Atlasville, 20 Jun 2005
Following on from the success of the birding weekend undertaken by me and fellow members of the East Rand branch of the Witwatersrand Bird Club to the Underberg district of KwaZulu-Natal in November last year, another trip was organised. We have just returned from 5 nights in the far northern part of Limpopo Province along the borders with Botswana and Zimbabwe.
First overnight stop was the chalets/rondawels at Dongola Ranch west of the town of Messina (now Musina) and just east of the recently (24 Sep 2004) proclaimed Mapungubwe National Park. Having birded the route all the way up through the western part of Limpopo from Johannesburg we arrived late, just in time to watch the activity at the waterhole on this private game ranch.
Mapungubwe was created by the amalgamation of a number of privately owned game farms, but is still separated into eastern and western sections by the intervening Den Staat Farm, to which we headed the following morning to begin our birding. Biggest surprise was a flock of over-wintering Great White Pelican, more together in one place than I have seen in total over many years of birding, possibly the most I might ever see in one place. Also seen were Meves’s Starling and Tropical Boubou, which in South Africa are only present in this far northern Limpopo area. Another uncommon bird in most of South Africa and always good to see was Grey Crowned Crane. I also managed a lifer with Pearl-breasted Swallow.
From Den Staat we headed into the eastern section of Mapungubwe where a raised boardwalk at canopy level in the riverine forest takes you to a hide overlooking the Limpopo River across from Botwana just above the confluence with the Shashe River, which is the triple-point junction of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Here we picked up yet more Meves’s Starling, both Retz’s and White-crested Helmetshrike, White-bellied Sunbird, Southern Black Tit, Blue Waxbill, Green Wood Hoopoe and White-fronted Bee-eater, among others. At the Confluence Lookout we added Marico Flycatcher, Familiar Chat and my second lifer of the trip, Burchell’s Sandgrouse. At the main gate of the park on way back out to return to Dongola we were treated to a flock of Meyer’s Parrot.
A post-breakfast walk at Dongola the following morning, my birthday, turned up a birthday present lifer in Grey Penduline Tit and added to the trip list another of those ‘nice to see’ birds, Southern Pied Babbler. Our destination today is the Gundani Mutsiwa camp site in South Africa’s only patch of true miombo woodland, dominated by zebrawood (Brachystegia spiciformis), Mutsiwa in the local Venda language, or Msasa across the border in Zimbabwe. The campsite at Gundani is run and maintained by the local community and comprises cleared and well separated single tent sites and an ablution block. While pitching my tent I was treated to another two birthday presents, Bearded Scrub Robin and Pink-throated Twinspot, two of the miombo specials of this area.
The following day during more organised group birding we again saw Pink-throated Twinspot, and added two other local specials, Tambourine Dove and White-breasted Cuckooshrike. The latter was my first record for South Africa having only seen it previously in the Gweru are of Zimbabwe and during my Zambia trip in September last year (Victoria Falls and Chobe River blog in this section). Nice to see too were Jameson’s Firefinch, and Grey-headed and Orange-breasted Bushshrike. We dipped, however, on the big prize of Southern Hyliota.
Next day we drove to the Golwe-Vhurivhuri forest, which also has a local community campsite, where we added African Olive Pigeon, African Broadbill, Bar-throated Apalis, Eastern Nicator, Terrestrial Brownbul, Gorgeous Bushshrike (lifer), Crowned Hornbill and Scaly-throated Honeyguide (lifer). From here we headed to the Sagole Big Tree, an African Baobab (Adansonia digitata) where there is a colony of Mottled Spinetail. No spinetails to be seen, although we did add Acacia Pied Barbet, but what a baobab! A word of advice – don’t bring up the rear in a convoy on gravel roads after a couple of months without rain!
After decamping from Gundani the final day was to be a long detour back to Johannesburg. When you are so close to the Kruger Park it makes no sense not to pay a visit so we headed via Pafuri Gate to the Pafuri picnic site on the Luvuvhu River, then down the main tar road to Punda Maria camp and out of the Park again at Punda Maria Gate, with still a good 7 hours back to Johannesburg. In the Pafuri area we added Long-billed Crombec, Bearded Woodpecker, Cardinal Woodpecker, Red-billed Firefinch, Burnt-necked Eremomela, White-browed Scrub Robin, Red-capped Robin-Chat, Pearl-spotted Owlet and Southern Boubou, while Punda Maria camp turned up Collared Sunbird, Scarlet-chested Sunbird and White-throated Robin-Chat.
Not a bad species total for the trip either, clocking in at 203.
