South Africa – Ngwenya Lodge and southern Kruger Park [11]

Atlasville, 05 Mar 2010

Back in South Africa for two weeks between Guinea rotations, I took the opportunity yet again to head for our ‘home from home’, Ngwenya Lodge. This time, however, travelling with us were our daughter, son-in-law (who is South African) and 9-month-old granddaughter, visiting from London, as well as our son-in-law’s mother. Driving down on Friday, 26^th February, we decided to take a more scenic route than the usual one straight down the N4 highway and took in a somewhat nostalgic side excursion via Barberton. Our daughter wanted to show her husband the house she used to live in. We lived in Barberton from 1997-1999 and all three of our children were in primary school there. The kids used to love their frequent weekend day trips into Kruger Park, as we were only a 45-minute drive from the Malelane Gate entrance.

We arrived late on Friday to find the Crocodile River at an alarmingly high level, so fearing that Crocodile Bridge entrance (via a low-water bridge) might be closed, on Saturday morning we headed for Malelane Gate instead, where a high bridge crosses the Crocodile. Just a minute or two into the Park and I had my first photo of the day, an African Wattled Lapwing on the short grass along the edge of the main tar road, followed very quickly by one of my best sightings of the scarce White-headed Vulture. Turning off onto a gravel road we headed north towards Skukuza via the Biyamiti Weir, Biyamiti Loop and Renosterkoppies, a route well known to us from those many day trips from Barberton. At Biyamiti Weir I added Giant Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Hamerkop and Water Thick-knee, and Green Wood Hoopoe and Southern Ground Hornbill along the Biyamiti Loop. Close to Renosterkoppies I achieved perhaps my best photo yet of Southern Giraffe. Arriving at Skukuza Camp the fig trees on the banks of the Sabie River next to the restaurant hosted African Green Pigeon, while the Grey Bushviolet bushes a little further along the riverbank hosted the usually present Tawny-flanked Prinia.

From Skukuza we headed along the main Lower Sabie Road, crossing the Sabie River via the bridge and then taking the gravel Salitje and Mlondozi roads to Lower Sabie. Along the way we saw, among others, Southern Carmine Bee-eater, Black-headed Oriole, Lesser Grey Shrike, Secretarybird, Black-bellied Bustard, Sabota Lark and Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill. At Lower Sabie Weir it is almost impossible not to see Wire-tailed Swallow at this time of year, just as you will always find a Common Sandpiper at Sunset Dam, with White-crowned Lapwing and Black-winged Stilt not too far away. At Lower Sabie Camp the notice boards told us that Crocodile Bridge gate was open, so we headed back to Ngwenya via the short route, with good views along the way of Lesser Kestrel, Hooded Vulture, Tawny Eagle, Wahlberg’s Eagle and Steppe Eagle. None of these were photographed, however. Some that were included Barn Swallow, a Helmeted Guineafowl with many chicks and something I don’t get too much opportunity to photograph in Kruger, a butterfly, this one a Spotted Joker.

On Sunday we entered the Park via Crocodile Bridge and took the shortest possible route north to Satara Camp, something we don’t usually attempt in a single day, but the others were keen to see as much of the Park as possible. Once at Satara, though, it is easy to pace your return and arrive back at Crocodile Bridge before gate closing time.

Like yesterday one of the first photos of the day was a raptor, this time a Brown Snake Eagle, followed quickly by one of the summer migrants, a Red-backed Shrike. Several bee-eaters presented good photo opportunities, European Bee-eater, White-fronted Bee-eater and Southern Carmine Bee-eater, along with the always photogenic Lilac-breasted Roller, as did a very confiding Amur Falcon and another of the summer migrant raptors a Yellow-billed Kite. It was a good day for storks too, with African Woolly-necked Stork, Saddle-billed Stork, Marabou Stork, Yellow-billed Stork, African Openbill and Black Stork all seen. Tshokwane picnic spot with its ever-present Greater Blue-eared Starling also provided the opportunity to watch a Mourning Collared Dove taking a sand bath. Southern Africa’s commonest chameleon, the Flap-necked Chameleon, may be good at camouflage against a backdrop of vegetation but it doesn’t do too well on tar roads.

We arrived back at Ngwenya to find another raptor, the infrequently seen (for me anyway) African Goshawk, perched on a tree branch right next to the carport for our chalet.

On Monday morning it was back into Kruger via Crocodile Bridge, but this time a roughly circular route would take us via Mpondo Dam and Renosterkoppies to Skukuza and Lake Panic Hide, then along the Sabie River Road and via Mestel Dam to Pretoriuskop Camp, then on to Afsaal and back to Crocodile Bridge. It was a heavily overcast day with poor light for good photography until mid-afternoon when we were well on the way back to Ngwenya. The few birds that were photographed included Fork-tailed Drongo, Yellow-bellied Eremomela and Red-backed Shrike. In a day with a total bird tally of 98 species it is worth noting that 21 of these were seen at Lake Panic Hide, a very good illustration of why I will always make a point on any trips to the Kruger of getting into the hide on at least one day. I list these 21 species in the order recorded – African Darter, Grey Heron, Little Heron, Pied Kingfisher, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, African Jacana, Wire-tailed Swallow, African Pied Wagtail, Jameson’s Firefinch, Southern Black Tit, Black-and-white Mannikin, African Paradise Flycatcher, Sombre Greenbul, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Orange-breasted Bushshrike, Black-backed Puffback, Long-billed Crombec, Bleating Camaroptera and Three-banded Plover.

Highlight of the day was not a bird, but a cheetah that had climbed some 5m up a tree and stood on a large bough surveying the scene, an ideal vantage point for spotting potential prey. It is sightings like this that bring you back to the Kruger time and time again.

Other non-bird photos today included White Rhinoceros, Leopard Tortoise and another butterfly, a Common Bush Brown.

Tuesday morning dawned with heavy rain, so I decided to make this my day for birding around the grounds of Ngwenya Lodge, in between the rain showers. By midday I had ticked off an impressive 53 species including Grey-headed Bushshrike, Red-faced Cisticola, Arrow-marked Babbler, Cut-throat Finch, Bleating Camaroptera, African Paradise Flycatcher, Southern Black Tit, Klaas’s Cuckoo, Southern Yellow White-eye and Violet-backed Starling. The rain clouds had also gone, so we did something we had never done before and headed into Kruger just for an afternoon. The intention was to head from Crocodile Bridge up to Lower Sabie via the eastern gravel road route and back via the western main tar road, calling in at all the usual spots such as Nthandanyathi Hide, Duke waterhole, Sunset Dam and Lower Sabie Camp itself. This turned out to be a great decision for two reasons.

First, at Sunset Dam, where there is a large dead tree in the dam close to the point where vehicles can pull off the road, we watched quite a spectacle unfold. There has for many years been a communal Red-billed Buffalo Weaver nest in this tree, getting bigger by the year as new bits are added each breeding season. We watched an immature African Harrier-Hawk hanging onto the nest trying its best to rob the nest of any young weavers it could find. All the while it was being dive-bombed by shrieking adult weavers and even having some of its feathers pulled out by the more persistent ones. Unfortunately for the weavers the harrier-hawk did succeed in robbing the nest of one as yet featherless chick and moved onto another tree to devour its catch. Another of those ‘bring you back’ moments.

The only stretch of road that we drove, which we had not yet been on this trip, was the Mativuhlungu Loop. This is an almost straight 11km long gravel road that heads almost due south from Lower Sabie, starting on the main Gomondwane tar road and rejoining it, cutting 4km off the tar road distance between these two points as the main road follows a wide arc. It was along Mativuhlungu Loop that we had our second major sighting. After 30 years of visiting the Kruger Park this our first Western Barn Owl in the Park. Not one, but a pair of barn owls, moving in and out of a nest hole in a tree trunk. They were quite happy to let us sit and watch them for several minutes before one flew off and the other disappeared inside the nest.

We’d had rain overnight and Wednesday was heavily overcast and threatening more rain, so even though we managed to travel on a lot of new roads for the trip, conditions were not good for photography and there were many bedraggled birds out there. The larger mammals were able to get there water from large puddles almost anywhere and had no need to come to the waterholes. Some rather damp individuals that I did manage to photograph were Three-banded Plover, Hadada Ibis, Dark Chanting Goshawk and Tawny Eagle.

Our final day was similarly plagued by heavy overcast, humid conditions, so we were not expecting too much from the day. Yet again, we just proved how wrong we were. Having just turned out of the Nthandanyathi Hide access road and back onto the main gravel Nhlowa Road, a cat shot across the road just in front of us, disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. It hardly seemed to touch the ground covering the width of the road with a few leaps. Unfortunately the others were not with us and missed out on this, only the second Serval that we have ever seen in those 30 years of visiting Kruger, neither photographed.

Anything else for the rest of the day paled into insignificance after that sighting. I’ll say it again, another of those ‘bring you back’ moments. Best of the few photos that I did take were of an African Openbill, a White-browed Robin-Chat taking a bath at Lower Sabie Camp, Wire-tailed Swallow inevitably on the Lower Sabie Weir, a Reed Cormorant, a Levaillant’s Cuckoo and a Giant Flattened Dung Beetle rolling its ball of elephant dung.