A Brief Holiday Away from the Sun

The Vumba is one of my favourite birding places in Zimbabwe. I drove up there on October 13 to spend two nights at Seldomseen.
Not once during those two days and nights did I see the sun!
The mist rolled in when I arrived and didn't let up by the time I left. Vumba is notoriously good at being misty, but this was taking it to a new level. The mist was quite heavy, bordering on light drizzle at times. My waterproof hiking boots became normal hiking boots after a while!

I actually really like the misty conditions, despite the birding difficulties that it entails. It certainly makes for interesting landscape photography.

Despite all the wetness, the birds were still pretty active. I guess if you lived in a place where the mist can blanket everything for days, you'd have to learn to hunt and feed in the wet.

The mist did, however, make it quite dark and exceedingly difficult to photograph birds. I actually gave up trying to get any pictures of real use, and just tried to enjoy the wildlife.

Birding in the forest

I saw (or heard) many of the Vumba specials, including Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler, Barratt's Warbler, White-starred Robin, Lemon Dove, Buff-spotted Flufftail (Heard nearby and tried hard to see this, but no luck), African Firefinch, Olive Bush-shrike, Gorgeous Bush-shrike (my main target on this trip - heard but not seen!), Swynnerton's Robin, Black-fronted Bush-shrike and Bronzy Sunbird.

African Dusky Flycatcher

Bronzy Sunbird male

Olive Thrush

I found a couple of nesting birds. African Dusky Flycatcher was feeding chicks in the nest near the bottom cottage.
I visited a tree where I know Swynnerton's Robin had nested before (last time I checked was in 2009), and lo and behold! There was a nest with an egg in it. There was no sign of the parents, so I left it alone and checked later on. Much to my surprise there were two eggs in the nest, and the parent Swynnerton's Robins were hanging around.

5:50am - one egg in the nest

2:00pm - and then there were two!

 I visited Leopard Rock Hotel in an attempt to escape the mist. It was still misty there, but it actually partially lifted for about an hour. I could even see past the end of my nose.
There were a few different birds here: African Stonechat, Black Cuckooshrike, Red-faced Crimsonwing and Giant Kingfisher to name a few. I also saw Blue (Samango) Monkey and Bushbuck on the golf course.

The mist lifted a little bit. You can hardly see it in this picture

Then the mist returned... Here I am looking towards the hotel, which is behind the barely visible trees on the hill

Between Harare and Vumba is a small town called Headlands. Very near this town is the one place in the country where you stand a good chance of seeing South African Cliff-swallow. The birds have been breeding under two small bridges for a number of years, but their numbers have been fewer in recent years. Hopefully they will continue to cling on. I stopped on the way to Vumba and was perhaps a bit early in the year, as I only saw one distant bird, and no nests.

A terrible photograph, but nonetheless my only South African Cliff-swallow photo from Zimbabwe