Archive for January 26, 2012

Day 2 – Hluhluwe Imfolozi

Lacey / January 26, 2012 / No comments

Day 2 – Hluhluwe-Imfolozi
Thankfully it was not a baking hot day in the park today! The sun was out, there was no chill on the breeze (except at 5 o’clock in the morning maybe) and the bird sightings were fantastic!

hamerkop
woolynecked stork
hadeda ibis
african white backed-vulture
lappet faced vulture
white headed vulture
yellow billed kite
wahlbergs eagle
african hawk eagle
martial eagle

brown snake eagle
steppe buzzard
forest buzzard
natal francolin
three-banded plover
blacksmith plover
wattled plover
wood sandpiper
water dikkop
bronze-winged courser

cape turtle (ring necked) dove
laughing dove
green (emerald) spotted dove
*purplecrested turaco
burchells coucal
mozambique nightjar
horus swift
speckled mouse bird
redfaced mousebird
malachite kingfisher

little bee-eater
african woodhoopoe
red-billed woodhoopoe
trumpeter hornbill
cardinal woodpecker
bearded woodpecker
rufous naped lark
sabota lark
eurasian swallow
greater striped swallow

lesser striped swallow
fork-tailed drongo
black-eyed bulbbul (common)
fantailed (zitting) cisticola
cloud cisticola
levaillants cisticola
lazy cisticola
neddicky
spotted flycatcher
african dusky fly catcher

african paradise fly catcher
yellow-throated longclaw
fiscal shrike
red-backed shrike – this rare bird turned out to be the most common bird in the park today!
southern boubou
brubru
southern tchagra
(three-streaked) brown crowned tchagra
wattled starling
(cape) glossy starling

red-winged starling
red-billed oxpecker
white bellied sunbird
scarlet chested sunbird
house sparrow
southern-grey headed sparrow
spotted backed (village) weaver
redcollared widow
blue waxbill (blue-breasted cordon-bleu)
pintailed whydah

long-tailed (eastern) paradise whydah
dusky indigobird (black widowfinch)
yellow fronted canary
streaky headed seedeater
golden breasted bunting
(cinnamon-breasted) rock bunting

There may also be one or two that have been forgotten on the list, Jason will find out when he goes through the pictures.

And then of course, as a sidenote they also spotted some non-avian species too, such;

chacma baboon
vervet monkey
african elephant
white rhino
warthog
burchells zebra
giraffe
blue wildebeest
impala
buffalo
nyala
leopard tortoise
bells hinged tortoise

All in all, not a bad days game viewing!
As with all the best days, no day would be complete without the telling of stories over a beer in the lappa before dinner.

Hluhluwe accommodation, south africa

Stories and bragging rights exchanged at the bar :)

Category: Activities, Birding, Extreme Nature Tour, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, Jason and Adam, New friends / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FC01 – Day 33

Lacey / January 26, 2012 / No comments

26/01/2012

10:00 – 26.4c

FC01 was still in the same patch of bush as the previous couple of days. Great we thought, it has found another place to chill.

18:40 – 25.6c

But no.

Due to its positioning near the gate, for the last couple of days we have been checking position as we drive past. As we returned from town we checked, fully expecting it to be once more still in the bush – but it was gone.

We checked once more outside the fence line, just in case it had decided to move on once more, but not there either. Ok, we thought, must have gone the other way into our neighbours property. So we checked all along the perimeter line of our property, and then all of a sudden, there it was -bip- -bip- then it started to get louder -beep- -beep- -beep-.

FC01 was heading our way.

Slinking through the bush towards us was FC01 (it was actually quite strange to see it on the floor)!

Forest Cobra South Africa

Slinking towards us was FC01

Constantly looking around and tasting the air, we knew it was hunting, or at least looking for prey. FC01 then started making its way into a tree (this is what we are familiar with) when it suddenly paused, raised its head, tasted the air, turned and made its way slowly, silently back to the ground where it hid.

Forest Cobra in bush

FC01 can smell lunch....

We initially thought that it had been spooked by us but we were still hidden, still and quiet.

Then we heard a little ‘wuarck’ — ‘wuarck’ — ‘wuarck’ .

Elephant Shrew!

We held our breath, too scared to move a muscle lest we disturb either FC01 or Elephant Shrew and interfere with nature – not to mention of course the selfish desire to see it catch wild prey (or for that matter, see how the Elephant Shrew would escape).

The Elephant Shrew seemed oblivious to both us and the Forest Cobra as he scuttled around munching on the different bugs and insects it came across as it fussed in the leaf litter.

Still unable to see FC01 (but knowing where he us) we watched the Elephant Shrew as he wandered off in the direction of FC01, then we heard a scuffle and the Elephant Shrew came shooting past us. We could still hear it as it went into the bush a few minutes later ‘waurcking’ and shuffling the leaves. So we presume that FC01 missed and the Elephant Shrew got away. It was at this point that we decided to leave FC01 to his hunting.

Category: FC01, Forest Cobra Project, Phase 2 / Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,