Myself and Michael Groenewald atlased Pentad: 2530_2820 (NW of Roodeplaatdam) on Sunday 25 May. As it is winter we did not expect to many species in this pentad but was pleasantly surprised when we saw 70 species after about 5 hours of birding. In summer I had 91 species once - so the numbers are down a lot from summer.
Out first special sighting of the morning was of a Giant Kingfisher. I am always amazed by their massive bill and general size in comparison to other Kingfishers.
A few minutes after this we had wonderful views of White-backed Mousebird. In our part of the world this is not a common species and a new bird for this particular pentad. The highlight of the day was the fantastic views we had of Yellow-bellied Eremomela. I last saw this species in the 100km radius from Pretoria in 2000 at Dikhololo near Brits and it is certainly not common in our area. A number of other birders indicated that they have not seen this species during the last few years in our area.
Another interesting sighting was 4 Greater-striped Swallows. I thought these intra-Africa migrant must by this time have left our country for warmer areas more to the north - but after a little bit of reading realised that they do remain in South-Africa for about a month longer than Lesser-striped Swallow. But even so this is rather late.
Some of the other species seen were: Black Crake, African Black Duck, Fiscal Flycatcher, Green-winged Pytilia Pearl-breated Swallow, Scaly-feathered Finch, Black-throated Canary, Violet-eared Waxbill, Violet-eared Waxbill, Sabota Lark, Green Wood-Hoopoe, White-throated Robin-Chat, Streaky-headed Seedeater, Karoo Thrush (not common in the more rural areas) Purple Indigobird, Little Swift and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting.
A wonderful day of birding!
2 comments:
Ernst, sounds like a great day of birding - with this small special bird, the YB Eremomela. It is a little more frequently seen in our area.
Enjoy birding and blogging about the birds.
Ernst Congrats on your new blog and I hope you have Fun.
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