The Trekkie's Forum

Two couples in our group managed to see Cape Clawless Otters swimming i nthe river.

I got a lovely surprise in the form of a present and birthday cake from Nissie!

We lit the fires and had a good few sundowners and lots of laughing before we attempted to make a dent in the food stock we all tagged along!

The night was uneventful as there were no sound of owls or nightjars. Water Dikkop were the only ones calling.

The Friday morning started with the call of Natal Francolin which were startlingly common in Bora! Whilst I waited for the coffee water to boil, I decided to take a walk towards tent nr.2. I flushed African Finfoot from under a clump op of grass overhanging the river bank and had super views of it as she started swimming upstream. I managed to call Laine over who had even better views of it and then later took Candy to the river at the camping grounds where we again had awesome views of it! Main target bird for me for the weekend was signed, sealed and delivered! And on our first morning!

We decided to head up to the gate to get cellphone signal before proceeding to the Tholo loop picnic spot for brunch. On our way to the gate area, we ticked Jameson's Firefinch, another lifer for Laine. Close to the main picnic spot we located a single Meyer's Parrot! Squacco Heron were also flying in and out of reed beds and we had some lovely views of them.

After phone calls were made we headed to the Tholo loop picnic spot were some others in our group hand found an Eland in a snare which were later shot by rangers. It was also around this time we heard of Moegaai's bad fall at the weir, where we located Green-backed Heron the previous day.

Quite a bit of the park was burned to get it ready for the nearing rain season and the Tholo loop picnis spot was one of the burn victims. It was very dry here and birding was not great, but we did manage to see Green Wood-Hoopoe,  Greater Honeyguide, Rattling Cisticola and the only Darkcapped Bulbul sighting for me for the weekend! Back at camp a Common Sandpiper was waiting for us on the rocks in the rapid and the nest building and breeding Yellow-billed Kites were ever present across the river from us, sometimes flying very low over our heads in the camp.

Great write up WTM

I now slightly feel like I was there

Very nice start, it's tomorrow?????????

Just interested to see when you spotted what, because I slept till 8  every morning and had a snooze in the afternoons while you were up at 4 and birded all day and only managed to get 19 birds more than me.

Last edited by Boetie (22-09-2009 14:53:49)

I wish I could say that I did hard core birding. But this is how most of my attempts went:

I stop the car.
Hannah: "Why did we stop?"
Me: "I wanna check out this bird quickly."
Di'neke: "Pappa, stop stopping for birds, I wanna go back to the tent!"
Hannah: "Yes! We wanna go swim in the river!"
Me: "Just now, girls..."
Laine: "Sweetie, you have to consider them, hey. They are tired of being in the car."
Me: "Oh what the hell, the bird is gone anyways!"

Or...


I stop the car.
Di'neke: "Pappa, Hannah don't want to give my frog back"
Hannah: "It's doesn't, Di'neke."
Laine: "Hannah, stop being cheeky!"
Me: "Will you lot shut up for one sec? You are chasing all the birds away!"
Laine: "Sweetie, we must get back to camp, the girls are gatvol of the car."

Or...

I stop the car.
Hannah: "Why are we stopping?"
Me: "I saw something"
Hannah: "Is it an animal? I didn't see any animals."
Laine: "No baby, Dirk's looking at a bird."
Hannah and Di'neke together: "We are tired stopping for birds, we only want to stop for animals!"

Or...

I stop the car.
Di'neke: "Pappa ek is dors."
I get out to fetch a cold drink.
I get back in the car, handing her the cold drink.
Hannah: "What about me?"
I get out to fetch a cold drink.
I get back in the car, handing her the cold drink.
Laine: "What about me?"
I get out to fetch a cold drink.
I get back in the car, handing her the cold drink.
Bird gone!

LOL!  that was a slight hyperbole!

Hannah just wanted to know which dung belonged to which animal.. the child was completely fascinated with spoor and faeces.. LOL

Laine wrote:

LOL!  that was a slight hyperbole!

My exact thoughts Sista!!!


It’s the day after tomorrow already??

Last edited by Boetie (23-09-2009 14:43:09)