I will always remember the cricket commentator who could never understand why 100 runs is so much more important than 99. Somehow he could not comprehend that we as human beings like to set ourselves challenges – so although there might only be a one run difference between 99 and 100 – if a batsman is out on 99 he might have contributed valuable runs for his team, but he failed to reach the target that he himself or the sport in general has defined.
So what has this to do with birding and atlasing you might ask? Most birders also set themselves targets – to get to 700 species in Southern Africa, submit 100 SABAP2 lists before the end of the year etc. Most of it totally futile, but it creates interest and set a challenge. In the same way I decided to set myself a challenge of getting 100 species in a days birding within one pentad. Not an impossible task at all – many others have already achieved this – but I wanted to do it for myself and I thought it will only be achieved with lots of planning and careful analysis of habitats and the best roads to travel.
So when I was invited to visit the local bird club in Brits to give a talk on the atlas, I decided to combine the trip with some atlasing of pentad 2515_2730 – south of Vaalkopdam. I met up with Jannie Jansen in Brits and after 50 more kilometres we entered the pentad and started atlasing. The first few minutes were dreadful. Lots of cars on the main road and even when we tried a less travelled side road to the cement factory, large trucks made it virtually impossible to bird or hear any birds calling. So our number of species climbed very slowly. After a hour we had 32 species.
We decided to move on to Donald Peake’s farm – Tweerivier. On the way we saw some Red-billed Oxpeckers – always nice to see that they are doing well. As we entered the farm the first more unusual sighting of the day - a Kittlit’z Plover. Around Donald’s house we could tick numerous species. Especially rewarding was the presence of Southern Masked Weaver, Village Weaver and Lesser Masked-weaver – all within meters of each other. The Village Weavers were eating from the seed feeder and the Lesser Masked-weavers were building their nests in the three long Palm trees in the yard – using the palm leaves as nesting material.
It was time for a break, ate a fantastic farm breakfast and I quickly took Donald and Jannie trough the SABAP2 protocol and software. Jannie at one point joked that I will get my 100 species today – but I did not believe him – sorry Jannie.
Donald then offered to show us the area. His farm and the surrounding farms form part of the Crocodile Irrigation scheme. Some artificial wetlands and dams were created – with the water being pumped from the Crocodile river into these water bodies. The first wetland was full of coots, ducks, grebes, cormorants and egrets. A number of Black Herons were seen and two Hottentot Teals flew past. A few waders have also returned and we could tick Wood Sandpiper and Ruff on our lists. We left the dams with 94 species on my list.
Driving back we saw some female Wattled Starlings and then the highlight of the day – a pair of Temmicks Coursers. Wow - every time I see them I am amased how beautiful they are. While watching them a Greater Kestrel caught something right in front of us – unfortunately we could not identify the prey. And that was it – 100 species! A few more species were ticked in the remainder of the trip and I ended on 104.
So with no planning I managed to get my target. Driving back I felt a little bit disappointed – thought it was going to be more of a challenge. Never satisfied I suppose…..
On the left a section of the pentad can be seen. The crocodile river and the circles created by the center-pivot irrigation can clearly be seen. Some of the wetlands mentioned above are also visible. The sightings have been logged with Cybertracker.
