A moving day, heading to Blyde Canyon Resort, via Mt Sheba resort for breakfast and some forest birding.
Up and out at first light to do a little birding around the hotel
in Dulstroom before we all met to depart at 5:30am. It was a cool, clear
morning hinting at a fine days weather ahead. Around the hotel it was
the usual fare, Speckled Pigeon, Cape Turtle
Dove, Cape White-eyes, Dark-capped Bulbul, Cape Robin-Chat, Kurraicane
and Karoo Thrush, speckled Mousebird and Cape Canary. Two male
Red-chested Cuckoo’s taunted as they called quite close but couldn’t be
located, a similar story to yesterday and what was
to be the case tomorrow! Three fly over terns – White-winged – were a
surprise.
Up on the main street I met with Mark, one of my traveling
companions, and we quickly located a Red-breasted Sunbird. Mark had
brief views of an Oriole, but we couldn’t re-locate it. A superb male
Violet-backed Starling provided some compensation. As
the number of trip participants increased, the Black-headed Oriole was refound and
showed exceeding well as it bashed and devoured a large caterpillar. It
was then into the bus and off to Mt Sheba.
The final 8 km to the resort was along a typical dirt road, and
passed some open grassland and conifer plantations, some having been
felled and in the process of being replanted. The early parts of the
road are considered good for both Saffron and Yellow-fronted
Canary, but all those we saw/checked were Cape Canary’s. The grasslands
provided Niddicky, Cloud Cisticiola and Buffy Pipits. The plantations are
known haunt of Black Sparrowhawk, but the only bird we picked up was a
Spotted Flycatcher. Dropping down from the
ridge to the resort we passed through native forest. A walk around the
resort provided our first good views of monkeys, which till then had
been drive by views, with both Vervet and Syke’s Monkeys hanging around
the entrance gate looking for easy meals.
A walk around the resort complex provide a number of new species
including a Pale Flycatcher, Lemon Dove, and Swee Waxbills. After
an excellent breakfast we set off to explore the surrounding forest, but
not before a number of us had a close study
of the large, and spectacular, red and black Koppe Foam Grasshopper.
Birding the forest trails proved hard work, but persiverence paid
off with good views of Yellow-faced Woodland Warbler, White-starred
Robin, Chorister Robin, Guinea Turaco,……. Unfortunately I couldn’t get
onto the Grey Cuckooshire and, despite calling close by, the Narina Trogon
point blank refused to show to anyone.
Heading out from the resort a quick stop and walk provided
excellent views of a Drakensberg Pinia, for those that had missed it
yesterday. A distant, and going away, Crowned Eagle, being mobbed by a
Buzzard, was found but half the group, including myself,
couldn’t get on to it.
The only bird of note on the journey to Blyde Canyon was a Bronze
Mannakin, though a sunbird that diced with death flying across our front
windscreen was a Amethyst Sunbird. It would have been a tick if I’d
seen more than a dark streak!
We Arrived at Blyde Canyon Resort in the early afternoon and while
Toby and Kevin went off to check us in, etc. the group stretched its
legs around the visitors car park. I quickly located and identified a
White-browed Bush-chat before it was back into the
buses and off to locate our rooms.
We didn’t quite make the rooms as we had only traveled about 100
meters before we pulled up. A large fruiting fig tree was attracting a
lot of avian attention, so it was only proper to give these a lot of
attention. The tree was mainly, Dark-crested
Bulbuls, Fork-tailed Drongos, Cape white-eyes, Violet-backed and
Red-winged Starlings, a pair of Black-collared Barbets, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbirds and best of all,
Purple-crested Turaco’s. Blue Waxbills fed around the base, and a
Brown-hooded Kingfisher flew through.
We eventually pulled ourselves away, with a promise to return, to
locate our rooms and get back our birding asap. Rooms located, with a
quick stop for a Mocking Cliff-chat, White-throated Robin-chat and a
Familiar Chat, and we were soon walking down to
the view point along side the dinning area.
The view point provided a wonderful panorama of the upper reaches
of this side valley off the main canyon – the third largest, but largest
“green”, canyon in the World. The only new bird here, however, were
Lesser-stripped Swallows, a nice change from
the may Greater-stripped we’d noted up till now.
We slowly walked down the road to the lower view point, picking up a
number of new birds along the way, White-bellied Sunbird, Collared
Sunbird, Green-backed Cameroptera, Southern Boubou, and Black-backed
Puffback.
The road rounded a bend and provided great views of the main canyon
and the Three Rondavaals – a famous, and impressive, rock formation.
Carrying on, after the obligatory photo’s we quickly stopped as some
birds in a low bare tree drew out attention. A
couple of Dark-crested Bulbuls were nothing unusual, but towards the
back, partly hidden was one of Toby’s most wanted birds, the
Speckled-throated Honeyguide. It took some time for all to get onto the
bird and then obtain good enough views to allow the throat
pattern to be discerned. Whilst trying to locate the bird, bot myself
and toby located a small woodpecker, low down – a Cardinal Woodpecker,
which we managed to get some onto before it flew. Not content with the
Honeyguide, a second member of the Honeyguide
family flew into the tree, a Brown-backed Honeybird (our second of this
species, after one in Rietvei NR. Over the four Honeyguides thought
possible on the route we were travelling these two are considered the
harder to connect with, particularly the Speckled-throated.
We’ had both in a single tree, and hadn’t had sight or sound of the two
commoner species.
Walking back up to the Resort, we noted several Southern Bald Ibises heading over to roost in the Canyon .
In a bid to avoid a large group booking into the restaurant, we
decided to finish a little early and get in before the large group. As
such it was still getting dark when most of the group returned t the
restaurant area. We were just milling around in
the dusk when a dark shape appeared, moving towards the outer canyon. A
Bat Hawk!, and only one pair of bins between the 7 of us. We all managed
brief bins view as it disappeared into the distance. Wow, that was
certainly unexpected. We had just about come
down from that high when a second Bat Hawk flew low over our heads,
again heading into the main canyon. No need for bin’s for this one, as
it passed about 4 -5 meters above us and although the light was fading
fast, we all get great looks at this crepuscular
hunter.
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