The Trekkie's Forum

After another weekend of good birding the the eastern Freestate I sent this email to BirdlifeSA.

I really think this is a very under rated birding area:

Hello Martin.

I frequently visit the eastern Freestate and specifically the Clocolan Ladybrand area. I never return home without a few additional species added to the pentads in the area.

To me and the fellow birders that I have taken there, it is a very exiting birding area, although somewhat difficult to bird.

What makes this area so special to me is that being in the foothills of the Malutis and in close proximity to the Lesotho highlands the diversity in habitat greatly contributes to its appeal. During this weekend we were able to bird a number of dams, typical free state grassland, higher altitude grassland, rocky slopes, short grasslands and fallow lands, all adding different species. In addition there is a section along the Vet River close to Excelsior where the farm roads could possibly give good access to some river edge birding and the Caledon River along the Lesotho birding.

Now in many of our other provinces there are quite well established birding routes and spots. This part of the country might not qualify as a bird route, but may well be better promoted as a destination for fellow birders.

Some of the specials I have seen there is:
Ground Woodpecker
Secretary Bird
Black Harrier
Grey-wing and Red-wing Francolin
Southern Bald Ibis
African Harrier Hawk
Eurasian Swift
Goliath Heron
White Stork
Alpine Swift

During my stay over December we tallied 13 species of Swift, Swallow and Martins, the highest count I have ever had on a birding trip.
From the current SABAP2 and Roberts Multimedia there is a potential of about 300 species in the area with some hard to find specials like Pink-billed Lark, Eastern Long-billed Lark, Mountain Pipit, Ludwigs Bustard, Blue Korhaan and three Courser species.

My question is how does one establish a birding route / birding hot spot in an area which is currently pretty much unknown in the birding community?

Looking forward to your reply.