Report and all photos by Ken Logan

November 2023

We had both been looking forward to this weekend for quite a while, but in the end I had to leave Stephanie behind to try and sort out our badly damaged house and garden after one of the worst hail storms in over 50 years just a couple of days prior to us leaving.

We had done a night drive from Punda to see the bird many years ago but I still needed a photograph so I was democratically chosen to go!! I had never been on a Rangers weekend before and I thought it was well planned and all 30 of us seemed to enjoy ourselves. Thirty people meant four game viewers with 4 excellent black driver/guides. David our driver really knew his birds.

We arrived Thursday afternoon to a welcoming cool drink or even a gin and tonic for those so inclined. There were 4 honorary rangers in attendance- one for each truck. We provided our own meal the first evening but caterers fed us for the next two nights.

We climbed on board at 4.00am the following morning and headed north for Pafuri via Klopperfontein. We wanted to be on the bridge at Pafuri at 6.00am. The dam at Klopperfontein provided two interesting birds- a Greater Painted Snipe and a Ruff- a vagrant to the park and one our guides battled to ID. I had to tell two of them it was not a Pectoral Sandpiper. We saw a great selection of raptors over the next two days picking up a pair (one of 4 pairs seen) of African Hawk eagles early on.

We missed out on Steppe and Lesser Spotted- it has been a number of years since I saw either of these birds in the park.  Nor were there as many Bateleur in the north of park as I usually see further down south.

It was nearly 7.00 before we reached the bridge at Pafuri. Lots of Green Pigeons and Trumpeter Hornbills feeding in the large fig trees and our first Saddle-billed Stork some way off upstream on the sand banks. The Bohm’s  Spinetails were not flying over the river but over the trees on the way to the picnic site but the other specials, Meves’s Starling and Broad-billed Roller were quickly found. Next up we were on our way north towards the Pafuri gate to look for Arnot’s Chat and Racket-tailed Roller in the large stands of mopane some 12 kilometers from the bridge. We found the Chat but not the Roller. Heading back to the bridge a pair of Lemon-breasted Canary made up for not seeing the Roller. It was now late in the morning but we continued on to Crookes corner arriving at 12.30 pm. As expected, little was happening. Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper and a couple of White-crowned Lapwing were the best we could do- Oh and lots of White-fronted Bee-eaters too.

We returned to Punda at 2.30pm- a long 10 hours in the saddle! With just two hours to recover before heading out for the Nightjar. The Nightjar proved to be a little controversial because no one had any clear guide lines to follow. When we arrived at the site I asked our guide if he had a spotlight and he looked blankly at me. A debate followed about whether we should put lights on the bird. One guide said you can use flash on your camera but don’t put a spotlight on the bird. 7 0% of the people there wanted a photograph which of course you can’t get unless you spotlight the bird. In the end it all proved to be irrelevant. The birds had moved from an open area where I saw them years ago, a further two hundred meters up the road. The road here was narrow with trees 4-5 meters tall on either side. So we had nice views of them flying overhead but they were come and gone before you could lift your camera. When one looked as though it might land some 50 meters up the road someone screamed “there, there!” so loudly that the bird took off again. So no photographs I’m afraid. The views of the bird the following evening were not nearly as good as the night before so only one person got any kind of a shot that I was aware of.

The following day we started a little later at 4.30 heading for the Nyalaland trails camp which you access on a long private road from somewhere close to Klopperfontein, before travelling an hour and a half to the Parks border somewhere west of Pafuri. The attraction here was Mottled Spinetail which roosted in a large baobab there. Good views were had of the bird. No other real specials, but we did get nice views of  several Monotonous Larks on the way up and Martial, Tawny and Wahlberg’s eagles on the way back. Levaillant’s Cuckoos seemed to be more plentiful than the Jacobins and we found a solitary Black Cuckoo.

Our afternoon drive took us the other way round the Mahonie loop to the nightjar site and the one bird of note we saw was an obliging Dickinson’s Kestrel. The drive back to Punda after dark on both evenings was disappointing- a few distant owl calls and that was that.  So a great weekend came to an end. I saw 190 species which was not too shabby for two days in the park.

I had booked an extra two nights at Satara on the way home- not realizing that it was over 250 kilometers- a good eight hours of driving through the park. I did not see too much on the way down- stopped for breakfast at Mooiplaas where a ridiculously tame pair of Yellow-billed Hornbills and a little tree squirrel shared my breakfast. Found a very approachable Southern Black Tit there too. Arriving at Satara  at the start of the heatwave- temperatures were forecast at 41 degrees for the entire week meant that all your birding needed doing before 9.00am. I decided on doing the Timbavati river road, one of the prettiest roads in the park, up to the picnic site. I found a small flock of 10-12 Senegal Lapwings and a little Brown-hooded Kingfisher who decided he wanted to sit in the middle of road and not let anyone past. Found a Grey Tit-Flycatcher back at the camp which was no. 199 species, which necessitated a late, very hot afternoon drive out to the Sweni bird hide where I found an African Openbill, a young Black-crowned Night Heron and my last new bird of the trip, a Black-bellied Bustard for a grand score of 202 species.

So a weekend I would recommend to anyone- just a shame there was no real chance of a shot of the Nightjar. I may have to go to Zim to get a shot of that bird