Atlasville, 3 January 2009
A new day and indeed a new year dawns. We are already up and looking forward to our morning game drive. On a trip like this you don’t want to miss any of the daylight hours unless you want to risk missing that potential ‘once in a lifetime sighting’.
Although the morning drive covered some new areas, particularly in the grassland to the west of the camp it was a very quiet morning. Despite ticking off 68 bird species there were few opportunities for good photos. In fact only 6 of the 68 – Bennett’s Woodpecker, my first female Knob-billed Duck and adult Bateleur, first sightings of Buffy Pipit and Little Bee-eater, and the ubiquitous Western Cattle Egret. Other sightings included Kori Bustard, Secretarybird, Wahlberg’s Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Common Buzzard, African Palm Swift, Rattling Cisticola and African Woolly-necked Stork. Also added along the way was this dung ball rolling Giant Flattened Dung Beetle.
Back at camp the Southern Brown-throated Weaver were very active, with one pair busy nest building. One bird that I have seen and heard every day in camp had eluded the camera up to now but finally I have photos of Grey-backed Camaroptera. From the game-viewing hide I watched a Zitting Cisticola with a pair of youngsters in attendance and had a fly-past by an immature Black-crowned Night Heron. I got views only of my 4th and 5th in-camp lifers, Red-headed Quelea and Swamp Boubou. On the reeds at the footbridge to the parking area I added Blue Basker dragonfly.
From a game-viewing perspective the afternoon drive was also fairly tame by comparison with the lion and wild dog experiences of the previous 2 days. We did though see a small herd of Greater Kudu that had a flock of Yellow-billed Oxpecker in close attendance. Good bird sightings were Collared Pratincole, Lesser Jacana, African Snipe, African Crake, Harlequin Quail and Double-banded Sandgrouse.
The drive was rounded off with the usual impressive sunset and our last chance for sundowner drinks at one of the pans close to camp. It may have been a day of ‘the usual suspects’ but I finished the day and started my 2009 bird list with a tally of 105 species.
