Yesterday on 26th December I was very privileged to spent a day with a client Eric Nagels and his daughter from Switzerland guiding them around Mapungubwe National park in Limpopo Province.
We met at around 06:00 early morning at the main gate..Their plan was to see as many birds in South Africa as possible.We started off from the gate and plan to drive down from the west towards the confluence viewpoint,picnic site and the Treetop hide however when I met them they were already entertained by sightings of Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver and Red-Headed Weaver busy building their nests on the big Baobab Tree next to the gate.
On our way down we stopped to see some birds and some of the notable birds amongst many birds was the great sightings of the vocal Monotonous Lark through out the day.Other great birds were;Great Spotted Cuckoo,Southern Carmine Bee-Eater very abundant as well,Meve’s Starling,Broad-Billed Roller to mention some few.From the confluence deck we enjoyed ourselves by looking at a great scenery and by watching Shashe river flowing down to Limpopo river was magic just where you can see both part of south Africa,Botswana and Zimbabwe separated by two rivers.
Some of the birds around the confluence deck,picnic site and the treetop hide was the mobbing of the juvenile Martial Eagle by Wahlberg’s Eagle,African Fish Eagle calling,Lappet-Faced Vulture,Cape Vulture,African Hawk Eagle,Woodland Kingfisher,Jacobin Cuckoo,European Bee-Eaters,White Fronted Bee-Eaters.While heading back to have something for lunch to eat we stopped at a small dam and we had some water birds such as Green Sandpiper,Wood Sandpiper,Three Banded Lapwing,Common Sandpiper,Egyptian Geese and Blacksmith Lapwing.While having lunch a pair of Mocking Cliff chat kept entertaining us.A single Black Stork was soaring around the restaurant,a Cinnamon-Breasted Bunting kept calling.
After lunch we decided to do some birding around the Limpopo Forest Tented Camp with some nice riverine forest and tall broad-leaf woodland trees.We drove out of the main gate and came in from the west through ZZ2 main road.We stopped to watch some flock of Chestnut-Backed Sparrow-Lark while a single Peregrine Falcon was flying in the fields.Good birds we ticked around there was a single Bronze-Winged Courser under a small tree avoiding the heat of the day,Swainson’s Spurfowl,both African Grey,Southern Yellow-Billed and Red-Billed Hornbill,both European,Purple and Lilac-Breasted Roller,Brown-Crowned Tchagra,Marico Flycatcher,Acacia Pied Barbet,Crested Barbet and many more.The birding in general was great for my clients as you know everything they ticked was a lifer to them.
Happy Xmas birding.
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