Faulty starter motor, but I'll get it fixed . Soukous BY 2020

[PeterHG]

A joy to see your Sani Pass collection. Great photos!

[Soukous]

19 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

However, but do you not think #62 is a juvenile Common Fiscal?

 

I must admit I had not considered it Peter, but I think you are probably correct. Rats.

[Soukous]

19 hours ago, PeterHG said:

A joy to see your Sani Pass collection. Great photos!

 

Thank you Peter.

I was a little disappointed with the overall tally, but I did get 20 lifers so I am pretty happy with that.

[Soukous]

I think that's about it for Sani Pass / Sani Valley. 

i was very happy to find so many lifers, but there was one glaring omission from our sightings, the Amur Falcon. We didn't see a single one during our excursion in Sani Pass.

Normally at this time of year (February) there should be thousands of them in the area. Stuart said that last year the numbers had been way down, but this year he had not seen one at all. 

I did see a small number of them, maybe 20, a couple of days later and Stuart said he had seen a group of about 100 at the same time. Even so, Drakensberg and Golden Gate NP should have them everywhere. Clearly something is affecting their migratory habits.

[Soukous]

Changed after overwhelming popular opinion made it clear i was wrong. 

 

#71 - Fork-tailed Drongo - Dicrurus adsimilis

Eastern Cape, South Africa. feb 2020

 

On my monitor that looks like a brown eye, not a red one, and i also think the tail is too rounded for a Fork-tailed Drongo.

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Soukous

[Soukous]

#72 - Common Waxbill - Estrilda astrild

Sani Valley, SA. Feb 2020

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#73 - Yellow-billed Duck - Anas undulata

Sani Valley, SA. Feb 2020

 

 

 

[Soukous]

After leaving Sani Valley we started our drive down through Eastern Cape, towards the Klein Karoo.

 

Inspired by @Peter Connan's photos from December we made a small change to our route so that we could stop in Morgan Bay and hopefully boost our tally with some of the wonderful birds he saw there.

It was a decent plan. Sadly it didn't work the way we wanted. 

 

We arrived in Morgan Bay to be told that they were experiencing some of their worst weather. The sky was grey and the humidity was severe. 

Undaunted we took a quick walk on the beach and had a wee drive around to get our bearings. That night there was a power outage, scheduled to be sure but we woke in the middle of the night to find the fan had stopped and we were slowly melting. Added to that, without the fan to keep them at bay, the mosquitoes had come out to play. 

Morning couldn't come soon enough. 

 

Peter had kindly given me some tips on the best places to go in search of birds so we made an early start and set out on foot.

What a difference a few weeks makes. The areas that had been so productive for Peter yielded very little for us and after a couple of hours we were dripping wet. 

After a shower and some breakfast the world looked better and we ventured down to the beach, telling ourselves we'll get used to the heat & humidity.
There was always tomorrow and we were buoyed by the news that tomorrow would be cooler. 

 

It was; and wetter. It was raining. Oh joy. 

 

If i'd been on my own the attraction of adding some species to my list might have made me stick it out. I wasn't though and whilst Madame S is a wonderful and tolerant lady, sitting in a little cottage watching the rain is not her idea of a holiday ( unless of course we are in Scotland or Wales )

 

Being a considerate sort of chap I agreed that this was not as we'd hoped and it might be better to cut our losses and move on. 

 

The sum total of the birds I managed to photograph was 2. 

 

[Soukous]

#74 - Southern Black Tit - Parus niger (FTP #27)

Morgan Bay, Eastern Cape. Feb 2020

 

 

 

[Soukous]

#75 - Village Weaver - Ploceus cucllatus

Morgan Bay, Eastern Cape. Feb 2020

 

 

[Soukous]

One big win for us was that instead of having to drive all the way from Morgan Bay to Klein Karoo in one shift, we now had a spare night and so we decided to stop at Plettenberg Bay. The main reason being that it was almost exactly half way.

It also gave us the opportunity to visit Robberg Nature Reserve, where there were a couple of species I hoped to see.

 

By the time we reached Plett Bay the weather had settled a bit and we had hazy sunshine. The trails in Robberg  Nature Reserve looked reasonable, either 5km or 9 km. We opted for the 5km trail because ti was already late in the afternoon. 
5km may not sound like much, but when you are scrambling over rocks and up the side of cliffs it is quite enough. Especially with a camera and long lens to contend with. 

 

We saw 2 pods of dolphins, lots & lots of seals (it is a seal colony) and very few birds apart from Gulls and Red-winged Starlings.

There were a couple of really cool sightings though.

 

#76 - African Black Oystercatcher - Haematopus moquini

Robberg Nature Reserve, Plettenberg Bay, SA. Feb 2020

 

 

 

 

At the time, because the bird was quite far, I didn't notice that it was feeding on mussels. If I had I might have grabbed a few for our dinner. 

[Soukous]

#77 - Orange-breasted Sunbird - Anthobaphes violacea (FTP #28)

Robberg Nature reserve, Plettenberg Bay, SA. Feb 2020

 

 

 

 

This was a lifer for me and a wonderful way to end our hike. 
What I only realised a short while later was that this bird's territory was only 100 metres from the car park. I had hiked 5km, I could have just strolled 100 metres. 

[Soukous]

#78 - Southern Masked Weaver - Ploceus velatus

Klein Karoo, SA. Feb 2020

 

 

[Soukous]

#79 - Cape Sparrow - Passer melanurus

Klein Karoo, SA. Feb 2020

 

 

 

female

 

[Soukous]

#80 - Crowned Lapwing - Vanellus coronatus

Klein Karoo, SA. Feb 2020

 

 

 

[Tdgraves]

@Soukous on my iPhone your “flycatcher’s” eye looks suspiciously red....

 

[Soukous]

6 minutes ago, Tdgraves said:

@Soukous on my iPhone your “flycatcher’s” eye looks suspiciously red....

 

 

[PeterHG]

Wow, @Soukous, that Orange-breasted Sunbird is a stunner! Amazing photos, you managed to take of this spectacular little bird.

[xelas]

2 hours ago, Tdgraves said:

@Soukous on my iPhone your “flycatcher’s” eye looks suspiciously red....

 

Must be just off the "red-eye" flight ... or trying to impersonate a Drongo 

[Soukous]

56 minutes ago, xelas said:

Must be just off the "red-eye" flight ... or trying to impersonate a Drongo

 

Does that mean you think it is a Drongo as well? 

[xelas]

Don't take my word for it, I have been wrong on much easier birds ID . But yes, it looks like a Fork-tailed Drongo to me.

[Galana]

24 minutes ago, xelas said:

But yes, it looks like a Fork-tailed Drongo to me.

And I tend to agree. Always tough to split these two but it does have the more fierce expression of the FTD.

[Peter Connan]

Sorry for your bad luck in Morgan's Bay. But you got some beautiful photos in Plet!

[Kitsafari]

what a stunning orange-breasted sunbird!

[Soukous]

16 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

Sorry for your bad luck in Morgan's Bay. But you got some beautiful photos in Plet!

 

Hey, nothing to apologise for Peter, it was just the weather and the shock of arriving at the coast after such clear mountain air. There will be another time.