Atlasville – 9 November 2008
Back from another weekend in the Kruger Park but this time based at the Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge near Pilgrim’s rest, about 75 mins by road from the Phabeni Gate into Kruger. I did no birding at all at Crystal Springs as that driving time meant pre-dawn departures and late returns to the lodge, giving us two full day trips in the Park itself.
On Saturday morning we entered the Park at Phabeni Gate as the gates opened and headed along the S3 gravel road following the Sabie River to Paul Kruger Gate and on to Skukuza. On a rather damp, overcast day bird activity was poor, but I managed photos of Black-bellied Bustard, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Helmeted Guineafowl and Lesser Striped Swallow before we turned off to the Lake Panic Hide. I’ve said it before but this is my favourite viewing hide in the Park and I cannot drive past the access road, always drawn to it like a magnet. Today we were able to see Grey Heron, Little Heron, Goliath Heron, Pied Kingfisher, African Jacana, Egyptian Goose, Water Thick-knee, Black Crake and Lesser Masked Weaver from the hide, on and around the dam, but the usually teeming trees and bushes around the car park were devoid of any bird activity, presumably due to the weather.
At Skukuza camp we watched an opportunistic young Vervet Monkey snatch an apple from a picnic table and then sit taunting her victims by munching away at the apple while sitting on the rail only 5 m away.
Yes, the weather conditions were not great for photography, but I think now that I have been using a Canon for 2 years I have learned what is and is not possible and can be a bit more selective in what I photograph, rather than just shooting indiscriminately and hoping for the best. My volume of shots has gone down dramatically and hopefully the quality has improved and I have also greatly reduced the number of discarded images.
We followed the main tar road to Lower Sabie, stopping just short of the camp, as we always do, at the Sunset Dam. The water level was just about at maximum with some of the pull-off area under water. So unusually for the time of year no migrant waders such as Common Greenshank, Ruff or Common Sandpiper, which are usually seen here. Only the larger birds such as Yellow-billed Stork and Little Egret were in evidence, along with Yellow-billed Duck and Egyptian Goose.
After getting out of our vehicle in the main car park at Lower Sabie I noticed some activity in a nearby bush and got my first ever photos of Orange-breasted Bushshrike. Heading back past our vehicle on the way towards the cafeteria I noticed a bird flying up from my windscreen and then dropping back again. On closer inspection I found a male Marico Sunbird had taken a dislike to the other male invading his territory and was attacking his own reflection on the windscreen! At the cafeteria itself I added Lesser Masked Weaver and Village Weaver.
We crossed the Sabie River and headed north, eventually heading back towards Skukuza along the gravel Salitje Road where I added Lilac-breasted Roller and Little Bee-eater. These proved to be the last good photo opportunities of the day as we retraced our steps from Skukuza back to Phabeni Gate.
On Sunday morning we again entered early at Phabeni Gate, but rather than taking the river road to Paul Kruger Gate we took the most direct route to Skukuza, making sure that we stopped off at the Lake Panic Hide. The weather was the same as Saturday but there was a lot more activity around the car park with Black Cuckoo, White-browed Scrub Robin, Red-billed Firefinch, Brown-crowned Tchagra and Chinspot Batis all seen. Only one bird was photographed from the hide, a male Village Weaver, although all of the birds seen on Saturday were again spotted along with African Darter.
From Skukuza we crossed the Sabie River on the low-water causeway and headed for Tshokwane taking the Maroela Loop where I added Bateleur, Hooded Vulture, Wahlberg’s Eagle, Brown Snake Eagle, White-crested Helmetshrike and Burchell’s Coucal. Although we stopped at Leeupan, Mazithi Dam and Sweni on the way to Tshokwane and then on to Satara, because of the wet and lush veld conditions we had little expectation that we would see too much game coming to the waterholes, nor did we.
After lunch at Satara we decided to leave the Park at Orpen Gate, which gave us a much longer but quite scenic drive back to Crystal Springs. At the Nsemani Dam I added Wattled Starling and at the Bobbejaankrans lookout Green Wood Hoopoe. It was very much a day, indeed a weekend, of all the ‘usual suspects’, with no real outstanding sightings. We managed to get back to Crystal Springs just in time to take the one and only photo I took there all weekend, of a Cape Bunting.
Even taking into account the gloomy weather and lush vegetation I was still surprised to see a trip list of 120 birds.
