Birding and Bird Ringing in Zimbabwe: Umfurudzi Safari Area: The Far North

I have visited Umfurudzi Safari Area on many occasions, usually to stay at Hippo Pools camp, a wonderful birding location.

But I had never been to the far northern end of the park. It is a very wild part of the country, and receives few visitors.

A good friend and I set out on October 3rd, 2013 for a day trip to the far north of the safari area. The target location was a rather large and inviting-looking patch of riparian forest on the Mazowe river, close to the northeast corner of the park. The distance was 32km from when we left the east-west running 'Black Granite Quarry' road. The trip up to this turnoff was on tar and good dirt roads, but immediately after we turned north the road became horrendous! Washed-away and eroded pieces of road, plus the regular patches of rocky ground, made for very slow going.

A map showing our target spot in relation to Hippo Pools. The green line denotes the boundary of Umfurudzi Safari Area.

We decided on a day trip as we both had stuff to get back to on the weekend. It would have been better to stay at least one night in the area, as the driving time was longer than anticipated.

It was, however, a very enjoyable trip. The scenery, although very dry and rocky, was stunning.

The landscape from a small ridge near the north boundary

The drive through the park was fairly productive in terms of birds. I recorded about 50 species, including Southern Red-billed Hornbill, Meyer's Parrot, Orange-winged Pytilia (great bird, but poor photographs), White-browed Sparrow-weaver, Meves's Starling (usually seen in the low altitude valley systems like the Zambezi and Save - just shows how far north we were!), Southern Black Tit, Shelley's Francolin and Swallow-tailed Bee-eater.

The communal lands reach right to the western boundary of the park. Not much growing at that time

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

A large granite dome, on the east-west quarry road

Dry riverbed

Did I mention rocks?

Meves's Starling, one of the better sightings of the day.

There were even a few animals to see. A couple of small groups of Kudu made a brief appearance, plus some Chacma Baboons. Kirk's Rock Agama, Rainbow Skink and even Leopard Tortoise were seen.