Last Sunday the 7th of September a friend, Adolf Joubert, and I headed off to the Seringveld to see what birds were around. I have changed my strategy a bit since I last posted as I have decided to bird more and photograph when the opportunity arises which makes the ordeal less frustrating in my opinion. Adolf doesn't agree on this as he feels, no picture, no tick, but he is fairly new to the sport so time will tell.
The day started at 04:00 with a quick shower, packing some nibbles and then the trip to fetch Adolf and the drive to Seringveld. We arrived in the dark with the hope of picking up an owl or the odd nightjar but it was deathly quiet and nothing moved except our car..
As the light strengthened we had reached the end of Rinkhals road where we turned back with the sun now behind us! All we had seen up until then were silhouettes of Groundscraper Thrush and Fork-tailed Drongo. Moving back up the road we were surprised with a Lizard Buzzard sitting on one of the powerline support poles. This is not a bird I have seen regularly in our region so was quite excited that the day had started so well.
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| Lizard Buzzard x 2 |
It wasn't long after that, that we heard a Brubru calling and seeing that Adolf had not seen one before we decided to wait it out for the bird to get closer. Shortly after stopping, the bird flew into a nearby tree and started to call. It was completely unperturbed by our presence and allowed us to walk around the well branched tree for an open shot of him. I enjoy these birds as they have a very distinct call, beautiful markings and always appear so neat.
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| Brubru |
With two new birds for the year list, things were going very well. We had seen quite a few common birds by this stage...Yellow-fronted Canaries, Black-crowned Tchagra, Streaky-headed Seedeaters, Pearl-breasted Swallows and Whitebellied Sunbird amongst others.
Further along the road we saw White-fronted Bee-eaters, Amethyst Sunbird, Green Woodhoopoes, Hamerkop, Southern Black Tit, Cardinal Woodpeckers and my favourite for this area, Striped Kingfisher. Previous pics I had taken of this species had always been on the telephone or power-lines but this chap was conveniently perched on a low-level branch watching for insects in the grass below....lucky day indeed!!
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| Striped Kingfisher |
Unfortunately our time was limited as I had an appointment back in town at 13:00 so we had to start moving back home. The house at the T-junction of Rinkhals and the Bynespoort road has beautiful gardens and lawns and we have often found some goodies here. Sunday was no exception as we found Chinspot Batis, Cape Robin-chat, Blue Waxbills, Black-collared Barbet and at last I found the Striped Pipit that is often reported in this area but I have never seen here.
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| Striped Pipit |
Then just as we thought we should call it a day, we found a watering point that was very busy with birds coming in to drink and bathe. We got Crested Barbet, Karoo Thrush, Kurrichane Thrush, Cape White-eyes and a Yellow-fronted Tinker Barbet that kept coming in and out (or was it four individuals)?? We battled to get good images of this guy as he was moving around and preferred the shady areas with extremely busy backgrounds. This was the only fairly decent shot I could get for the record!
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| Yellow-fronted Tinker-barbet |
With 40 species on the list it really was time to move, so reluctantly we drove off down the last stretch of road only to find another three goodies for the list...White-throated Robin-chat, White-browed Scrub-robin and a Long-billed Crombec....
Not a huge list for the day but we had some really good sightings and were able to spend some time with the cameras. The watering point is definitely a place to stop at and we would have spent more time there if time was in our favour..
And that is it for now, I am sure I will be posting soon again! See ya!
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