This year Raiders "Old Firm" of Etienne Marais and Graham Deverell was joined
by Mike Pope and Paul Tyler.
We started out at 03:00 after varying amounts of sleep and before leaving had
recorded White-faced and Barn Owl, followed by Redchested and Black Cuckoo. Our
"Night drive" produced Dikkop, Crowned Plover and Kurrichane Buttonquail. We
were dissapointed to only have 16 birds by 04:30 - when the dawn chorus proper
started - somewhat subdued to to cloud cover to the east. But then the birding
picked up and surprises in our favourite wetland included Painted Snipe,
Harlequin Quail, Bluecheeked Bee-eaters and all the white egret's. On towards
Pienaarsrivier, where we recorded as well as a host of other waterbirds and
waxbills and firefinches. The early morning bush birding was excellent with
species such as Pied Babbler, Purple Roller, Great Sparrow and 6 cuckoo
species. Roet's Farm produced a lot of waders too, as well as Goliath Heron,
Black Egret and various Kingfishers. Alice our driver, kept the team under
control and we managed to get ahead of our schedule. We headed across the N1
towards Rust de WInter with a tally of 160 - and this was before 08:15 in the
morning. This put us in high spirits, and the next few localities continued to
be productive, although the wind and heat were just starting to hint that the
day was not going to get better. Redheaded Weaver, Giant Kingfisher, Lesser
Masked Weaver.....Shaft-tailed whydah, striped Kingfisher.....We moved into the
Amakulu with the tally just shy of 180....And it was not yet 10:00. On the
amakulu we recorded a nice Black Crow - only the second seen here in numerous
trips to the area, as well as House Martin. But the Lark's seemed to be subdued
- no Monotonous, Fawncolored - only Sabota. An argument about a call, led to a
long search in order to settle the dispute. We picked up our first White
quilled Korhaan at 10:45 and two distant raptors - one probably a Lanner,
eluded Identification.
Our next stop in a wooded kloof added birds like Bar-throated Apalis,
Plumcolored Starling and Paradise Flycatcher. Redwinged Starling and Mocking
Chat brought the total up to 199. Our 200th bird was a Dabchick on a small farm
dam, spotted at 11:26 AM. The Seringveld produced the usual goods, although the
hot weather made it hard work and we dipped on two normally easy birds:
Yellow-throated Sparrow and Fawncoloured Laek. Off to Rooiwal where we found a
whole lot of specials like Yellow Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Curlew Sandpiper and
Sand Martin. A kloof near Pretoria produced Thickbilled Weaver and Rock Martin.
At Cullinan, a couple enjoying a burger and chips stared in amazement as a
bunch of men came charging up to the viewsite and set up a high-powered scope
while playing birdsong from the pocket of a waistcoat. This spot produced Horus
and African Black Swift. Zonderwater was dissapointed - possibly because so
many teams visit this spot, and the next stop was a failure as for the first
time in five years, a BBD locality yielded absolutely nothing!
Running late we headed into the highveld proper between the N4 and Bapsfontein.
Conditions were hot and windy, and ominous storm clouds gathered in the
South-west. Given the poor conditions for grassland birding, we headed south to
the natural pan, which was our trump card last year - again it did not
dissapoint with Great Crested Grebe, Blacknecked Grebe, Maccoa Duck,
White-backed Duck and Purple Gallinule. By the time we had finished finding the
Orange-breasted Waxbills which we knew were there, the rain had started to come
down and we raced northwards hoping to get ahead of it. We had reached 246
species and felt confident that if we the weather held, we could make 260. By
5:30 however, rain had swamped our first grassland locality and we rushed on to
the second, where a brief lull allowed us to tick Ayre's Cisticola and enjoy a
Melodius Lark which called right above us. We picked up a Capped Wheatear be
fore heading towards the ridge where we expected birds like Mountain Chat,
Bokmakierie and Redwinged Francolin. No such luck, but we did manage two more
species. Our last locality was again a major dissapointment, but the Wailing
Cisticola called in the wind, and a pair of Banded Martins were the last birds
we recorded. We then headed north on our planned route for things like Grass
Owl, Marsh Owl, Flufftails and Nightjars. But we were caught by driving rain,
and after phoning around to check conditions, decided to throw in the towel.
This was a decision we regretted, as later on it cleared up, but we had already
braved the most incredible storm and gone our seperate ways home by that time.
Our final tally was 253, which we were very happy with, given the conditions
and the late afternoon wash-out. Compared to last year, we missed 4 larks and
some incredibly common birds like Cape Weaver, Redfaced Mousebird and
Kurrichane Thrush. We recorded no accipiters, but on the plus side, got all the
Possible Swallows and Martins, 5 swifts and 9 Cisticola's (10 last year). We
were also very poor on Nightbirds with only 4 owls and no Nightjars - down from
8 owls and three nightjars in 1997.
Once again it was a great event, and the Raiders will most certainly be back in 2001!
Etienne Narais
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