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

Busy preparing for the Birding Big Day! My team mates, Mark and Julia Friskin and their son James, and I are starting about three o' clock tomorrow morning. Teams from all around the country go out, each with the goal of finding and identifying as many bird species as possible within 24 hours and a 50 km radius. At least two members of each team need to agree on the identification of a bird for it to be officially observed. Last year we managed just over 180 species ... this year we're going for 200!

I am blown away by this kind of biodiversity. The idea that you can catalogue that many bird species in one area in such a short space of time is just mind-boggling.

Hi Dmitri! That's nothing ... the top teams in SA are, from the reports we've been receiving, over 300 species. Same 24 hour and 50 km radius restriction. Ayways ...

We've had a very far from ideal day in that it was miserably cold, rainy, misty, dark, dank and dim - the whole day long and everywhere we went! So we didn't have much of a chance for getting 200 species. The birdies don't like this weather much! They roost and retreat into whatever cozy corner they can find and if no cozy corner offers itself, they stoically steel themselves to weather the weather until things look up and they can fly and merrily chirp and sing and such once again.

BUT ... some birds are even more stoic than others and will even be out and about and acting chirpy in spite of the weather! Interestingly the avian stoics included some storks ... marabou, Abdim's and white, but sadly no woolly-necked as we'd been hoping for.

Anyways I can go on and on about what we saw and heard ... in the end we managed about 190 ID's confirmed by at least two of us. So ... we actually came close. And there are several quite common species of which we could find no brave representatives out and about.

In addition we had many other sightings of non-birds, including three baby jackals, some spring hares, may gnus, tsessebes, impalas, sable antelopes ...

I'm personally happy for the rains, the veld really needed it.

And we're encouraged for next year!

I might report a bit more tomorrow, right now I'm a bit exhausted.

Wow! You're entitled to be exhausted! What an epic tale!

Elektra says drink a hot toddy and recuperate from being out in that wet weather.

We'll pelt you with questions later.

Amazing! What a day, and all in that weather which sounds like the British weather we know and talk about.

And Elektra is right, that hot toddy is much needed.

By me.

Oh, sorry, its for Willem.

And not just birds were seen! Baby jackals, spring hares, gnus, tsessebes, impalas, and sable antelopes.

Tsessebes?

Explain when you've recovered.

Hi Cactuscafe and Dmitri! Cactuscare, here is something that will hopefully explain much:

https://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/A87860451

Wow, what a day !

Hi Superfrenchie! It was quite a day.

Sorry for misspelling your h2g2 moniker Cactuscafe! Was still a bit tired.

OK ... maybe let me tell you a bit more about the big day. We started around 3 in the morning, and headed to the Polokwane Game Reserve. That is always the big moneymaker on the BBD. It started out great, a fairly warm night, and we got the nightjars we were expecting ... Fireynecked and Rufouscheeked, on calls, and we also saw some flying around. Nightjars are pretty much guaranteed in the reserve, you usually even see them sitting in the road. We also saw three lovely young black-backed jackals in the night, and heard some snorting wildebeests and saw some resting impalas.

Just before dawn, the rain started and it got mighty cold. As always we were perched up on a big dome of rock from where we could hear the dawn chorus ... one species after another joining in. White-browed scrub-robins are the dependables, starting earlier than most. We also heard several species of cuckoo ... coming in from further up north in Africa, mainly. We get European cuckoos, but they're quite rare and don't call. A nice cuckoo is the Diederik, with a very characteristic call, and it's pretty, with bronze-green shiny plumage.

Not as many birds were calling as might have, because of the rain, but we got quite a lot and had a decent list as it became light. Dawn didn't really break as the sun never got a chance to appear through the clouds.

We then drove through the reserve, stopping in promising places, but it was disappointing and there were several species quite common in the reserve that just weren't out and about.

We didn't have the 120 species we'd decided to set as a target for the reserve but headed out to some other spots. We went around the Polokwane stadium, where we got some finches and canaries; the Golf Club, where there was a golf tournament on so we had to be careful for flying golf balls and for disturbing the golfers who were so serious about their game that they were out in that weather. We were rewarded with three species of kingfisher around the little river winding along the edge of the grounds.

We had a quick look at the Flora Park Dam. We got a few more waterbirds there.

We left Polokwane for some farms a way out to the north: Vencor and BB. On the dams we got lots of waders and ducks. I was especially happy about seeing lots of avocets ... black-and-white wading birds with thin, up-turned bills. Hadn't seen those in ages, and now here were lots of them! At the slaughtering place we got Marabou storks, vultures, and also white and Abdim's storks.

Heading back we dropped by the Polokwane Bird Sanctuary. It is very smelly because the dams receive water from the sewage treatment plant ... there are several dams through which the water flows before being considered pure enough to be allowed to enter a local river. On the dams we got glossy ibises, jacanas (birds with ridiculously long toes they use to walk on lily pads) and warblers in the reeds.

We headed to the east, taking in the Sebayeng wetlands around the experimental farm of the University of Limpopo. We did get a few new wetland birds there. We got a bit lost trying to get back to the main road, but we did get there finally. We were pretty disheartened about heading towards the Haenertsburg/Magoebaskloof region, since that is a very wet region ... if it was raining this hard around Polokwane, how hard was it likely to be raining there?

We decided to press on. Actually it turned out not to be raining much harder at Haenertsburg ... it was a light drizzle and lots of mist. We headed to the cemetery above the town, where we got the expected dusky flycatcher (they hang around the gravestones for some reason). We also got sunbirds in the flowers. We went for a walk through the grassland and got several birds: bishops, widows, grassbirds, cisticolas, stonechats, to name a few. Things were looking up!

From there, we headed to the Magoebaskloof Hotel, where there's a bit more grassland, and also some nice indigenous forest. Heading to the forest we startled a huge eagle! We decided it could be nothing other than a Crowned Eagle, a huge monkey-hunter of the forest. Heading into the forest, we got several birds on their calls: orange thrushes, squaretailed drongos, Knysna and Purplecrested turacos, yellowstreaked greenbuls, to name a few.

Along the roads in the region we were fortunate to get long-crested Eagle, forest buzzard and jackal buzzard.

With a tally of 190 species, we decided to head back to Polokwane and perhaps spend a bit more time in the game reserve. But heading back, the rain came down heavier and we saw ominous dark grey and deep banks of clouds. We decided to call it a day, as it was close to five in the afternoon and already dark and very rainy. As it were, we'd come close to our target of 200, and in very adverse conditions. Out of over 300 teams, we were in 29th place. Our friend Joe Grosel and his team came second in the country, with about 300 species! Another friend, Richter van Tonder and his team, also came in the top ten ... I think they were seventh.

So ... it was a challenge but I think we came through pretty well! Now for next year!

I'm amazed. What a huge variety!

I need the hot toddy now!

What a day, Willem!

And thanks for my tsessebe update!

PS I like being named Cactuscare.

This could be my life's work. Bring me your cacti, old or rare, I will offer them care, read them a story about cactus glory.

Just don't over-water them.

Heh well I'm actually the one into caring for cacti ... or at least, succulents ... cacti proper don't occur in South Africa except for one species which probably entered the country in the digestive system of a bird, perhaps some thousands of years ago.

Anyways folks glad you liked the report! (If you indeed did ...)

Well, I certainly did - I'm looking forward to pictures, if you managed to take any while being so busy and rained on.

Hi Dmitri! Well we didn't take any photos. That's the one downside of the BBD ... as soon as we got a positive ID on one bird we'd immediately ignore it and look out for the next one. It's much better photography-wise just to be on a casual stroll or drive with no pressure.

That's true!