Atlasing my Home Pentad: Lots of Interesting Birds

After a hectic week’s work it was really nice to break out and do some birding in my home pentad. And as usual some interesting birds were seen.

But let me first go back to last week and tell you about two other new species I saw for my home pentad list. During one evening while driving back from the Pizza shop, I had excellent views of Spotted Eagle-owl – first flying next to the road and it then settled on a telephone pole. I have seen a photo of a Spotted Eagle-Owl in our area a few years ago – so I knew they were around but nice to actually see one. Other owls that I have recorded in the past are Barn Owl (heard) and Southern White-faced Scops-Owl. I caught this little owl after it was hit by a car and took it to a rehabilitation centre.

The second new bird for the pentad was seen yesterday when, while driving in Montana, I saw a Mountain Wheatear. This is certainly not an uncommon bird in the rocky areas to the north of Pretoria, but I have never seen one so near Pretoria or in one of its suburbs. So a nice surprise.

Back to today’s atlasing. In order to cover the pentad well I need to visit the Pretoria Botanical Gardens. Most of the species that will occur in this pentad can be seen there and there is always the chance to see something more uncommon. Today was no different. The one bird I am always looking for when visiting the gardens is Brown-backed Honeybird (I must say I whish they kept the name Sharp-billed Honeyguide). The last few visits I missed out but found it today sitting high up in a dead tree, its profile clearly visible – sharp forehead and thin beak. Its white outer tail feathers could clearly be seen in flight.

The second big surprise came in the form of an African Harrier Hawk that flew low over the gardens. What a beauty!

Seeing the many Crowned Lapwings in the garden, I thought back to a nest I found in the garden a few years ago. I checked the nest regularly for a season in order to submit the data to NERCS. What I found was a nest not lined with the usual pebbles but with the droppings of a Scrub-hare.! I could not find anything in the literature of other instances where the droppings of a hare have been used to line a lapwing’s nest. The photo shows the nest with the droppings.

Yellow-billed Hornbill nest in Electricity Pole

During an atlasing outing in May I witnessed an Yellow-billed Hornbill flying with a worm in its beak. It flew straight to an electricity pole where I found a nest. A week later I returned to the nest and took some videos of the male feeding its chicks.

The nest was about 5 m from the ground with the entrance on the northern side of the pole.

I was unfortunately not able to see how many chicks were in the nest. At one point in the video I could see two bills – the one had to be the female and the other of the chick – but there might have been more chicks.

I cannot find anywhere in the literature a reference to Yellow-billed Hornbill making a nest in a man-made structure - only nesting logs. So this seems to be very unique.

This record in May is also a very late breeding record. According to the literature September to March is normal.

It was also interestingto note that the nest was next to a gravel road used by cars and above a pedestrian road which is used by hundreds of school children during the week. While trying to video the nest I had to wait for more than an hour for all the children to pass on their way to school. During this period the male waited patiently with a berry in its beak and just after 08:00, with all the children now at school, it flew straight to the nest to provide his family with the food they need!