Report by Cheryl Bevan
Iris and Geoff Sear, David and Tanya Swanepoel and John and I arrived at Twin Streams on Friday afternoon and the first bird we saw was the Narina Trogon. What a start to our weekend.
We gathered together at the beautiful lapa and communal kitchen for a delicious braai.
We were woken up on Sunday morning to the call of a Wood Owl. John took his torch and went searching for the Wood Owl but wasn’t able to see it. We did however hear four Wood Owls taking to each other which was a huge treat.
We went looking for the ellusive resident African Finfoot to no avail.
As we were strolling along we were amazed to see the Trogon out in the open for about 15 minutes. What a sighting. There were about 3 calling each other the whole time we were out there.
As we walked down the road we were treated to the Africa Olive Pigeon, African Green Pigeon, Little Sparrow Hawk, Golden Tailed Woodpecker to name a few.
With hungry tummies we headed back for breakfast. Afterwards we set off to the Raffia Palm Monument. A lot of the Palms had fruited and was chopped down. And due to this, the forest was very sparse and we hardly saw any birds.
We did see a Palm-nut Vulture on the gravel road heading back to Twin Streams.
At lunch time Cecil and Jenny Fenwick joined us for the weekend and we headed off to Umlalazi Nature Reserve looking for the Mangrove Kingfisher. The Reserve has changed a lot and the birding was spartan.
Sunday morning we went looking for the African Finfoot again with no luck. So we strolled in the opposite direction and had a lovely walk before breakfast.
Afterwards we headed back to Umlalazi Nature Reserve where we walked through the mangrove forest boardwalk. There was a lot of water so we were unable to get to the spot where the Africa Finfoot is usually spotted.
We headed back at lunchtime, packed up and ended our weekend at the Fat Cat restaurant before heading home after a very enjoyable weekend.
In all 47 different species were identified. To see our list click here and here and here.
Cheryl Bevan
