Three exhausting days of hard-core birding in the Gauteng area bagged 154 new species, bringing my total up to 380. Etienne’s refrain of “Don’t go for the low-hanging fruit” kept us focussed on endemics and hard to find birds. This strategy worked well, for as we searched for the specials various other more common species kept the list growing at a steady pace.
The first day started off at Suikerbosrand, with cisticolas our target birds. Very soon the Cloud-, Wing-snapping-, Pale-crowned and Zitting Cisticolas were identified. Thereafter followed Marievale and the Devon grasslands, with a Montagu's Harrier as a new Southern African lifer! I could not convince Etienne to join me in the Mandela shuffle.
Rob de Rover, a good friend of mine, joined Etienne and me on the second day. We focussed on finding warblers and Etienne soon unearthed a few Common Whitethroats, as well as Olive-tree-, Icterine- and Barred Wren Warblers in the Zaagkuildrif area. A Black Cuckoo-shrike, and many mosquito bites, followed at Rust de Winter and we enjoyed great views of a Lanner Falcon on the Moloto Road. The puppy-like bark of a Freckled Nightjar entertained us that evening at our chalets in Ezemvelo Nature Reserve.
The next morning, with Rob driving, it was a race against the dawn to be in the Verona area just after sunrise. We soon found the Short-tailed Pipit and had a beautiful fly pass of a Denham's Bustard. In Mabusa we ticked a White-backed Night Heron (another lifer - another shuffle) and an excellent Dusky Lark. Etienne was so pleased with the Dusky he nearly danced the Mandela shuffle all by himself.
The Bushveld Pipit became our bogey bird of the day. Later the afternoon a pair of Plain-backed Pipits were seen, as well as one of the highlights – a Tinkling Cisticola! Etienne’s exceptional skills, energy and professionalism, coupled to Rob’s dry sense of humour, made these three days an exceptional birding experience.
Trip report by Etienne Marais:
Enjoyed a great three day trip around wider gauteng with Sybrand Van Niekerk- not a "clean-up" trip as I usually do - this was more like a "Kick-start" trip to get Sybrand up and running for his African Big Year. He had spent the first nine days of the year birding in Zimbabwe, and Limpopo, and was chuffed to add 154 species to his list. We recorded over 300 species with about 270 seen. Highlights included Melodious Lark, Common and Horus Swift, Sand Martin and Pale-crowned Cisticola in the Suikerbosrand area. Marievale produced African Crake, and large flocks of SA Shelduck, While Devon kicked in with Blue Korhaan and Montagu's Harrier of the most mentionable. Warblers are good this year and we got good views of Olive-Tree, Marsh and Icterine Warbler as well as several Common Whitethroats. On the LBJ front we had all the aerial cisticolas as well as Tinkling Cisticola, Short-tailed Pipit and Eastern Long-billed, Monotonous & Eastern Clapper Larks. Other good birds (for this region) included Green-capped Eremomela, Red-headed Weaver, African Green-Pigeon, Lanner, Black Sparrowhawk, Black-winged Pratincole, Harlequin Quail, Common Buttonquail, Freckled Nightjar and Malachite Sunbird Interestingly we saw Blue Crane at no less than 3 locations and the "big" birds were rounded off with two sightings of Denham's Bustard, which enabled Sybrand to tick 4 "bustards" Rarest "wider gauteng" bird was this Dusky Lark.