Atlasville, 1 November 2006
Just back this evening from the Kalahari. I had returned to the Hotazel field camp after 3 weeks away to find that the old woodpecker nest-holes in the camelthorn above my trailer that I had hoped might be occupied by the African Scops-Owl had been re-inhabited by a pair of Bennett’s Woodpecker. A pair of Cape Glossy Starlings that seem to think the camelthorn belongs to them, chase the poor male unmercifully whenever he puts in an appearance.
On the owl front, though, as I was unpacking my bakkie on arrival, the call of Red-billed Buffalo Weavers caused me to look up into the camelthorn and see that the weavers were starting to rebuild all but one of last summers’ abandoned nests – the other already had an occupant! A Southern White-faced Scops-Owl had found itself a very cosy roost,
The summer migrants are arriving. In the first half hour after my arrival I’d already chalked up one Jacobin, two African and three Black Cuckoos without even moving from the trailer! I’d also heard a Diederik. I’ve played cat and mouse with the cuckoos for a week trying to get photos – it’s actually more like Tom & Jerry, because I now know how poor Tom feels. A whole week and only one photo to show for it (the only one I was able to get!). It shows, well it’s a large cuckoo, but not even good enough to tell if it’s an African or Black! Unlike the smaller cuckoos and even the Jacobin and Levaillant’s, the Black and African sit inside the tree canopy and not perched in the open, so when you can see it, well it can see you. It then takes off with a giddy weaving flight around trees and it is usually only when it starts to call again that you re-locate it – not just a few trees away but more likely a few hundred metres.
European Bee-Eaters, Common Swifts (lifer) and Barn Swallows are everywhere and I’ve seen my first Spotted Flycatchers and Dusky Larks of the summer. The joys of the breeding season are also upon us and I’ve added both Desert Cisticola and Eastern Clapper Lark due to their display antics to my Hotazel list (now at 116, or 50% of all birds recorded for the ¼° sheet). Three weeks away and the Black-chested Prinia are now just that!
Some 63mm of rain in the past few weeks has transformed the winter veld and the camelthorns are sporting their ‘yellow pom-pom’ flowers. Several bird species that were absent or only poorly represented through the winter are now proving very common, such as Black-throated Canary, Speckled Pigeon and Red-headed Finch. The opposite is also true, with no Black-faced Waxbills in evidence, presumably moving back to drier climes, and the pairs of Short-toed Rock Thrush and African Pygmy Falcon that were regular visitors to the exploration yard are nowhere to be seen.
I’ve added photographs of several more species – Northern Black Korhaan, both on ground and in flight, Pale Chanting Goshawk, Common Scimitarbill, Long-billed Crombec, Groundscraper Thrush and Red-breasted Swallow.
The young of several species are now conspicuous, particularly the Swallow-tailed Bee-Eater. A pair of South African Shelduck with 7 juveniles has set up home at the main waterhole. In the same vein, the Springbok are starting to lamb. I had not before realised just how small a newly-born Springbok is. This has led to an increased number of Black-backed Jackal sightings – their entree now being freely available! The smaller mammals are now to be seen everywhere, especially the Cape Ground Squirrel, and I have had several sightings of Yellow Mongoose. The giraffe have finally allowed me to get a few photos too – well 2 of the 4 anyway.
The waterholes are swarming with insects. Two butterflies are especially abundant, Pea Blue and Zebra White. Potter wasps are out in their numbers collecting mud for their nests with Delta emarginatum and Delta lepeleterii prominent.
On 26th October my mobile phone rang. It was the farm manager out doing his regular checks of the boundary fence, water pumps, etc. He said I should stop whatever I was doing and gave me directions to where he was, hinting that there was something special he knew I’d want to see. This led to my “shot of a lifetime” – a Pangolin, which I have not seen before outside the pages of a book or a David Attenborough wildlife documentary!
Neil Gray
P.S. I wrote most of this 2 nights ago and just to make me eat my words, on the way off the farm yesterday morning, I got a very long shot of an African Cuckoo sitting out in the open on top of a dead tree!
