BeKZN Atlas Adventure #12 – Monteseel, KwaXimba, and iSithumba

November 2024

With the onset of the summer, comes the migrants and the rains. This trip was supposed to go out in October, but wet weather intervened. So, we postponed to a Sunday in November. The uptake from club members to join the outing was very encouraging (based on previous registrations for an atlassing event), with 15 people registering. Alas, the weather had it’s say again, as the forecast for the Saturday (dry) was better than Sunday (wet, wet, wet). Without the interruption of rain, it made for better birding, but unfortunately only 4 of us made the trip (Rob McLennan Smith, O’Niell Marais, and Lorraine Retief). And boy, what a day we had. Those that missed it, missed a lot! Please sign up for the outings coming up in 2025, you do not need to be an atlasser – just come out and enjoy a day of birding. O’Niell, a newbie birder came out with us on his first club outing, and was rewarded with 21 lifers!!!. 

The atlassing trip took us to the north-west sector of the eThekwini Municipal boundary to tackle pentad 2940_3040. Some of you may recall club outings I led to KwaXimba a few years back, where we parked at the iSithumba Cultural Village, and walked along the course of the Umgeni River. Those walks only covered the north-west corner of the pentad, so I thought it a good idea to try tackle as much of the pentad area as possible. 

As I have done previously for atlassing outings, I use Google Earth to provisionally identify potential routes and key habitats that could be productive birding spots, mapped these, and exported the data to my phone for onsite tracking using the Google Earth mobile app. Our first stop was a roadside picnic spot on the R103 near Monteseel overlooking the valley. Our first bird encounter was a Lanner Falcon roosting in a eucalyptus tree. There was plenty of activity in the adjacent fig tree with Cape White-eye, Dark-capped Bulbul, Black-bellied Starling, Black-collared Barbet, and at least 7 Purple-crested Turacos too’ing and fro’ing for the fruity pickings, all the while accompanied by the rather loud, “weeah… weeah… weeah” shrieks being emitted by a juvenile Lanner Falcon, and calls from Piet still looking for a vrou!!!  Across the ravine we could hear the mournful “I’m so siiiick” call of a Black Cuckoo, as well as calls from Sombre Greenbul, Southern Boubou, Crested Barbet and Tambourine Dove. We crossed the divide across to the other side of the picnic spot to hopefully find either of the two cuckoos. The Black Cuckoo was quite distant, and was a mere speck perched in the bare branches of a tree half a few hundred meters away up the ridge. No sign of Piet though. We did get good views of Willow Warbler, White-bellied Sunbird, Neddicky and an African Spoonbill flying overhead. 

Photo 3: Looking westwards from Monteseel over KwaXimba and the Umgeni Valley (DaveR)

Photo 4: Monteseel east side viewpoint overlooking the Valley of 1000 hills. (Lorraine Retief)

Our bird of the day was quite surprising, not because it was an unusual species sighting, but more because of the numbers we encountered. Monteseel sits atop steep sandstone cliffs overlooking the valley of 1000 Hills, which gives ideal lift conditions for raptors, swallows, swifts, and martins, to use the rising air coming up from the valley. There were good numbers of African Black Swift, African Palm Swift, Little Swift, Lesser Striped Swallow, and Barn Swallow. Further down the left flank of the cliffs I noticed smaller birds with paler rumps than one would expect for juvenile Barn Swallows, and there were good numbers of them – at least 30 and possibly as many as 50. On closer observation, and then seeing them perched on the overhead powerlines, they were Western (Common) House Martins. I have never witnessed seeing so many in one place – my previous sightings have normally been just one or two birds max.

Photo 5: Western (Common) House Martins at Monteseel – note the fluffy white feet. (DaveR)

A roadside alates eruption attracted many of these smaller birds for an aerial feast, along with Wahlberg’s Eagle and Yellow-billed Kite which gave us close-up viewing opportunities. An opportunist Trumpeter Hornbill took the easier option, and positioned itself on the ground next to the hole from which they were emerging, and gorged himself for ages. A Red-eyed Dove, a pair of Cape Starling, and a few Village Weaver did likewise. Perhaps the pair of Shelley’s Francolin we had seen 50m earlier had also been at the feast.

It was too early in the morning, so my beer was quite safe. After 90 minutes of birding the Monteseel area, and the bird list on 56 species, it was time to drop down into the valley. The traffic on our decent into KwaXimba was quite busy, and the road narrow. So, we couldn’t park and bird for long. We did hear Southern Red-fronted Tinkerbird, Bar-throated Apalis, Green Wood-hoopoe, Olive Bushshrike, and were treated to superb views of a perched Lesser Striped Swallow. The views from atop were pristine, bud sadly lots of places along the route have become dumping grounds for domestic refuse. 

Winding our way down into the valley, we traversed several small streams and gulleys. These are always good spots to look for birds for those where water is their main habitat, as well as for others that come down to drink. At one of the low-level bridges, we had a fleeting view of an African Pygmy Kingfisher as it whizzed past. A small wetland added Thick-billed Weaver, Lesser Swamp Warbler, Common Waxbill, Holub’s Golden Weaver, Little Bee-eater, Black Saw-wing, and a Hamerkop to our growing list. By 9am we had recorded 84 species.

The iSithumba section of the pentad lies in the north-east corner and incorporates sections along the course of the Umgeni River. The juxtaposition of river frontage on one side of the track, and acacia thicket on the other side makes for good water and bush birding. Yellow-billed Ducks gave us a fly-by, and a pair of African Black Duck were bathing in one of the small eddies around a rock pool. Cape and African Pied Wagtail, Common Sandpiper, Malachite Kingfisher, and Egyptian Goose were present on the river frontage, whilst the acacia thickets yielded Chinspot Batis, Blue Waxbill, Orange-breasted Bushshrike, Pin-tailed Whydah, Red-billed Quelea, Brubru, and a family of Acacia Pied Barbets. The latter were the first time I have encountered this species within the eThekwini challenge, and with a juvenile present, they have obviously bred in the area. Certainly, one to look out for on future visits. Overhead, a Booted Eagle came to see what we were up to, as well as a Wahlberg’s Eagle. 

We spent a total 5.5 hours atlassing in pentad 2940_3040, which prior to our visit had 100 Full Protocol (FP) cards, with an overall species list of 226. Our combined tally for the day yielded 108 species, the most ever recorded on a single card for this pentad. Our efforts managed to increase both the number of FP cards by 2, and added 5 new species to the pentad list. The new ones added were Holub’s Golden Weaver, Brubru, Lesser Swamp Warbler, African Spoonbilland Acacia Pied Barbet. 

It would be good to see more club members signing up for future atlassing trips. It really is a great day out exploring the more remote parts of our Metro, a fun way to learn about birds, identification, calls and atlassing (even if you are not an Atlasser, nor aspire to be one…… but you may well become addicted), and get to see some great birds with like-minded people. And you too could have a day described so aptly in the following photo (author unknown) that was shared with the group by Lorraine.

I hope to see you at the next BeKZN Atlassing Adventure!

Trip report by Dave Rimmer. Photos (where credited).