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Trip Report: Mapungubwe National Park (South Africa)

Trip Report: Mapungubwe National Park (South Africa)

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Written by Mark Tittley
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
On Monday the 25th of April 2011 my wife and I left home at 2am to explore Mapungubwe National Park. We booked a camping site at the Mazhou campsite and planned to spend two days in the area. We travelled via Messina (which turned out to be a little further than the route via Dendron/Vivo but we wanted to see a bit more of an area that we had never visited before. One of the sights we appreciated was the numerous Baobab trees in the area: There were not quite a few Snake-Eagles on the way - Black-chested as well as Brown and a little raptor that in the low light we will assume to be Shikra and we watched a small male Striped Kingfishers displaying to it's mate: Here is a full list of the birds we saw on the way: Pied Crow; Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver; Red-billed Quelea; House Sparrow; Lilac-breasted Roller; Brown Snake-Eagle; Fork-tailed Drongo; Black-chested Snake-Eagle; Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk; Yellow-billed Hornbill; Helmeted Guineafowl; Striped Kingfisher; Crested Francolin and Amur Falcon. We arrived at the park gate at 8am and signed in: We made our way to the Limpopo River to explore the Tree Top Walk (along the way we saw: African Grey Hornbill; Red-faced Mousebird; Violet-backed Starling; Dark-capped Bulbul; Lilac-breasted Roller; Southern Grey-headed Sparrow; Kalahari Scrub-Robin; Green Wood-Hoopoe; Yellow-billed Hornbill; Brown Snake-Eagle; Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver; Chinspot Batis; Long-billed Crombec and Marico Flycatcher). The Tree Top Walk was amazing - it is so practical as you can get up close to birds in the trees. It is about eight to ten meters above the ground and ends with a bird hide that overlooks the Limpopo River: Within the first hour I had already seen three lifers: Retz's Helmet-Shrike, Tropical Boubou and Meve's Starling. I remember thinking that at this rate I would easily see the 40 potential lifers this area could deliver (not so!): On our way back to the entrance a Shikra came and landed on the walk about 10 meters away from us - it was spectacular to see it up close: Here is a full list of the birds that we saw on the board walk: Black-backed Puffback; African Paradise Flycatcher; Natal Spurfowl; Osprey; Brubru; African Hoopoe; Tropical Boubou; Yellow-throated Petronia; White-fronted Bee-eater; Blacksmith Lapwing; Woodland Kingfisher; Black-winged Stilt; Retz's Helmeted-Shrike; Tawny-flanked Prinia; Hamerkop; Cape Vulture and Shikra. We left the walk to head towards the View Point and had great sighting of three elephant right next to the road as well: A Lilac-breasted Roller also wanted to be photographed (as did a Cisticola), so I obliged: The road to the view point - it is the confluence of two rivers and three countries: South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe - was a short drive and the views from the viewing decks simply incredible: We spent some time birding in the area on the various walk ways seeing Cape White-eye; Dark-capped Bulbul; Familiar Chat; Little Bee-eater; Sabota Lark; Arrow-marked Babbler; Blue Waxbill; Cardinal Woodpecker and Grey Go-away-bird. Here are some photo highlights: We then drove the 4x4 road towards Poachers Corner and back towards the main entrance (my wife's Toyota Avanza truly believes that it is a 4x4 vehicle) - it was getting late in the day so the bird life was not great although we did see Jameson's Firefinch; Long-billed Crombec; Yellow-bellied Eremomela; African Paradise-Flycatcher; Brubru; Cape Glossy Starling; Fork-tailed Drongo; Cardinal Woodpecker; Grey Go-away-bird and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting: We stopped at the little dam near the entrance gate and added another dozen birds to our list including Grey Heron; Little Grebe; African Jacana; Three-banded Plover; Wood Sandpiper; Common Moorhen; Common Waxbill; Red-billed Teal; Black Crake; Pied Kingfisher; Long-tailed Paradise-Whydah; Blacksmith Lapwing; Namaqua Dove and Red-billed Quelea: At the entrance gate we watched some Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver working on their nests in a huge Baobab tree: The drive to our camping site was quite a distance from the main gate - I decided to drive the Den Staat Road - and sadly the road and the area is bone dry so none of the wetland species were around. We spent the next hour setting up our tent before heading along the River Road. A fourth lifer for the trip appeared - African Mourning Dove. We also saw Meve's Starling; Natal Spurfowl; Grey Go-away-bird; African Firefinch; Spectacled Weaver; Brown-hooded Kingfisher; African Grey Hornbill; Fork-tailed Drongo and Arrow-marked Babbler: We made our way towards the bird hide with great expectations: At the hide we saw a fair selection of birds (but nothing spectacular) including Red-billed Oxpecker; Blacksmith Lapwing; Hamerkop; Grey Go-away-bird; Meve's Starling; Southern Grey-headed Sparrow; Red-eyed Dove; Woodland Kingfisher; Lilac-breasted Roller; Chestnut-backed Sparrowlark; Marabou and Black-headed Oriole: The drive back to the campsite produced a real highlight of a Kori Bustard up close - it has been years since we have seen this species: We then thought we might have gotten lucky with a sighting of a Senegal Coucal but it turned out to be a juvenile Burchell's Coucal: Here are some of the mammals we photographed along the way on the day: At the campsite we walked around the perimeter of the site hoping to see some specials but did not see too much to mention or show apart from Black-headed Oriole; Cardinal Woodpecker; White-crowned Helmet-Shrike and Bearded Woodpecker: We left our campsite at 5:30 the next morning and as we approached the Den Staat Road we saw what we thought might have been Lapwings - but they just might be Courser's! I hope this poor quality images in the dark will help with an id: We made our way back to the little dam on the East side of the national park - almost thinking we had spotted a Lesser Jacana - but it is just a juvenile African Jacana. The other highlights at the dam were Greater Painted-Snipe; African Pied Wagtail; Greater Painted-Snipe; Malachite Kingfisher; Green-winged Pytilia; Cape Glossy Starling; White-browed Sparrow-Weaver and White-browed Scrub-Robin): As we approached the Tree Top Walk this Scrub-Robin in a tree was calling out passionately - it seems to have too much streaking on the chest to be a Kalahari Scrub-Robin so I am a tad confused as to it's id: Our time on the Tree Top Walk was great although we did not managed to record anything new lifers (some highlights were juvenile Black-backed Puffback, juvenile Orange-breasted Bush-Shrike, female Black Cuckooshrike; Egyptian Goose; Arrow-marked Babbler and Yellow-throated Petronia): We headed back to our campsite - again quite a drive to the West section of the park - packed up - took one more drive to the bird hide but saw very little. In total we saw 91 bird species and picked up 4 lifers. It certainly was a spot well worth visiting and during the rainy season the place would certainly come live! ! » No Comments There are no comments up to now. » Post Comment Only registered users can write a comment. Please login or register. Related news items: 20/05/2012 15:48 - TOTW 17/05/2012 12:11 - Vote for the APRIL 2012 TOTW winner! 17/05/2012 11:50 - TOTW Winner March 2012! 05/05/2012 18:40 - FBOTW 05/05/2012 18:26 - TOTW 28/04/2012 16:35 - TOTW 22/04/2012 16:06 - TOTW 14/04/2012 15:42 - Vote for the March 2012 TOTW winner!

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