5-7 Sep 2019: Chongoni Mountain & Cape Maclear

Our next birding destination was Chongoni Mountain, a forestry area situated between Liwonde and Lilongwe, a few kilometres from Dedza. The Chongoni Forestry Lodge is not really focused on tourists and we had to search various backroads before finding our accommodation on the slopes of the mountain. I camped in the parking lot while Maans had the dubious privilege of a private room. We found some good birds on the miombo covered mountain slopes of Kangoli Hill with most of the miombo specials present. New birds for the year list were Red-capped Crombec, Red-rumped Swallow and White-tailed Blue Flycatcher. At dusk we heard Hildebrandt’s Spurfowl calling on the slopes, but had to wait another few days before finally eyeballing the bird.

Souza's Shrike, Chongoni Mountain.

Early the next morning Maans showed me a Brown Parisoma sitting in a thorn tree at the lodge. We also managed to track down a beautiful Souza’s Shrike in the disturbed bush next to some fallow land. Somewhere along the way an unwelcome hitchhiker had made itself comfortable in the double-cab, and was sampling our bananas and tomatoes at night. The mouse also nibbled a hole in a bottle of water to quench its thirst. The spring-loaded rat trap I bought in the nearest town was ineffective, as the mouse was too light to trigger the mechanism. In effect all that happened was that I was feeding the mouse titbits of choice banana on a new, sparkling clean rat trap. If one listened intently early in the morning one could hear the mouse laughing somewhere under the seats.

Miombo Rock Thrush, Chongoni Mountain

After birding Chongoni Mountain we drove down to Cape Maclear on the shores of Lake Malawi. I had visited here a few years previously and was disappointed how the Lake Malawi National Park had neglected what could have been one of the premier tourist sites in Africa. The old hotel on the shores of Lake Malawi had burnt down and the beautiful campsite had gone to ruin. We camped at a nearby private lodge and left early the next morning to continue birding.

Cape Maclear Sunset.