Nesting Time

Breeding season was in full swing, with nesting birds just about everywhere I looked!
Black-backed Puffback was building a nest in my mum's garden, and a pair of Kurrichane Thrush were feeding chicks a few trees away. Meanwhile, the Black-throated Wattle-eye and Fork-tailed Drongo nests were still active in Greystone Park.

Dark-capped Bulbul, Helensvale

Kurrichane Thrush on nest. You can see one of the chicks' head peeking out on the right. The nest was rather messy-looking, and featured feathers, string and even a snake skin (hanging bottom right) in the construction!

Birding in Ewanrigg on the 5th of October was just as good. A Chinspot Batis was feeding chicks in a tree next to the car park, and the Southern White-faced Scops-owl was still nesting close to the gate. Other birds included Red-headed Weaver, African Green-pigeon, Magpie Mannikin, Copper Sunbird, Shikra, White-winged Widowbird, Miombo Blue-eared Starling, Red-breasted Swallow, Whyte's Barbet and Ashy Flycatcher.

Chinspot Batis female at the nest (with a chick poking out).

Miombo Blue-eared Starling

Natal Spurfowl family

The star of the show; Southern White-faced Scops-owl sitting on the nest, a little above head height from the ground!

Male Agama kirkii (Kirk's Rock Agama) in a tree. It obviously cares little for such stereotypical names as 'rock agama'.

The breeding situation was the same at Mukuvisi Woodlands the next day. Distant views of Wahlberg's Eagle nesting in the eucalypts, Little Bee-eater, Laughing Dove, Bronze Mannikin and the usual weavers all featured, but the main award goes to a Spotted Creeper sitting on the nest. What a great thing to see!

Lesser Honeyguide

Little Bee-eater, posing nicely

Miombo Tit

Spotted Creeper doing its best twig impression.

Greengrove Dam was almost dried up, and very quiet. However, we did have a short visit from a Green Sandpiper - a great bird for Harare. Few migrate as far as Zim each year, and in South Africa they are considered a rarity, as far as I know.

Green Sandpiper

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.

Kirk's Rock Agama immature male

Leopard Tortoise!

Unfortunately, time got the better of us and we had to turn around about 6km before the riverine forest.

I'll know what to expect next time...

Darwendale Dam; Hideaway Lodge

On October 10 I set out to atlas two squares around Darwendale Dam which, before I got there, lacked any coverage in the second atlas project.

The farm land between the tar road and Hideaway Lodge was very dry, with only a few fields in use near the lake. Nevertheless, there were plenty of birds to see.

Red-capped Lark, Capped Wheatear, White-winged Widowbird, Pearl-breasted Swallow, Namaqua Dove, Red-faced Mousebird, Pale Flycatcher, Long-billed Crombec, Crowned Lapwing, Red-breasted Swallow, Kittlitz's Plover, Thick-billed Weaver (not recorded near here in SABAP1, showing a definite range extension) and Eastern Saw-wing (another out-of-range record) were the highlights of the drive.

Kittlitz's Plover

Pale Flycatcher

Red-capped Lark

Hideaway Lodge and the lake's edge itself did not disappoint. In the lodge grounds: Pied Kingfisher nesting, Lesser Masked-weaver and African Pipit.
A walk along the shoreline produced Grey-headed Gull, African Openbill, Hottentot Teal, Glossy Ibis, Ruff, African Purple Swamphen, Goliath Heron, African Green-pigeon, Levaillant's Cisticola, Collared Pratincole and (best of all) African Pygmy-goose, to name a few species.

Darwendale Dam shoreline

African Pipit

African Pygmy-goose!

Collared Pratincole

Now, bring me that horizon...

Pied Kingfisher male

Red-billed Quelea

Three-banded Plover, with a ring. Unfortunately I couldn't get the entire number

More Borrowdale Brooke Atlassing, October 2013

I did another two atlas cards for the Borrowdale Brooke/Greystone Park square in early October, and recorded 118 and 120 species per five-day period.
As per usual, there was often something interesting to be seen!

The reason for Greystone Park's 'special' birds; Tambourine Dove, Red-throated Twinspot, Black-throated Wattle-eye. These birds inhabit dense riverine forest, such as the one in Greystone Park. In Harare, there are only a few small patches of this habitat left.

Best birds recorded: African Black Duck, African Cuckoo-hawk, Tambourine Dove, African Green-pigeon, Red-faced Mousebird, African Wood-owl, African Cuckoo, White-breasted Cuckooshrike, Black Cuckooshrike, Miombo Tit, Yellow-breasted Apalis (very unusual, but recently recorded at the same place by me), Ashy Flycatcher (Greystone Park - I don't know of any other records from here of this species), nesting Black-throated Wattle-eye, Miombo Blue-eared Starling, Copper Sunbird and Red-throated Twinspot.

African Black Duck, Borrowdale Brooke

Black-throated Wattle-eye sitting on eggs in Greystone Park.

Greystone park has large areas of thicket and bush with thick understory, perfect for waxbills and other small finches

Blue Waxbill

Green-winged Pytilia male, Greystone Park. Common at GP, but this doesn't mean they are easy to photograph

Lizard Buzzard, Borrowdale Brooke

Male Red-throated Twinspot, Greystone Park

...And the female

Male White-bellied Sunbird mid-song at Greysone Park

Ashy Flycatcher at Greystone Park

Not many notable finds in the 'other animals' department aside, from this large cricket.

Butterfly, species unknown. It's one of the 'blues', a very difficult group to get to grips with.

In other news: We caught and ringed a Kurrichane Thrush at Mukuvisi with a huge parasite load. 27 ticks were removed from the bird, the majority of which were around or even inside the ear cavities.

You can see a few of the engorged ticks protruding from the ear. Nasty!