Neil Gray's birds and other wildlife
Atlasville, 24 Mar 2007 We are just back from another few days at Ngwenya Lodge with our daughter, new son-in-law, our younger son and his girlfriend, and some of their South African friends. I was not able (nor allowed) to do any birding at Ngwenya and was not able to record our day trips into …
Atlasville, 12 Mar 2007 I returned last Friday from a few days at Ngwenya Lodge with my eldest son who is visiting from the UK with his girlfriend to attend his sister’s wedding. They will be travelling back to the UK straight after the wedding, so wanted to fit in a trip to the Kruger …
Atlasville, 21 Feb 2007 With the South African birding grapevine abuzz with sightings over the past few days of a Red Phalarope at the Ruighoek Dam in the Pilanesberg National Park, I decided to go and see if I could add this lifer to my list. There is a magnificent hide overlooking this dam, …
Atlasville, 17 Feb 2007 Why do I keep going back to Marievale? Well, it’s an ever-changing environment. After my last two very disappointing visits with hardly a bird to be found, yesterday morning I sat for 3 hours in Hadeda Hide spell-bound by the sheer numbers of both birds and species, and the frenetic …
Atlasville, 02 Feb 2007 I spent a very rewarding day yesterday birding in the Wakkerstroom. Having dipped on the big three specials on my previous visit two years ago, I went again to try my luck with the three endemics, Botha’s Lark, Rudd’s Lark and Yellow-breasted Pipit. This time, however, I decided to enlist the …
Atlasville, 26 Jan 2007 Paid a visit today to the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve. Although fairly close to home, some 40 km (45 mins) by road, I had not previously been here. Suikerbosrand straddles the Suikerbosrand hills and the vegetation is typical of such rocky Highveld areas, dominated by the Common Protea (Protea afra afra), …
Atlasville, 19 Jan 2007 My wife and I have just returned from our annual week away at Ngwenya Lodge, near Komatipoort in Mpumalanga province. Ngwenya is only 12km and a 15-minute drive from the Crocodile Bridge entrance gate to the Kruger National Park, so we spent only one day at Ngwenya and made five day …
Atlasville, 23 Dec 2006 Today was my 5th visit to Marievale in the last 8 weeks. I was there for about 3-4 hours on each occasion, but varying the time of day, once early morning, twice in the middle of the day and twice in late afternoon. These were not bird-watching visits as such, rather …
Atlasville, 01 Nov 2006 Last Sunday morning I paid a visit to the vulture restaurant at the Molopo Nature Reserve on the southern fringes of the Kalahari in the far western corner of North West Province, tucked up against the Botswana border near the village of Vorstershoop. It was a truly amazing spot, with between …
Atlasville, 01 Nov 2006 Just back this evening from the Kalahari. I had returned to the Hotazel field camp after 3 weeks away to find that the old woodpecker nest-holes in the camelthorn above my trailer that I had hoped might be occupied by the African Scops-Owl had been re-inhabited by a pair of Bennett’s …
