Beyond 350

A male Grey-backed Sparrowlark, flocks of them were flying around among weavers, whydahs and quelea.

There is nothing like birding an area you know like the back of your hand. its like have home ground advantage. I felt that way when returning to Kruger Park to conduct two back-pack trails. I felt unchallenged yet refreshed being able to find the reference for the bird calls I heard chirping around me. Unexpectedly this is where my list jumped a few ahead, along with two new bird species for the park and one lifer among the two.  Prior to entering the park however I figured I needed to stop by and see if the Taita was around the tunnel, much to my dismay they weren't and an easy tick was missed, however I did get a Jackal Buzzard flying low next to a small koppie along the road around Dullstroom and so my list started to climb again.

Home for a week watching birds

On trail in the park I was able to do two back-pack trails up in the Mphongolo wilderness area. it was so good to be back I didn't want to bird, but bird I did and I came out with 3 pentabs for the area. The Weather wasn't great for birding but that didn't keep them away either. With all the migrants away it was easy to pick up some of the birds that hang around for the winter as so with some common birds to add to my list such as, White-browed Scrub-robin, Black Fly-catcher, Double-banded Sandgrouse, Brubru and a few more. It was great to be spending time where large birds occur freely without the hindrance of people, so with that Verraeux's Eagle-owl and Southern Ground-hornbill (I now have seen both species of Ground-hornbill in Africa within the same year) could be added to the list. Stopping at some great spot under tall trees along the Phugwane River always fairs well for birds and my old Shingwedzi friends the Retz' Helmet-Shrike paid a visit a few times with there business among the tree tops. Back along the Bububu River the seclusive African (blue-billed) Firefinch showed itself nicely to me while I rested at the waterhole. Preceding the floods from earlier on in the season there was water everywhere and where one least expects it there was a pair of White-breasted Cormorants along with one hippo at Zari waterhole. The trails were great and emphasizes the need to bird on foot. The great ticks coming out of my trip to Kruger came from having word of Grey-backed Sparrowlarks being around and I went off to chase them around letaba, to my excitement I found them along with the Red-headed Finch thus increasing my KNP list by two and life list by one. Kruger is always a great place to bird and greater place to set foot in.

Cape Recife lighthouse, lovely cold front weather rolling in

From Kruger it was on to Port Elizabeth and then Grahamstown. Although I escaped the cold in Jo'burg I didn't have the best of weather in P.E. either. I decided to make the most of it anyway and headed down to Cape Recife along the beach front. Hoping for the Roseatte Terns with the wind blowing me to Cape town I didn't expect much and so the morning produced a dismal 6 birds for my African Big year. Sandwhich and Little Terns, Cape Gull, White-fronted Plover, Cape Cormorant and Black Oyster-catchers. Not completely uneventful but with so little time in P.E. and the weather being so bad, its the best I could do. Grahamstown's weather was cold and wet and yet I got my binoculars out and picked up few new ones for the list.  A Cape Weaver and the European Starlings were acquired on exciting the airport in P.E..

Sunrise at Hobby-beach waiting for other early risers... Calm from inside the car wind torrent when outside

Back to Serarou, after a disappointing time birding wise in P.E. the hopes of reaching 500 look fairly glim, with less than 150 to get, its always the hardest of the 500 to acquire. However on arriving in Serarou I realized that the dull winter birds here are all in plumage now and it was pretty easy to pick up the Yellow-mantled Widowbird around the dam area, and to enlighten the week an Allen's Gallinule also popped its head out of the reeds for a while. So the rest will be a challenge to get but who knows there may just be some time left.