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We woke up to a beautiful morning on Day 14 of our South African Bird Tour in our cozy Berg-en-Dal Rest Camp cottage. Our Red Hill Birding guide Josh led us on a walk before breakfast each morning – today we got out early to bird the Berg-en-Dal grounds at about 6 AM. Looking in a tree right above our cottage we saw a Red-chested Cuckoo. Get a look at those orange eye-rings!
Rather dull in comparison, we chased this Terrestrial Brownbul around until we finally got a good look at it.
Here’s a little bit of striking and dull. First a shot of a male White-breasted Sunbird followed by a female Marico Sunbird.
Imagine my surprise when just down the road from our cottage a Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill was walking through the Rest Camp. Such fierce-looking eyes!
I’m sure you remember the Krysna Turaco from before. Well up in the trees was its cousin, the Purple-crested Turaco. Both are stunning birds, this one with the iridescent purple crown.
Or how about this one – a Golden-tailed Woodpecker (sorry but the golden tail was less-than obvious from this angle).
So even before breakfast we picked up six Lifers! We probably could have found more but today was moving day – we were leaving Berg-en-Dal and traveling to our last lodging of the trip at Lower Sabie (still in Kruger). After loading up our luggage in the trailer we climbed onboard, only to find that our snacks for the day had already been opened – probably by one of the Vervet Monkeys that were going through the Rest Camp. Below is one carrying her baby.
We made it out of the Berg-en-Dahl gate before 7:30 and searched for more Lifers. One of the first alongside the road was this Yellow-throated Bush Sparrow singing away.
Farther down the road our local guide Edward spotted a Common Hoopoe resting in an old tree stump. We had see one before and even captured that one with its cowl up but I kind of liked this one tucked into his roosting spot.
I showed a couple of pictures in the last post of some African eagles. This was a Dark Chanting Goshawk perched above the road – another raptor but not an eagle. Speaking of the road, because we were towing a trailer full of our luggage the safari vehicle was unable to go off of the paved roads in Kruger, somewhat limiting where we could travel.
We’ve seen weavers before but here is a new one – a Red-headed Weaver. Such a bright red on its head – even its beak was an orangey-red.
There are some birds (OK, a lot of birds) during the trip that I wish I had a better picture of, and this is one of them. If you recall I saw some waxbills in the botanical gardens on the outskirts of Cape Town early on and they were amazing to see. This one outdid them – a Violet-eared Waxbill was such a colorful bird.
We made the most of our mornings, and ended up a couple of days at Skukuza Day Visitor Picnic Area for lunch. This was a common place stop for a meal and rest-stop, used by many groups. Below is one of the covered picnic areas we sat in to eat.
Servers came to our picnic area and took our orders, which we selected from a wide selection of breakfast and lunch meals. My favorites were the Lion Run and the Bush Toastie.
Of course after several hours of sitting in the safari vehicle we needed a “comfort stop.” Bulls to the right and Cows to the left.
I was fascinated by the Sightings Board posted at the entrance of the picnic area. Visitors put a small color-coded metallic square on the map for each type of animal they saw that day. On the left, yesterday’s map contains all markers of sightings from the day before. On the right are the markers of sightings so far for the current day. In the closeup below you can see the Water Buffalo’s color was yellow.
After lunch we drove on and found a pack of wild dogs enjoying a watering hole. In the second picture a couple of pups frolic and play.
A little later we stopped for a stretch of the legs and found a Klauss’s Cuckoo perched above us. Again, notice the eye ring of the cuckoo.
Perched up in a tree alongside the road, a Black Kite was ready to devour its prey of a lizard, waiting for us to move along before dining.
In the previous post I shared a picture of a female Greater Kudu. On this day we found a male Greater Kudu feeding off the side of the road.
A Sombre Greenbul perched about eye-level near the road for us.
We would pull into the large pond formed by the Sunset Dam toward the end each day. There we saw a variety of shorebirds and hippos keeping cool in the water. In the middle of the pond was a large, dead tree that was covered by nests created by a group of Lesser Masked Weavers. An African Harrier-Hawk knew those weavers were hiding in their nests so it tried to flush them out by landing repeatedly right on the nests. I never saw one weaver try to sneak out so the Harrier-Hawk got increasingly frustrated – in the last shot below it lashed out at a Red-winged Starling harassing it.
We arrived at Lower Sabie, our lodging for the next two nights, just before sunset. We walked along a short boardwalk up to the dining area as the sun fell.
There is a strict prohibition from driving around Kruger at night for two reasons. For one, it would be difficult to see wildlife crossing the road in the darkness – collisions could occur. More importantly, it is designed to keep poachers from driving around and killing rhinos and other big game animals. However the park does arrange its tourist busses to leave the compound after dark and look for animals. We signed up for a drive our first night at Lower Sabie and saw some groups of Impalas alongside the road. The big thrill came from finding this huge male Lion lying in the middle of the road (presumable to keep warm). In the first picture you can seen another of the tourist busses the other side of the lion. I would like to say that in the third picture the lion was letting out a mighty roar, but no – it was a yawn. After about 20 minutes there the lion sauntered off to the side of the road to continue his rest.
It was a long day and we were happy to get back to our Lower Sabie lodging for bedtime. The next day was our last full-day in South Africa and we wanted to make the best of it.
CLICK HERE to see all the posts about our South Africa Bird Tour. Karen and I have had the opportunity to travel to many interesting places in search of birds. If you would like read about some of our other Bird Tours CLICK HERE.
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