h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Team ‘Red-Billed Rocket-Tails’ consisted of Mark, Julia and James Friskin, and myself! I met up with them at their home at 2:30 Saturday morning. We all had a look at each other so that we could tick off ‘red-billed rocket-tails’ off our list straight away! Just kidding. It was a drizzly morning, as other Polokwane residents might remember. It was rather rainy last year also … it seems to be a Birding Big Day tradition. At the end of the day we joked (though I was a bit slow on the uptake at that point) that we should have the bird day in early October to get a quick start to the rainy season!

We headed to the Polokwane Game Reserve first of all. On the way there we had the first charming encounter of the outing – no, not birds, but a couple of hedgehogs crossing the road! Once in the reserve, we caught some nightjars calling and were on the big rock for the dawn chorus, where we ticked off several species. The only owl we got there, was the Pearl-otted. It was a day for cuckoos, with Red-Chested, Black, Diederik and Jacobin cuckoos calling. We got several species of francolins and warblers. After the break of dawn we ventured on a drive through the reserve. A spec was ial encounter was a red-chested flufftail (heard only) at a small wetland. Mark was adamant that we should try to get at least 100 species before we leave for our other destinations – and we did! We were especially happy to get Wahlberg’s Eagle.

From the reserve we made a quick trip to the golf club, where we were charmed by several species of kingfisher – woodland, pied, pygmy and malachite. Another treat was thousands of tiny frogs hopping around! They must have recently metamorphosed. We also made a trip to a patch of veld close to the stadium, where we got, among other things, rock martins and redwinged starlings, and then took a detour to the Koraal retirement home. From there we visited the Flora Park Dam but were disappointed … not much going on, with some fishermen probably scaring the birds away. But there were more tiny frogs! I couldn’t stop to ID them, though.

From there we headed to BBB where we got wonderful waterfowl last year. This year the dams were not as full, but we got several species of wader: common, wood and marsh sandpiper, ruff and greenshank. We did get some ducks also: white-faced, yellow-billed, redbilled teal, southern pochard. We got several new species there, it was one of our most profitable stops. From there we headed to Vencor, the cattle-lot. James found the smell rather overpowering! There we found lots of storks: marabous, Abdim’s, and white. Mark saw some woolly-necked storks but I just couldn’t get a glimpse of them. We also got vultures: cape and white-backed. Unfortunately we missed the pelican!

From Vencor we turned back and had a quick trip to the Polokwane Bird Sanctuary. That wasn’t very pleasant smelling either, with lots of fresh sewage streaming from the works. We didn’t get much there, but did ID the African Sedge Warbler/Little Rush Warbler on call – always a stalwart. We did get a couple of other species also. Then we headed to the Haenertzburg-Magoebaskloof region. Along the road we got a couple of Greater Kestrel. We first made a stop at the cemetery and the patch of conserved grassland. We got, as we expected, the dusky flycatcher, grassbird, yellow bishop and Drakensberg prinia. We then intended to take the forest drive. The roads were very bad, though, and we didn’t actually make it into the indigenous forest. But along the road we saw a woolly-necked stork – this time I saw it clearly, in fact we all did! We also got cape canaries, lesser and greater double-collared sunbird, pied wagtail, sombre bulbul/greenbul, and, as expected, a long-crested eagle perched beside the road!

We made our last stop at the Magoebaskloof Dam, and from there headed back to Polokwane. The last species we recorded, was the Black Cuckooshrike – Mark and I saw a female.

When we decided to call it a day, our tally was 181 species! We had aimed for 170 – last year we got 152 – so we were very pleased. And still, there were several fairly common species which we missed! And because of the rain and the roads we didn’t get into the forests, where we might have glimpsed several more. So we are quite satisfied and also stoked for next year!

Wow, that was an impressive list. So many different birds in such a limited space. Great planning on someone's part to get so many different ecological niches!

Hi Elektra! Glad you appreciated this. If we actually had made it into the indigenous forest, we should have had at least 10-15 more species! But we can now set a target for next year.

Great treks to look forward to! Are you still doing your part-time job, Willem? Do people tip their service personnel in South Africa for the holiday season? Small gifts or small denomination bills? Or is is just not done there?