Hello everybody!!

So, to my utter shame, I have neglected my garden birds of late as I kept forgetting to get some fruit for the Bulbuls and some seed for the weavers and sparrows..

I rectified that last night and put some seed and fruit out this morning... when i went to go and check on the birdies i could swear the sparrows were looking at me with a "what did we do to deserve that?" sorrowful look.  The weavers were a bit more stern with a "what took you so long" look but the Bulbuls take the cake with a "about bluddy time" look.   The doves just got stuck in and seem to be the least offended...

I did apologize but that only brought laughter from Hannah and strange looks from the neighbour who was fiddling in her garden...

Hoping to do some serious birding this weekend!!  wish me luck!!

Laine

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Had one of those WOW days on Jozini Dam over the weekend - excellemt weather, buffaloe, elephant, fisheagles and other abundant wildlife and beauty in general. My special of the weekend birding wise:

-on the dam

There is a new young Fish Eagle female (looks to be in her last moult phase). She seems to be using this time -when the others have reduced the territory they are defending whilst nesting- to try to slot a territory in between one of the long established pairs and the shy pair that set up territory last year at the mouth of the gorge. I hope she succeeds - although young she is very large and if she finds a mate soon I might have a fifth pair to watch in the coming years.

-in Mkhuze Game Reserve

Just yhe most beautiful sighting of a Martial Eagle at the top of a bare marula tree sillhouetted against the setting winter sun - one of those sights that will remain burned in my memory for a long, long time.

The title comes from the comment from one of my guests "It was beautiful but we saw nothing special"

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Angel Maboyakulu is a ranger in Mkuze that takes one on the Fig Forest walk in that Park. Angel knows his birds like many of the very best guides I have had the pleasure to bird with… He is one of those rare sharp-eyed individuals that can correctly identify a difficult bird in flight and, with his keen ears, crack the ID of an unseen bird by listening to the faint strains of its song. Angel mimics birds’ mating song to call them closer and phishes with the best of the phishers. So, with this impression of Angel, I was amused to hear him refer to some of the birds in Mkuze as “Commons”, albeit with a grin. For me finding a “common” lifer is still an experience I marvel at. One such example for me was the pied starlings of Wakkerstroom. Never having seen one before, I found myself in the midst of hordes of pied starlings, amusing the locals with my antics in trying to get good pix of them. And again very recently the Meeves’s starlings of Mapungubwe had the same effect on me.

I took a good friend of mine from the Cape birding on the highveld and he experienced this phenomenon with our widowbirds and longclaws, giving me a reverse-angle on this observation.

It is like there is this invisible hurdle that prevents the birds from crossing over into a neighbouring area; a barrier that we cross, into a territory that holds this “common” bird we have not seen before.

One man’s “Common” is another man’s lifer!

And referring to Meeves's starlings - these are tough birds! On one of the bush drives I did in Mapungubwe we saw a black mamba of over 2.0 m that found itself out in the open with five starlings aggressively dive-bombing it. Comically a small band of Natal spurfowl followed this procession observing the raucous scrap safely from the tail-end of the snake. I was fortunate to catch this bit of the action before the snake disappeared into the safety of a hole.

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At a certain stage in one’s “career” as a lister, one has to really zero in on a specific lifer species to find it. I think I have reached that stage as I find myself switch from "birder" "hunter", chasing that thrilling number 500. As the 2009 birding season went into serious winter hibernation, I found myself stranded on 456! I started to list my opportunities for the second half of 2009. And, hey, funny thing… there are some South African birds you have to (can) target specifically in winter! So, winter birding opportunities one must create… and I found myself taking a major birding trip in winter.

Instead of seeing upcoming birding outings as a nice chance to walk in the woods and list whichever birds happen to cross my path, I now thought of this birding trip with specific targets in mind – much more like planning a major event. Precision and detail are the keys!

This palmnut vulture was the result of good strategy and detailed planning - lifer #14 on the Natal leg of my birding trip  

All of a sudden I had very specific mission-oriented outings! Not that that sort of planning guarantees success – it does raise the ratio of success vs failure though.

31 new species added… man, winter is not so bad for birding after all! And I have a new strategy waiting come summertime…

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