| 17 November 2007 |
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| Zululand |
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Saturday morning early
saw Andrew Sutherland pick the 4 of us up at Umlalazi and we headed off
up the coast. After a quick breakfast stop at Hluhluwe, we took a back
road through Phinda Game Reserve heading towards the coast. We didn't
stop too much along the way, but the highlight of this part of the trip
is when Sion suddenly went ballistic and shouted, "STOP, STOP!" We
screeched to a halt and found a female Cheetah with 3 cubs right next to
the road. They then proceeded to walk out into the middle of the road
and parade in front of us. A great start to the day... |
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| Blue Wildebeest |
Burchell's Zebra |
Cheetah |
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| Brown Snake Eagle |
Crowned Hornbill |
Lizard Buzzard |
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| Our main
destination was a place known as Ozambeni which is somewhere between St.
Lucia and Sodwana Bay. It is mostly open grasslands with small patches
of coastal forest, palm savannah and several small wetland areas. It was
quite a mission to get there having to travel along some rather
interesting roads. Actually, "roads" is perhaps an overstatement as they
were more like vague tracks. But, once we got there, the birding was
great and a number of photographic lifers were nabbed in quick
succession - Little Bee-eater, Yellow- and Rosy-throated Longclaws,
Pale-crowned Cisticola, Collared Pratincole and Black-winged Lapwing as
well as Oribi on the mammalian side (although this photo will need to be
seriously improved on in the very near future!) Towards the end of our
time there, the weather started closing in and we would have to spend
the rest of the day dodging rain and dealing with dark gloomy skies and
strong winds. |
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| Little Bee-eater |
Brimstone Canary |
Yellow-throated Longclaw |
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| Black-chested Snake Eagle |
juvenile Toad |
Steppe Buzzard |
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| Rosy-throated Longclaw |
African Marsh Harrier |
Pale-crowned Cisticola |
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| Cape Longclaw |
Oribi |
juvenile African Pipit |
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| Rufous-naped Lark |
Wattled Lapwing |
Spurwing Goose |
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| Collared Pratincole |
Southern Reedbuck |
male Montagu's Harrier |
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| Black-winged Lapwing |
Denham's Bustard |
Senegal Lapwing |
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| Our next
stop was Muzi Pan where we spent a short while. African Pygmy Goose,
Black Heron and Pink-backed Pelican were all added to the photographic
lifelist here and we also had a few frustrating moments with a Rudd's
Apalis that was calling continuously, but just refused to show itself. |
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| Squacco Heron |
male Afican Pygmy Goose |
Purple Heron |
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| male Banded Groundling |
Little Egret |
male Long Skimmer |
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| Great White Egret |
Black Heron |
Intermediate
(Yellow-billed) Egret |
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| White-faced Duck |
Pink-backed Pelican |
African Jacana |
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Our last stop for the day was a quick spin through Mkuze
Game Reserve. The weather had been progressively worse and birding was
not great, but I did at least manage to add Scarlet-chested Sunbird and
Southern Banded Snake Eagle to the photographic list. |
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| Southern Banded Snake
Eagle |
Rattling Cisticola |
Common Greenshank |
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| Cattle Egret |
Foamnest Frog |
Crested Guineafowl |
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| male Black-backed
Puffback |
Leopard Tortoise |
Bearded Scrub Robin |
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| male Scarlet-chested
Sunbird |
Lesser Striped Swallow |
male Lesser Masked Weaver |
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| Impala |
Red-billed Oxpecker |
White Rhino |
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