Tag Archive for safari

Day 8 – uMkhuze

The bird hunting continues!

A fantastic days sightings at uMkhuze, even whilst loading the car with our cameras, telescope, binoculars, bird books and most importantly breakfast we could hear the birds whistling around us.

No sooner had we pulled out of Umkhumbi Lodge gate than we see 2 Burchells Coucals sitting on a fence post, how could it possibly be a bad day after that!?

The bird list for today is:
- plover
- sandpipers
- swift
- moorhen
- lilac breasted roller
- nesting black-bellied starling pair
- white-faced whistling ducks
- 3 purple gallinule heron
- 2 heron
- bulbul
- barn swallow
- violet-back starling
- barbet
- collared dove
- 3 crested frankolin
- 2 rudds apalis
- mousebird
- crowned hornbill
- cardinal woodpecker
- tawny flanked prinia
- nobbeaked duck female
- jacan (adult and juvenile)
- glossy ibis
- sacred ibis
- emerald spotted dove
- cape dove
- gold-tailed woodpecker
- open billed stork
- red-breasted cuckoo
- broad billed roller !!
- eagle with nesting material
- dusky flycatcher
- golden breasted bunting
- nob-billed ducks
- egyptian goose
- broad billed roller
- black-bellied korhaan
- bustard
- european bee-eater
- bluecheeked bee-eater
- european bee-eater
- blue-cheeked bee eater
- red-backed shrike (again the most common bird of the day!)
- 2 blue waxbill/ cordon bleu
- broad-billed roller
- chinspot batis
- weaver
- black-shouldered kite
- purple-crested turaco/ lourie
- red-breasted swallow
- lesser striped swallow
- pie-tailed swallow
- swallow
- white-tailed swallow
- bulbul
- mystery bird
- cisticola
- red-cheeked mousebird
- stint
- canary
- unidentified bird of prey
- eagle
- cattle egret
- spurwing
- 4 red bishop
- 2 burchells coucal
- 3 trumpeter hornbill
- 5 yellow-billed hornbill
- stuffed buzzard
- woodland kingfisher
- 2 pied kingfisher
- 2 malachite kingfisher
- kingfisher
- masked weaver
- golden weaver
- pells weaver
- crested guinea fowl
- helmeted /crowned guinea fowl

- foamnest frog
- hippo
- dragonfly
- natal hinged tortoise
- forest cobra

Day 6 – Tembe Elephant Reserve

Time to say good bye to Kosi Bay as the boys set out at 6:30 am to head once more to their Hluhluwe accommodation at Umkhumbi Lodge.

But whilst we’re driving past Tembe Elephant Reserve, it would be wrong not to go in… wouldn’t it? :)

Don’t let the name fool you, Tembe Elephant reserve is about much more than just Elephants! There are countless bird species as well as many different game animals. Although saying that, it is also fantastic for elephants, after turning a corner in the park whilst tracking down a bird they came across about 14 elephants just loitering on and to the side of the road.

They certainly had fun as they stayed in the park from gate open to gate close and arrived back at Umkhumbi Lodge just in time for a fantastic 3 course dinner under the stars.

Day 2 – Hluhluwe Imfolozi

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 :)