An African Birding Big Year

Looking to the heights of Lesotho

Okay so you know I am not Niall Perrins or Ian Sinclair. But I have challenged myself to reach a total of seeing 500 plus birds in Africa. Birds have to be seen and not just heard, also have to be seen within the continent of Africa. One small detail is that my list started on the 1^st of December. This was not to crook or get a head start on the year because the year period then ends on the first of December next year (2013). The reason for this was to try and maximize the list as I have time now to get some Highveld and other Southern African Birds before I head up to West Africa. In some ways I feel 500 is low and others very high and since I have never done something like this before I figure 500 is a good total…

Goliath heron doing a bit of preening

So I started my list off driving from Bethlehem through to Lesotho, the next day it rained from dawn till dusk, so the list did not start too well. But it got off to a good start the next day. I managed to get a the list going but did not manage anything special from the highlands… I did however see birds I had not for a long time. Birds like Pied Starlings, Lanner Falcons and even White-throated and Greater striped swallows (shows how much birding I get up to on the Highveld...). I manage to get my list above 30 while driving back to Bethlehem for a night stay over there. As my binoculars were still non-existent and I was lending a “good” pair from my folks, birding was frustrating and slow… you realize the importance of bino’s for birding. Interestingly enough while driving down to Lesotho, I spotted a Yellow-billed stork sitting next to an open pan that was not very full, a bird I did not expect to add to my list so early.

Back around Bethlehem I joined up with friends and we birded together and my list grew close to 100 birds. With all the pans full there was plenty of bird life on the pans. So specials for the year would have been the greater flamingo, white-winged terns, Maccoa duck, Cape shovelers, African shelduck, again birds not seen due to neglect from birding on the Highveld another reason to start the list in December. One new bird for me was the Red-throated wryneck, it was calling loud and clear, showing itself nicely for me to see and add to both my life list and the years list. One unusual was the White-browed sparrow-weaver… not characteristic of open grassland thus the small population I found was around the farm house trees.

Juvenile fish-eagle

After Bethlehem I had to go down to the Lowveld to fix up the house I had been staying in. This proved to be a great time to catch up on my bird list and the list soared close to 200 birds (my target before I left for Benin). It seems like I can exceed that as “Urban Bird’n” is still on the list of things to do this holiday. While working around the house the illusive yet always heard Red-chested cuckoo was added to my list along with Stierlings wren-warbler, Grey penduline-tit that often visit the buffalo-thorn tree near the stoep. A Trip through Kruger was great; specials there were the Brown-throated weaver, the large raptors and vultures (white-headed, White-backed and Lappet-face vultures). Birding got better as I was God blessed with a brand new pair of Binoculars from a good friend of mine, so now the haze has lifted and I look through a pair of Carl Zeiss 8X30 conquest Binoculars for my great birding challenge… A great thanks and appreciation for the gift goes out to him. To top it off and in an unusual spot a Cape vulture was seen flying across the road near the Machadadorp plaza… It was flying low over the road and heading north…

Pied kingfisher, can be seen at almost every low-water bridge in Kruger

That ends the start to hopefully a great year of birding, still got the “urban bird’n” to do and then God willing another trip to the lowveld before I head up to West Africa where birding will be slow as I start to learn the new birds I’ll find there.