Atlasville, 16 June 2007
Got back yesterday from a weekend in Hazyview followed by four nights at Mopani Camp in the Kruger Park, with a trip list of 189, not too shabby for mid-winter.
The Hazyview weekend, when we were based in a riverside chalet at Hazyview Cabanas, turned up a few unexpected “goodies”, with Grey Cuckooshrike, Mountain Wagtail, Black Saw-wing, Lesser Honeyguide and an amazing number of Ashy Flycatcher prominent among these. I saw more Saw-wings here over the Sabie River at one time than I have seen in all previous sightings of this one put together. Just two walks of only 500 m along the riverside track at the resort chalked up 41 species! The pair of Mountain Wagtail was seen at the resort on rocks in the middle of the Sabie River just 2 hours after I had seen another pair on rocks in the Blyde River on the Vaalhoek road out of Pilgrim’s Rest! A combination of Hazyview and God’s Window turned up seven different sunbird species within 2 hours – Collared, Amethyst, Marico, Greater Double-collared, Southern Double-collared, White-bellied and Malachite. Others seen here that we would not see in the Kruger Park were Pale Flycatcher and African Green Pigeon.
The highlight was the sighting just a few minutes after dawn on the Saturday morning (just before we left for a day trip into the Kruger Park) of a medium-sized raptor that swooped through the trees in front of our chalet and disappeared into the forest on the far bank of the river, leaving me with a feeling that this was “something special”. I did not get a good look at it, noting that it had been uniformly dark seeing it from above, had a longish tail and put me in mind of a large falcon, and just hoped that I would see it again. Well, the following morning at about the same time, there was a repeat performance, with the bird gliding past below me through the trees. It did not seem to flap its wings at all. This time I confirmed the uniform dark (black or brown I couldn’t tell which) colour of the upper parts and noted very sharply tapering wings. At about 4:30pm on the Sunday afternoon (sunset 5:10pm) as I was on the river path, the same(?) bird swooped across the Sabie River from out of the large trees on the resort side and shot up into the thick canopy of the 10-15 m high creeper-festooned trees of the indigenous forest on the other bank. Within a few minutes a call began emanating from that part of the canopy, a rather high-pitched single note about 2 per second for perhaps 5 seconds, then repeating after 10-20 second intervals. This would be interrupted every now and then by a raucous squawking for 5-10 seconds. I got the impression that there might have been a pair with call and answer some 10-15 m apart. I waited until it was too gloomy to see anything more but it did not re-appear. On returning to the chalet I searched my books for likely candidates and played their calls from the Roberts Multimedia CD. I was really surprised to see that the call almost certainly belongs to a Bat Hawk! If so, a lifer. (P.S. I’ve since had confirmation that a Bat Hawk is seen on a regular basis at that spot)
On a day trip to the Kruger Park from Hazyview on Saturday 9th we concentrated our efforts on the southern part of the Park, as we’d be exploring the central and northern parts while based at Mopani Camp. Entering the Park at Phabeni Gate we headed south to Pretoriuskop, then via the Voortrekker Road to Afsaal, where I got good photos of African Wattled Lapwing. Then we cut across to the S114, turning north to the Biyamiti Weir where a Dark Chanting Goshawk posed in a dead tree. Then it was the Bume Road to the Mpondo Dam encountering along the way a family group of Southern Ground Hornbill, adults and one juvenile. Closer to Mpondo Dam we had nice sightings of Shikra as well as Purple Roller. The rest of the day up to Lower Sabie, on to Skuzuza and back to Phabeni, passed with little exceptional in our bird and game sightings. Even Lake Panic Hide was unusually quiet.
As for the Kruger Park leg of the trip I was surprised to see both Grey-backed Sparrowlark and Larklike Bunting south of Balule, as I was certain that this was out of range for both of these species. The latter birds were on their own in a group of +/-10. The following day I picked up more Larklike Bunting just north of Letaba, again in a small group. The day after that I watched a mixed group drinking at the Malopenyana waterhole about 15km north of Letaba. The group comprised +/- 200 Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark, +/- 100 Red-billed Quelea, +/- 50 Larklike Bunting, about 20 Red-headed Finch (also a rarity for the Kruger), half a dozen Quailfinch and a few Yellow-fronted Canary. The birds perched on all available low bush space around the waterhole and came down to drink 20-30 at a time. Later that same day I came across yet more Larklike Bunting (+/- 50) in company with well over 100 Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark. It seems that due to the exceptionally dry conditions on the Highveld there has been a Larklike Bunting irruption into the Lowveld. It also struck me as unusual to see such large flocks of Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark, perhaps also a response to the very dry conditions.
Senegal Lapwing made my list for my fourth successive Kruger trip – definitely seems a lot more abundant recently (or maybe I’m just more observant!), while another bird that seemed unusually widespread was Brown-headed Parrot, seen and/or heard at numerous spots from Pretoriuskop (during the Hazyview weekend) all the way up to Crooke’s Corner.
We were based at Mopani Rest Camp and for those that might not have been to Stapelkop Dam, a 20km drive due west of Mopani, fit it into your itinerary next time you are in that part of the Park. During the summer months you have a good chance of seeing Collared Pratincole there. One certain tick at any time of year for those that might require this lifer is the Mosque Swallow. There is a resident group that roosts on one of the big dead trees in the middle of the dam, right next to a tree in which a Fish Eagle was building a nest. Drive straight there from Mopani as the camp gates open and you might catch them still roosting in the tree, but as soon as the first sun’s rays strike the surface of the dam the swallows begin darting above the water catching insects. I was fortunate on this trip also to get a good view there of the nomadic Greater Painted Snipe – a female.
Don’t ignore the short Mopani in-camp trail starting below the lookout at the cafeteria. In a matter of 45 minutes I chalked up Yellow-breasted Apalis, Chinspot Batis, Long-billed Crombec, Green-backed Camaroptera, Mocking Cliff-Chat, Yellow-bellied Eremomela, Golden-tailed Woodpecker, Shikra, Common Waxbill, Blue Waxbill, Red-billed and African Firefinch, Orange-breasted Bush-Shrike, Yellow-billed Oxpecker (on a pair of buffalo just outside the fence), Red-faced Cisticola, Tawny-flanked Prinia and numerous waterbirds, including my first ever Kruger Park Squacco Heron (also I am told not a common bird in the Park).
On Monday 11th we entered the Park at Paul Kruger Gate and first stop just 10 km inside the gate was our favourite game hide in the Kruger, at Lake Panic. We got the Kruger list off to a great start with Lesser Honeyguide, Chinspot Batis, Collared Sunbird, Golden-tailed Woodpecker, Tawny-flanked Prinia and Grey-headed Bushshrike in the bushes and trees around the water’s edge, and Black-crowned Night Heron, Great Egret, African Jacana, African Darter, White-faced Whistling Duck, Egyptian Goose, Water Thick-knee, Black Crake and Malachite Kingfisher in or close to edge of the water. Leaving Lake Panic we bypassed Skukuza camp, crossing the Sabie and Sand Rivers on the low-water bridges and taking the Maroela Loop before rejoining the main tar road to Tshokwane. The Maroela Loop gave us a good sighting of a perched Bateleur, definitely my favourite eagle in the Park. Before we got to Tshokwane we called in at Leeupan where we added Bearded Scrub Robin, and Silolweni Dam. At the Silolweni turn-off from the tar road we saw Burchell’s Starling and a single Lappet-faced Vulture with several White-backed Vultures. Perhaps they were anticipating that they could shortly be in business as when we pulled into the dam viewpoint a very alert lioness was standing on the dam wall. She disappeared behind trees, obviously stalking, so we were unable to witness whatever drama might be playing out, or even how many more were in that lion pride. Hippos played in the dam oblivious to the close proximity of the lions.
We added the always present Greater Blue-eared Starling and African Palm Swift at Tshokwane Picnic Spot before continuing up the main tar road to Satara. We were first at Satara in 1982 and the restaurant/cafeteria area has changed very little in all that time. The same mix of birds is still present with Greater Blue-eared Starling, Lesser Masked Weaver, Red-billed Buffalo Weaver and Southern Grey-headed Sparrow all vying with each other to be the ones to get the crumbs dropped from the tables, and maybe then losing their prize to a Southern Red-billed Hornbill. Further out on the lawns you should usually see African Hoopoe (now regarded as a sub-species of Eurasian Hoopoe) and Groundscraper Thrush. From Satara we headed east on the S100, probably one of the best roads for lion in the Park. Indeed a few years ago I took a visiting Russian geologist along this road and we saw 3 separate prides within 30 minutes. No such luck today though as we reached the end of the road lionless and turned north heading for Olifants Camp. This is another camp that has changed very little since we first stayed there in 1982. The main feature at Olifants, which sits atop a hill, is the magnificent view along the Olifants River from the lookout below the restaurant, where you can usually see elephants somewhere along the long visible stretch of river. Bit of a surprise today was a Yellow-bellied Greenbul hopping around under the thatched roof of the lookout, paying little attention to all the people milling around. Taking the river road to Letaba we came across a rather large Nile Crocodile basking on the far bank of the Olifants with two large hippos in close attandance. From Letaba we took the main tar road north to Mopani, where we arrived after a long day within 30 minutes of the gate closing time, but not before we had stopped near the Middelvlei Waterhole for a pair of Secretarybird.
I started the morning of the 12th with a pre-breakfast drive out to Stapelkop Dam (mentioned above) and then as we have done several times in the past we did an anti-clockwise circular drive from Mopani up to Nyawutsi, Dipeni and along the Shingwedzi River to Shingwedzi Camp, returning to Mopani via the Capricorn Loop. The drive up to Dipeni was rather devoid of anything much of interest given the dry winter conditions. At the low-water bridge across the Shingwedzi just outside the camp we saw a Nile Monitor, and in the camp itself added Mourning Collared Dove, Crested Barbet, African Grey Hornbill, both male and female, and Greater Blue-eared Starling. Highlight of the day was near the Dzombo West waterhole on the return leg when we came across an elephant carcass on the side of the road with White-backed Vulture and Lappet-faced Vulture in attendance. Speaking to one of the rangers later it seems that this elephant had died from natural causes and had not been poached or taken down by lions. At the last waterhole before Mopani we watched Chapman’s Zebra taking turns to drink.
The next day it was back south to the Letaba area, taking in Letaba Camp itself and the Engelhard Dam, a dam on the Letaba River, where another one of those Kruger game hides with a superb panoramic view can be found – Matambeni Hide. Here I photographed Sabota Lark, as well as Waterbuck and a Cape Buffalo sleeping so close to the hide you could almost lean out and touch it. Two groups of elephant could be seen on the far bank of the dam, whether separate herds or not I don’t know. Heading back north we turned off to the Malopenyana waterhole where we saw Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark and Larklike Bunting (mentioned above). From Malopenyana for the first time we decided to take the road running to the Giriyondo Gate on the border with Mozambique where you can cross into the Mozambiquan part of the trans-frontier park. This gate was officially opened only 18 months ago. We just went as far as the border gate and turned around and called in at the Makhadzi Picnic Spot, Kruger’s newest, which has an Information Centre on the Transfrontier Park. Here we added Brown Snake Eagle and a Pearl-spotted Owlet on a tree in the picnic area. Returning to Mopani we saw Crested Francolin on the Tsendze Loop and we were back at our chalet in time for me to fit in a walk around the in-camp trail (mentioned above).
No extended stay at Mopani is complete without a drive right up to the north of the Park – and this does require a full day. So on our final full day in the Park this is exactly what we did, keeping to the main tar road all the way to the turn to the Pafuri Picnic Spot, calling in on the way at the Olifantsbad Pan, Shingwedzi Camp, the Nkovakulu and Boyela waterholes and Babalala Picnic Spot. This is a long day trip from Mopani so we missed out Punda Maria Camp to avoid time pressures later. We returned via the same route with a detour from the tar road along the Mphongolo Loop north of Shingwedzi. We added Arrow-marked Babbler at Babalala, Burchell’s Coucal on the main road close to the Punda Maria turn-off, Southern Crested Guineafowl, White-fronted Bee-eater, Meves’s Starling, White-crested Helmetshrike and Purple-crested Turaco near Pafuri, and Striped Kingfisher and a solitary Spotted Hyena on the return leg.
On the final morning, with a long drive home ahead of us, we stuck to the main tar roads, heading down to Letaba Camp and then the direct route to Phalaborwa Gate. Nothing new was added to our trip list.
