Hippo Pools

I recently spent a weekend at Hippo Pools camp in Umfurudzi Safari Area with the ringing group. This is a beautiful camp set among the thick riverine forest which runs along the Mazowe River. We went on Saturday the 21st of July and returned on Monday.

Riverine thicket in the bed of a dried-up tributary.

Looking upstream at the Mazowe River. Hippo Pools is on the right.

We didn't do much ringing - too busy looking at all the lovely birds that were around! We did manage catch some birds; Terrestrial Brownbuls, a Red-throated Twinspot and a Black-throated Wattle-eye, among others. One Black-throated Wattle-eye with a ring was photographed afterwards. The ring number was not visible, but the bird had an obvious tick behind its right eye, making it different to the individual we had just ringed! It was probably the bird we ringed in the same spot a year ago.

The scenery from camp is quite lovely, as it overlooks the river in which you can watch Hippos during the day. Most of the game in Umfurudzi has been poached over the years, but recently some animals have been re-introduced. We managed to see Vervet Monkey, Baboon, Hippo, Kudu, Eland, Impala, Klipspringer and Zebra along the road or near the camp. We were also lucky enough to visit the camp manager's chalet, where he feeds Brown Greater Galago (Bushbaby) and Rusty Spotted Genet at night!

Hippopotamus

Vervet Monkey

Brown Greater Galago

Rusty-spotted Genet

The six of us managed to see just under 90 species during the weekend. The birds were, as per usual for this area, brilliant. At night African Wood-owls were calling in the camp, plus I heard one Barn Owl. On Sunday and Monday morning a Verreaux's Eagle-owl was seen by other groups, but by the time we got there it had flown off (we were busy ringing!). I looked hard for the Pel's Fishing Owl, but didn't see or hear it, unfortunately...

In the riverine around camp was where the best birding took place. Birds seen here, along with the river and nearby drier woodlands include: Green-backed Heron, Black Stork, African Goshawk, Three-banded Plover, Water Thick-knee, African Green-pigeon, Klaas's Cuckoo, one Narina Trogon, Giant, Pied, Brown-hooded and Striped Kingfishers, Common Scimitarbill, Greater and Lesser Honeyguides, Eastern Saw-wing, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, Grey Penduline-tit, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Bearded Scrub-robin, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Ashy Flycatcher, Black-throated Wattle-eye, Livingstone's Flycatcher, African Paradise-flycatcher, Grey-headed Bush-shrike, White-crested Helmet-shrike (usually seen alongside Red-headed Weavers), Collared Sunbird, Red-throated Twinspot and Red-backed Mannikin.

Female Narina Trogon - tricky bird to photograph due to the usually poor light  conditions of its habitat.

Above and below - Livingstone's Flycatcher. A busy bird that just won't keep still!

A couple of interesting things - an unusual record of African Paradise-flycatcher in winter... Only one was seen, an adult male. Perhaps some birds overwinter here? It is a fair bit lower altitude-wise than Harare.

Also, the Eastern Saw-wings. There were at least ten, maybe more, flying around camp. In the time of SABAP1 (1987-1991), this bird was not recorded in the quarter degree square (QDS) in which the camp is located. 20 years is a long time - perhaps we are seeing another range expansion?

A map showing which QDS's the Eastern Saw-wing was recorded in for SABAP1 (red squares),
along with the location of Hippo Pools.

Birds seen on the road between the park gate and Hippo Pools (dry miombo/mopane woodlands) include: Black Stork (at Amm Mine, near the gate. Probably the same pair as the ones seen at Hippo Pools), Bateleur, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Lanner Falcon (nesting at Amm Mine), Red-eyed and Cape Turtle-doves, Racket-tailed Roller (gorgeous!), African Grey and Red-billed Hornbills, Familiar Chat, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Retz's and White-crested Helmet-shrikes, Yellow-throated Petronia and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting.

Black Storks at Amm Mine

My best picture from the trip - Racket-tailed Roller.

Weekend of 14-15 July

Saturday morning arrived again and it was time for another visit to Afdis! This is one of our most productive ringing sites, and the most recent trip was no exception - 30 birds caught. Many were warblers (Dark-capped Yellow, Lesser Swamp, Little Rush and African Reed Warblers), plus a bunch of Dark-capped Bulbuls, a Bar-throated Apalis, African Yellow White-eyes, Copper Sunbird, Variable Sunbird, Red-faced Cisticola, Village Weaver, Blacksmith Lapwing and more. There were only two Three-banded Plovers at the ponds, one of which had a ring. There was also one Black-winged Stilt. Four Yellow-billed Storks flew past, and there were raptors such as Black-chested Snake-eagle and Long-crested Eagle around most of the morning.

Black-winged Stilt

Dark-capped Bulbul

Bar-throated Apalis

Copper Sunbird - male in non-breeding plumage

Village Weaver - male moulting into breeding plumage

The next day I went to Trader Horn, Lake Chivero, for most of the day. The wind was blowing much of the time, but that actually made for interesting birding, as the wind was pushing floating mats of weed into the bay, along with many herons and egrets that were using it as a fishing platform! I counted 20+ Grey Herons, at least as many Great Egrets, and various other species with them including a Goliath Heron. A few birds came close enough to get some nice photographs, whilst two in particular were the main performers of the day; a Purple Heron and a Squacco Heron, both fishing very close to shore. The Squacco looked like it had bit off more than it could chew when it finally managed to spear a fish - it's actually a pretty small bird.

Great Egret

Purple Heron

Squacco Heron - a big fish for a such a little heron!

Another exciting sighting was that of an immature African Fish-eagle catching a fish, but unfortunately not close enough to photograph well.

Ewanrigg Botanical Gardens

I have been on two trips to Ewanrigg Bot. Gardens recently; one was a ringing trip and the other was spent photographing sunbirds.

The ringing trip was on the 4th of July. We caught some great birds like Whyte's Barbet, Brown-hooded Kingfisher and male Variable and Miombo Double-collared Sunbirds. My second visit was on 12 July.

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

On both trips there were quite a lot of flowering aloes, but they were the smaller, yellowish flowers. The birds seem to prefer the red flowers, which had already finished flowering, but there were still a fair few sunbirds around. Scarlet-chested, Amethyst, Miombo Double-collared, Variable and White-bellied Sunbirds were all feeding on the aloes at some point. Grey-backed Camaroptera, Brown-crowned Tchagra, Tropical Boubou, White-browed Robin-chat and Dark-capped Bulbul were in this rocky area with the aloe plants. Dozens of Bronze Mannikins and Blue Waxbills, plus a few Red-backed Mannikins, were drinking at a dripping tap nearby.
The Kenya Coffee Tree was flowering, and feeding on these flowers were the five previously mentioned sunbirds, plus Western Violet-backed and Copper Sunbirds, adding up to seven species! Black-headed Oriole, Dark-capped Bulbul and Village Weaver were also feeding on the flowers. Interestingly, all of the Village Weavers were in full or near full breeding plumage, which seems a bit early, as winter is not even over yet.

Male Village Weaver

Female Miombo Double-collared Sunbird

Male Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Elsewhere, the gardens were full of activity. Some of the highlights were: Emerald-spotted Wood Dove, Ashy Flycatcher, Black Stork (flew over on 12th), African Goshawk, African Harrier-hawk (4th), African Grey Hornbill, Whyte's Barbet, Lesser Honeyguide, Golden-tailed Woodpecker, Brown-crowned Tchagra and Grey-headed Bush-shrike (12th).

Black Stork

Blue Waxbill

Speckled Mousebird

Streaky-headed Seedeater

Lastly, I have added some photos taken recently in Borrowdale Brooke.

Black-shouldered Kite

Groundscraper Thrush; a winter visitor to Borrowdale Brooke

Black-backed Puffback, female

Hideaway Lodge, Darwendale Dam

On Friday (29 June) Julia and I visited Hideaway Lodge, situated on the north shore of Darwendale Dam. It is about 40km from Harare, and at least half of this distance is on dirt roads.
The road passes through some farmland on the way, where we saw birds such as Rufous-naped and Red-capped Larks, and Capped Wheatear.

Rufous-naped Lark

Once at Hideaway, we quickly noticed a fruiting fig tree, in which dozens of birds were gorging themselves. There were several Speckled Mousebirds and dozens of Southern Masked-weaver, but no sign of the Lesser Masked-weaver, which I have seen here before. There were even a few Wattled Starlings feeding on the figs. A stunning male Marico Sunbird was feeding nearby.

Marico Sunbird

The main action was happening at the water's edge. As we stood at the boat launch site, we watched flocks of waterbirds flying past, mostly to a spot about 1km east of Hideaway. There were also a lot of birds already on the floating vegetation along the shoreline. There were White-breasted and Reed Cormorants, but no African Darter. Darters are now very rare on Chivero and Darwendale. Grey, Purple, Goliath, Squacco and Black Herons were around, plus Cattle and Yellow-billed Egrets. Few Glossy Ibis were seen, along with African Sacred Ibis and African Openbill.

Ducks and Geese were well represented with over 100 each of White-faced Duck and Red-billed Teal, 20 Egyptian Goose, 8 Spur-winged Goose, 10 Hottentot Teal, 30 Southern Pochard, 60 Fulvous Duck and, the star of the show, over 200 Comb (Knob-billed) Duck!

African Jacana were everywhere, and Red-knobbed Coot, Black Crake, Common Moorhen and African Purple Swamphen were all common.

Waders were mostly Blacksmith Lapwings, plus a small number of African Wattled and Crowned Lapwings, and a few Three-banded and Kittlitz's Plovers. About 50 Collared Pratincoles were flying around in a couple of groups. Grey-headed Gulls were easily seen, but not particularly numerous. Only two Whiskered Terns were seen.

One of the larger flocks of Comb Ducks

Beautiful African Purple Swamphen

Collared Pratincole

African Fish-eagle was the only raptor seen during the morning. Other birds seen include Senegal Coucal, Pied, Giant and Malachite Kingfishers, Lilac-breasted Roller, African Grey Hornbill, African Pied Wagtail, African Pipit (over 20), Yellow-throated and Rosy-throated Longclaws and House Sparrow. Swallows were fairly well represented with five species, but not as well as in summer, when I have seen up to 10 species. We saw Wire-tailed, Lesser Striped, Pearl-breasted and Grey-rumped Swallows, plus a Brown-throated Martin.

Rosy-throated Longclaw

Pearl-breasted (top right) and Wire-tailed Swallows

A few weeks previous to our visit, a Birdlife Zimbabwe member showed me a photograph of a ringed Blacksmith Plover. One of my goals on this visit was to get the ring number - no easy task! I did manage to clearly photograph the first four digits, and the last two are a bit vague but I think I got them right. Now we just have to find out who ringed it...

Darwendale Dam is an excellent birding destination, well worth a visit. Even a small section of shoreline such as we covered (we walked about 1km of shoreline) can be very productive.

A large group of various waterbirds; mostly Comb Duck

Ringing near Wild Geese Lodge

The area we ringed in is not strictly part of the Wild Geese Lodge Game Park, so we didn't access the ringing spot through there. With our hands full of poles, nets and other ringing equipment, we left the car on the side of the road and walked about 500m (it seemed much further in the dark!) to a grassy area scattered with acacia trees. We set up nets along a couple of the paths, by which time the sun had decided to make an appearance. 

Shortly afterwards, we saw a raptor flying around, shrieking as it did so. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a Bat Hawk! It showed very well and then landed in a stand of eucalyptus trees, where I later photographed it.

Bat Hawk flying around.

...And in a tree later in the day.

Ringing was not particularly successful, although some nice birds were caught such as Rattling and Red-faced Cisticolas and White-browed Scrub-robins.

Rattling Cisticola

All the action, however, was happening about 20 meters off the ground; Some sort of creeper (I don't know the name) that grows high up in other trees was flowering, and dozens of sunbirds were feasting upon the nectar. Western Violet-backed Sunbird was there, as well as Miombo Double-collared, Variable, White-bellied, Scarlet-chested, Amethyst and a probable Purple-banded Sunbird. Other birds were feeding here too - Weavers, White-eyes, Barbets and Bulbuls just to name a few. I heard a Burnt-necked Eremomela in the acacia trees. I personally saw or heard 55 species that morning, which is not bad for a morning concentrated on ringing.

Nyanga Ringing June 2012

Maybe winter is not the best time of year to visit one of Zim's coldest places... There were not all that many birds around!

We (the usual group of four ringers, plus a couple of others) stayed in a lovely cottage just around the corner from Troutbeck Hotel in Nyanga. We arrived on Saturday afternoon (16th June) and had nets up for half a day on both Saturday and Monday, plus the whole of Sunday. On the property was a fair bit of forest and two rivers which flowed into a small dam at the bottom of the garden.

The view from the cottage

We left up the poles during the nights, only packing up the nets, in order to hasten the setting up of nets the next morning. Well, I am certainly glad I took gloves with me, as early in the morning the lawn, trees and poles were covered in a thin layer of ice! Perhaps that was why there were so few birds around - they were all frozen...

We did, however, catch some lovely birds. A Mountain Wagtail was caught, and a different one was seen with a ring (Julia had ringed some birds at this spot earlier in the year).  A Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler was also caught, as well as two stunning White-starred Robins. Olive Sunbird, Cape Robin-chat and Cape Batis were among the other species caught.

The White-starred Robins were particularly interesting because according to Irwin's Birds of Zimbabwe these birds vacate the highlands during winter and move to lower elevations - perhaps to escape the cold. Why are these two still in Nyanga in the middle of winter? There must be more still in the area; if not for having caught them we wouldn't have even known they were around.

African Olive-pigeons and White-necked Ravens flew past every day, plus an African Goshawk on one morning. Quite a few eastern highlands 'specials' were seen in the garden including Cape Canary, Stripe-cheeked Greenbul, a few groups of Roberts' Warbler, White-tailed Crested Flycatcher and Livingstone's Turaco. A pair of African Black Duck, which live on a dam further downstream, flew past often.

Male Olive Sunbird. Note the bright yellow pectoral tufts, which the females don't have.

Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler. The smallest bird caught on the trip at 8.5 grams!

Definitely the prettiest bird caught; White-starred Robin

During the moments when we were waiting for an unsuspecting bird to get itself caught, I decided to do something useful; I went looking for other creatures to photograph. I found a few Swynnerton's Reed Frogs, a few lizards and a couple of dead shrews, which may have been victims of the cold conditions.

These lizards were all over the rockery in front of the cottage. Not yet sure what species they are.

A beautiful adult Swynnerton's Reed Frog.

Another frog, which I suspect is the same species as above, but a juvenile, explaining the lack of stripes.

A short walk from the cottage was a waterfall, upon which I decided to practice some long exposure photography. Stupidly, I forgot to take my tripod with, but I managed to make a plan. I sacrificed my gloves to use as a beanbag, of sorts, for the camera! With a shutter speed of 10 seconds, here is the result...

Ewanrigg and Mukuvisi 2 + 3 June 2012

Ringing at Ewanrigg Botanical Gardens was very slow on Saturday, with few birds caught. Some of the birds caught were unusual, almost making up for the lack of numbers...
Grey-backed Camaroptera was the first bird caught. Later a Southern Black Flycatcher was trapped, with a few birds in between. Feeling quite frustrated we eventually went to pack up the last of the nets, and in them we found the day's best birds! A Green Wood-hoopoe and a Brown-crowned Tchagra.
We only had one net up in the aloes (which were mostly finished flowering), so not many sunbirds were caught.

Southern Black Flycatcher

Brown-crowned Tchagra

One of the sunbirds on dry aloe flower - which species??

White-bellied Sunbird male.

Immature male Scarlet-chested Sunbird.

The monthly walk at Mukuvisi was quite windy and cold - I spent almost as much time looking for patches of sunlight as I spent looking for birds.

White-breasted Cuckooshrike, Southern Hyliota, Groundscraper Thrush, Swallow-tailed Bee-eater, White-crested Helmet-shrike and Miombo Blue-eared Starling were seen, but no Spotted Creeper.

The best sightings were in fact both reptiles. A big Nile Monitor was sunning itself on the path in one spot, and at the picnic site a Schlegel's Blind Snake slithered past whilst we were doing the bird list! It was quite fast and was going through the leaf-litter, so the photo is unfortunately not great.

Schlegel's Blind Snake. This was a first for me.