Crowned Hornbill. They turned out to be the only easy photos of the weekend as all of the other birds gave only fleeting or partially obscured views. These included Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher, Pink-throated Twinspot, Rudd’s Apalis, Gorgeous Bushshrike, Southern Red-fronted Tinkerbird and Square-tailed Drongo among others. I had a little more success with the insects and spiders, managing photos of Yellow Pansy, Common Orange Tip, Mamba Swordtail and Citrus Swallowtail butterflies, as well as Red-legged Golden Orb-web Spider and Common Bark Spider.
On the 25th January word hit the birding webpages that a Pacific Golden Plover, a rare vagrant to southern Africa, had been seen at Muzi Pans some 40 km north of Hluhluwe in northern Zululand. I kept my fingers firmly crossed that it would still be there during this trip as I had arranged one of the local bird guides to take me to the Muzi Pans and the Lower Mkhuze section of Mkhuze Game Reserve on 25th February. Luck was with me and exactly one month to the day after the initial sighting, with the assistance of Bheki, the local guide, I not only saw but managed to take close-range photos of the Pacific Golden Plover. That was my second lifer of the day as Bheki had already located a Pel’s Fishing-Owl for me on the banks of the Mkuze River some 3km to the south-west. The Pel’s was not so accommodating but I did manage a few shots through a lot of intervening foliage. Muzi Pans also turned up a Collared Pratincole, Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and Pink-backed Pelican.
The following day we took a drive down to Hluhluwe and across to the coast, striking north to Cape Vidal, where the best sighting in the sand forest there was a Tambourine Dove. On the drive back southwards I turned off to Mission Rocks, which proved a good move as I picked up my third lifer of the trip with Sanderling. Overall a good day’s birding but apart from the two birds already mentioned, nothing too unusual. Returning to Sobhengu we had a family of Vervet Monkey in the trees around the braai area. We inadvertently left open the door of the chalet – you are warned to keep the door closed – and a rather cheeky Vervet took the opportunity to make off with our pack of bread rolls from the kitchen!
Wednesday was a drive around the Mkhuze Game Reserve. The gem of Mkhuze, and one of my top 3 game-viewing hides in South Africa, is the KuMasinga Hide. A long enclosed walkway takes you from the parking area to the hide, which is built out over the waterhole so that whether you are seated along one of the sides of the hide or at the front you still command a view of about half of the water’s edge around the waterhole. Spend some time here and you are sure to see a good variety of game, not to mention birds. Peering through a gap in the screen along the walkway as we went into the hide I found myself almost eye to eye with a Purple-crested Turaco, while on the water’s edge flocks of Blue Waxbill and Ring-necked Dove came down to drink. Other sightings here included Narina Trogon, Little Sparrowhawk, Little Bee-eater, Brown Scrub Robin and Violet-backed Starling. It was the constant stream of animals coming down to drink that kept us riveted for almost 2 hours – Chacma Baboon, Impala, Nyala, Blue Wildebeest, Burchell’s Zebra, White Rhinoceros and Common Warthog. The last two both put a great show with a good old wallow in the mud. Away from KuMasinga we were fortunate to have one of those all too rare these days sightings of Black Rhinoceros and Yellow-billed Stork flying over Nsumo Pan. Other good sightings were Southern Crested Guineafowl, Pink-throated Twinspot, Long-billed Crombec, Southern Black Tit, White-crested Helmetshrike and Eastern Golden Weaver. Returning to Sobhengu I still had time to add another 2 butterflies to the list – Green-banded Swallowtail and Constantine’s Swallowtail.
On the morning of the final full day I drove to the floodplains of the Mkuze River Estuary, where the Mkuze River flows into Lake St Lucia. Here I added Caspian Tern, Grey-headed Gull, Pink-backed Pelican, African Swamphen, Yellow-billed Egret, African Marsh Harrier, Yellow-throated Longclaw and undoubtedly the birds of the day, a pair of Rosy-throated Longclaw, a regional special. In the afternoon I again tackled some of the trails in the sand forest at Sobhengu, adding some more regional specials including Grey, Olive and Neergaard’s Sunbirds and Dark-backed Weaver, as well as Southern Yellow White-eye. While relaxing back at the chalet just before sunset we had a visitor – a Burchell’s Zebra had decided to walk along the boardwalk.
A trip total of 186 for the week helped my 2008 species list to 331, so I’m off to a good start, still trying to reach 500 in a calendar year for the first time.
