Atlasville, 19 Jan 2007

My wife and I have just returned from our annual week away at Ngwenya Lodge, near Komatipoort in Mpumalanga province. Ngwenya is only 12km and a 15-minute drive from the Crocodile Bridge entrance gate to the Kruger National Park, so we spent only one day at Ngwenya and made five day trips into the Kruger Park.

We had varied weather, with the mercury hitting 37˚C on one day, coupled with high humidity, while another day was overcast with intermittent drizzle. Neither day was conducive to good birding, but this was more than made up for by sightings of the 4-legged kind.

It is that time of year when the young of many species are quite prominent, such as Chapman’s Zebra, Southern Warthog, Vervet Monkey, whether at play or clinging to mother, and (African Bush) Elephant. We always get huge enjoyment watching elephant herds as there is so much going on, the interaction between adults and the younger members of the herd remind us so much of the human parent/child relationship. This youngster was definitely having a “Wait for me” moment. We could sit for hours watching elephants, whereas with lions you could sit for hours watching them watching you, or worse still, sleeping. This lion and lioness demonstrate what I mean. Others that posed for the camera were Steenbok, Bushbuck, Greater Kudu, Cape Buffalo, Spotted Hyena, Cape Hippopotamus on our first day and again on the second day at the same hide, and White Rhinoceros, one of which had just being wallowing in mud. Impala are now separated into two types of herd – females and young with the dominant male, and all-male herds of the younger and weaker rams. The latter seem to spend all their time and energy sparring, good practice for trying to become the dominant male next season.

On our last day in the Park we picked up all of the Big 5 before 8am leaving us wondering just what else might be in store. Three cheetah provided the answer to that one. As two of them cleverly separated an impala ram from the rest of the herd, the third lay in wait and as the impala was shepherded into the perfect ambush, pounced only 50m from our vehicle. Luck was on the side of the impala, however, and it escaped with claw marks on its hindquarters.

Star of the show on our visits to the Lake Panic Hide was neither a bird nor a mammal but this rather striking Common Tigertail dragonfly.

Overall, the birding for the week away was not too bad, with a trip total of 191 species.

Highlights in the Kruger Park included –

• male Montagu’s Harrier (lifer) quartering the open grassland north of Lower Sabie
• a single Black Stork below the Vurhami bridge north of Crocodile Bridge
• a Lappet-faced Vulture at the remains of a lion(?) kill east of Phabeni Gate
• a White-headed Vulture on a nest near the Nhlanganzwane Dam north of Crocodile Bridge
• 3 pairs of Saddle-billed Stork at three widely separated locations on the same day
• a pair of African Black Duck foraging in the fast-flowing waters of the spillway of the Lower Sabie Weir
• 3 separate sightings of Senegal Lapwing
• Temminck’s Courser with a juvenile in the group in the short grass adjacent to the access road into the Nthandanyathi Hide, south of Lower Sabie
• a single Woolly-necked Stork at the Gardenia Hide near Malelane Gate
• a male Cardinal Woodpecker excavating a new nest-hole in one of the river-front Sycamore Figs at Skukuza rest-camp
• no less than 41 Grey Herons at the Mlondozi Dam north of Lower Sabie

In the Park I had also managed passable photos of Swainson’s Spurfowl, Crested Francolin, Chinspot Batis, Red-billed Oxpecker, Common Sandpiper, Magpie Shrike, Yellow-throated Longclaw, African Woolly-necked Stork, Marabou Stork, Egyptian Goose, Hamerkop, African Jacana, Wire-tailed Swallow, African Pied Wagtail, Tawny Eagle, Amur Falcon, Southern Carmine Bee-eater, Lesser Masked Weaver and Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill.

Of the summer visitors, Spotted Flycatcher numbers seemed well down on previous years, while Woodland Kingfishers and Amur Falcons appeared much more abundant than usual.

On my day to bird to bird the grounds at Ngwenya, juveniles of several species were very conspicuous. A rusty-spotted Southern Black Flycatcher sat in a tree right in front of our chalet and called persistently for mother’s attention, while another just hopped around, seemingly aimlessly, on the lawn beneath the tree. Juvenile African Paradise-Flycatchers seemed to be everywhere one looked, but the highlight was the juvenile White-browed Robin-Chats. The dawn and dusk chorus from the adult birds is one of the more enduring memories of Ngwenya, but this year is the first time that I have seen juveniles. At least three rusty-spotted individuals were present in the area behind the main game-viewing hide. On a walk to the hide at the southern end of the property I came across an adult feeding its youngster – a black-barred Red-Chested Cuckoo almost three times its size!!! One bird that I have not missed out on yet at Ngwenya is Terrestrial Brownbul, though it takes some finding as it skulks in the lower parts of the bushes. Another that I see more often than not at Ngwenya is Spectacled Weaver. The main game hide at Ngwenya is right next to our chalet, no more than 50 paces away, and a regular sighting in the riverine vegetation there is Red-faced Cisticola. Late in the afternoon when the bird activity is waning we sit in the hide and watch for the Kruger Park game coming down to drink at the Crocodile River. This time it was our favourite, a herd of elephant.

One of the great joys of our week at Ngwenya is to sit on the stoep of our river-front chalet and listen to the early morning calls. The Dark-capped Bulbul (now regarded as a sub-species of Common Bulbul) are the first to start up before dawn, followed in no particular order by Water Thick-Knee, Burchell’s Coucal and White-browed Robin-Chat often duetting. As the sun comes up and the birds become more active, listen out for Red-faced Cisticola, Woodland Kingfisher, Black-backed Puffback, Sombre Greenbul, African Fish-Eagle, Red-eyed Dove, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Kurrichane Thrush, White-browed Scrub-Robin, Crested Barbet, Black-collared Barbet, Grey-headed Bushshrike, Orange-breasted Bushshrike, Fork-tailed Drongo, Green-backed Camaroptera, Natal Spurfowl and the almost inevitable Hadada Ibis.