South Africa – Pilanesberg National Park [3]

Atlasville, 05 Nov 2011

Yesterday my wife and I made a day trip to the Pilanesberg National Park, a drive of just over 200 km and about 2½ hours. We entered the park at the KwaMaritane Gate on the south-eastern edge of the park and completed an anti-clockwise circuit of the park of some 80km (see map below), leaving at the Bakubung Gate, which is next to the Sun City resort and casino.

The first leg took us along Tshepe Drive where we found Violet-backed Starling, Yellow-fronted Canary, Lazy Cisticola, Southern Masked Weaver, Rufous-naped Lark and Crimson-breasted Shrike among others.

Our first chance to stop and get out of our vehicle was at the Fish Eagle Picnic Spot. Here we added Golden-breasted Bunting, Red-billed Firefinch, Amethyst Sunbird and Arrow-marked Babbler

The next section of the drive took us around the edge of Mankwe Dam where we saw Scaly-feathered Weaver, Marico Flycatcher, and Kalahari Scrub Robin. At the Mankwe Lair hide, on stilts out over the water of the dam and accessed by a long raised and enclosed boardwalk we watched African Fish Eagle, Common Greenshank, Three-banded Plover, Cape Wagtail, Little Grebe, White-faced Whistling Duck and Yellow-billed Duck.

During the second half of the drive, we grew the trip list with Yellow-throated Bush Sparrow, Pied Kingfisher, Striped Kingfisher, Levaillant’s Cuckoo, Diederik Cuckoo, Red-chested Cuckoo, Capped Wheatear, Temminck’s Courser, Pearl-breasted Swallow, Familiar Chat, Chestnut-vented Warbler, Cape Rock Thrush and Black-crowned Tchagra, among others. By Bakubung Gate our list had grown to 80 species for the day.

As for other wildlife, we watched a pair of young Elephant at play in the shallow water along the edge of Mankwe Dam, as well as both White Rhinoceros and Blue Wildebeest that came down to the dam to drink. Away from the dam we located a herd of Springbok.