South Africa – Kruger Park and Mpumalanga Escarpment

Atlasville, 01 Sep 2009

During a break in my Guinea work schedule I returned to South Africa and managed to fit in a 10-night trip to the Escarpment area of Mpumalanga and both the southern and northern parts of the Kruger National Park. My wife and I spent 3 nights at the Hazyview Cabanas with a day trip into southern Kruger, 1 night at Shingwedzi Camp and 3 nights at Mopani Camp in the Kruger Park, and 3 nights at Crystal Springs Resort near Pilgrim’s Rest in the Escarpment area with another day trip into southern Kruger.

Highlight of this trip was the sighting in the Kruger Park of a Palmnut Vulture on the Mphongolo Loop north of Shingwedzi Restcamp. Apart from a dozen or so breeding pairs in the Mtunzini coastal strip of northern Zululand this bird is a rare vagrant in other parts of South Africa. This was my first southern Africa sighting and only my second ever, having just seen my first one in Guinea less than 3 weeks previously.

Driving down to the Lowveld on Friday 21^st August, we began with a weekend based in Hazyview, where the highlight was seeing three Olive Woodpecker in the grounds of the resort, only my second record of this species. Other notable sightings were Purple-crested Turaco, Mountain Wagtail and African Palm Swift. Other photos from Hazyview include Thick-billed Weaver, a couple of butterflies, Forest Elfin and Southern Soldier Pansy, and a Glistening Demoiselle damselfly. Our day trip into the Kruger Park on the Saturday, entering at Phabeni Gate, took us to the area between Skukuza and Lower Sabie. Of course, we called in at the Lake Panic Hide, an absolute must when in this part of the Park, where a Golden-tailed Woodpecker sat in a tree next to the car parking area and Yellow-breasted Apalis and Bushbuck among others were seen from the hide itself. The Common Coral trees next to the shop in Skukuza Camp hosted Brown-headed Parrot, White-bellied Sunbird, Collared Sunbird, Scarlet-chested Sunbird and Black-headed Oriole. At Sunset Dam next to Lower Sabie Camp a large flock of Yellow-billed Stork was present. The scrubby grassland north of Lower Sabie supported Sabota Lark, Rattling Cisticola, Magpie Shrike, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow and African Stonechat and I managed a photo of a Swainson’s Spurfowl and a Steenbok together in the long dry late-winter grass.

Monday morning saw us up early and on the road for the drive north via Hoedspruit to the Phalaborwa Gate into the northern part of the Kruger Park, where we were welcomed by Blue Waxbill foraging on the lawn in front of the reception office and a Southern White-crowned Shrike on a branch above them. Our first night in the Park was spent at Shingwedzi Camp, then 3 nights at Mopani Camp. This enabled us to cover much of the Park from the Babalala Picnic site, north of Shingwedzi, south as far as the Letaba River at Letaba Camp, a straight line distance of 106 km.

Most notable bird sighting during these four days was the previously mentioned Palm-nut Vulture sitting nicely out in the open on a dead branch, although only just within acceptable photo range. It was found on the Mphongolo Loop north of Shingwedzi, one of my favourite birding roads in the whole of Kruger. Raptors tend to sit out it the open on perches which allow good all-round monitoring of prey opportunities, as was the case with an immature Martial Eagle. It is always good to see two of the less common vultures, White-backed and Lappet-faced Vulture, even better when both are seen together as happened at the Gudzani waterhole. Yellow-billed Kite are already present, an intra-African migrant from West Africa. Some of the birds photographed were Gabar Goshawk, Greater Blue-eared Starling, Purple Roller, Crowned Lapwing, Hamerkop, the African sub-species of Eurasian Hoopoe and Egyptian Goose.

There was also a sighting at the Babalala waterhole of one of the rarest and most critically endangered large mammal species in the Park and only my third ever record of Roan Antelope, of which there are estimated to be only about 70 individuals. Having seen a female and juvenile at Lake Panic on our first day trip we added a male Bushbuck close to Shingwedzi Camp. Also, along the Shingwedzi River we came across a pair of lionesses doing what they do best, sleeping. However, their bloodied faces suggest that they have recently fed on a kill, of which there was no sign. Other mammals photographed were Tsessebe at the Tihongonyeni waterhole, Blue Wildebeest at the Nshawu No.1 waterhole, Cape Buffalo at Middelvlei waterhole, Giraffe near Satara and a herd of elephant just outside Letaba Camp.

On Friday morning we headed south through the Park, via Letaba, Olifants and Satara camps to Skukuza, from where we headed for Phabeni Gate and out of the Park to Crystal Springs where we spent the next 3 nights. Another day trip into the southern part of Kruger, a drive around the scenic spots of the Panorama Route in the Graskop area and some birding on foot around the Crystal Springs property added yet more species to the birding trip list. Even though I saw it at both Crystal Springs near Pilgrim’s Rest and God’s Window near Graskop I can still count on one hand the number of times I have seen Swee Waxbill. Other birds photographed were Streaky-headed Seedeater, Cape Bunting, Cape Canary, Cape White-eye and Brown-crowned Tchagra at Crystal Springs, and Retz’s Helmetshrike, Chestnut-backed Sparrow-Lark and African Goshawk in the Kruger Park, where a baboon and her baby made for a rather cute photo near Skukuza.

Despite it being late winter, with most of the summer intra-African and Palaearctic migrants not yet present, I was pleasantly surprised to chalk up 195 bird species for the trip.