Birding Zululand- A Bhejane Tale

The rain drops falling to earth, with each collision a noise which many a person relates to relaxation, calm and serenity, the sound of rain being a world wide symbol for peace and tranquility. But then there comes the grumble of thunder, rolling across the earths surface, almost as if one is experiencing a mild earth tremor interspersed with sudden streaks of bright white light, dancing across the sky as if it were an intricate technique passed down from generation to generation. The scene of an African thunderstorm is a scene like no other. Nowhere else in the world can you find and witness such a spectacle, a Burchalls Coucal agreeing as he sings for further rain.  

Ingwe, Bhejane, Udube, Mfezi....all of these Zulu words embedded with a fond memory from my recent stay down at Ethlatini Bush Camp, the home of Bhejane Nature Training. A place of learning, relaxation, fun and most importantly a second home to the students which attend any one of Bhejane's courses. It is a place of like minded people, people who are young and eager to learn about nature and all it's glory, people who will do anything in their power to preserve and conserve what they love. It was here where I found myself for just over a month, cumulatively, last year after receiving a message from Bhejane owners, Dylan and Christa Panos inviting me down for a stay in order to help me out with my Birding Big Year and my quest to see 800 species of Southern African bird in a calender year. Thus it was with great eagerness that I accepted and in a matter of weeks I found myself tackling the six hour journey down to Ethlatini Bush Camp, a mere 18km's from Hluhluwe town, Kwazulu Natal.

Throughout the journey my excitement grew and grew with every kilometer driven, the scenery slowly changing from the sky scrapers and office blocks of Johannesburg to the informal settlements of Phongola and then to the vast, open, acacia dominated reserves which all help contribute to the 'power' behind the world Zululand, a power which causes many a wildlife lovers heart to quicken in pace. White-backed Vultures shared the skies with Yellow-billed Kites and Bateleur's, thermals taking them to heights we as humans can only dream of reaching.

The signboards for Hluhluwe started to appear with each kilometer gained and before I knew it I was navigating my way through the bustling town, joining up onto the road to Sodwana Bay. I couldn't help but continue to admire the amazing scenery, bringing back memories of my previous visit to Zululand almost five years ago, however as amazing of a distraction the scenery proved to be, the pineapple fields surrounding the Ethlatini property proved to be even more fascinating, with Woolly-necked Storks walking a stern line behind any tractor that so happened to be working the fields.

The next three weeks at Bhejane went by far too quickly, but it is now where I shall take the time to refer to the age old saying "time flies when one is having fun" and it was only on my road back home when I realized the full effect of those words. Time did truly fly and it was because I was having fun, in fact the time spent at

Myself and Ruvan Grobler at Muzi Pan
(Copyright J.Crickmay)

Bhejane was undoubtedly one of my fondest memories from my Birding Big Year and those memories made will last me a lifetime! Those three weeks were filled with back to back trips and time spent in camp with the camps students and staff, sharing my love and passion for all things wild and learning a lesson or two in humility, because the knowledge these folks possess is second to none and outshone any previous knowledge I had managed to parrot study from a book. This knowledge was different, it was knowledge learnt from experience and taken from role models in the guiding industry, personal experiences and observations, all driven by a deeper understanding and appreciation for the bush, something you cannot learn from any book.

Sometimes a break from birding to catch
a few waves was very much enjoyed
(Copyright J.Crickmay)

A trip to Kosi Bay with the FGASA (Field Guides Association of Southern Africa) Level 1 Marine students was first up with the main target for the trip being Palm-nut Vulture. I can gladly report back that on our final day at Kosi Bay we managed to stumble across a sub-adult, casually sitting atop a waterberry tree. Kosi Bay was truly fantastic birding wise with species along the likes of Swamp Nightjar, Woodwards Batis, Narina Trogon, Black-throated Wattle Eye and Livingstones Turaco all being seen.

Birding a road on the border of False Bay with Caylin
and Dalene
(Copyright J.Crickmay)

Kosi Bay was then followed by time spent back at Bhejane headquarters and birding took place in and around False Bay Park where species along the likes of Neergards Sunbird, Rudds Apalis, Pink-throated Twinspot, Broad-billed Roller, African Broadbill, Gorgeous Bushshrike, Green Malkoha, Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-rumped and Red-fronted Tinkerbirds and many, many more gorgeous forest species! My list slowly but surely started to climb with each day spent in camp, and the momentum just didn't seem to stop.....I most certainly wasn't complaining!

A shock to my system came not in the form of new additions to my list, but instead the enthusiasm that the students showed toward birds and birding in general. Almost as if it were apart of their uniform, 99% of all the students would carry their binoculars with them on any walk or guided activity with a bird book in close proximity. Along with this initial shock, the 'aftershock' if you may came one day when I took the entire camp out, with close friend and Bhejane student Josh Crickmay, to try our luck at connecting with African Broadbill on the perimeter of False Bay Park. We divided the group into two, each of us taking a half, and took an educated guess as to where the Broadbill's would be after hearing them display on a recce trip the day prior. We headed off into a patch of sand forest and the two groups ended up bumping into one another. After 'joining forces', a quick signal to the group to stop and sit down was quickly echoed and after a few moments of silence, I played the Broadbill's 'call' twice, and then stopped, and we sat and waited. Anxious moments passed when all of a sudden the distinctive display call of an African Broadbill burst forth a mere 50m away from us. It is not the Broadbill's display I will forever remember or cherish but the look of almost fifty students's face's as each and everyone lit up with pure joy and excitement. It was in that moment where the Broadbill's call became but a background noise in my ears as I sat there, welcoming a new wave of appreciation and understanding of what birding was all about as it washed over me like a cool breeze. Truly an incredible experience!  

It was with a heavy heart that I left Bhejane after my three week stay but in the back of my mind I was praying that some weird and wonderful bird decides to pop up somewhere near the camps headquarters, so that I would be able to make my way back down to the place so many called 'home', and clearly somebody listened to my prayers because after a two week spin around Mozambique and Zimbabwe a group of Caspian Plovers decided to arrive at Mpempe Pan, a few kilometers up the road from Ethlatini....It was back for round two and some more "X-treme birding"!

The entire Bhejane Camp out on the border of False Bay doing what should be done...Birding!
(Copyright J.Crickmay)

Twitching the Tinker

It was up before dawn for the team made up of four individuals: Maans Booysen, Tim Desilets, Paul Netscher and myself. The warm, humid Mozambican air sticking to our skin like an unwanted layer of clothing with the only other creatures awake being the resident mosquito's which, to this day, I despise and have yet found an answer to the question all of humanity wants to know: what purpose do they in fact serve other than to drive us close to the borders of insanity? A question which can be equaled to "did the Americans indeed land on the moon?", as much as we try our luck at finding out we will never know the true answer.

As the suns rays started to kiss the horizon we climbed into the air-conditioned Prado and made our way onto the EN1, heading north in our quest for a species of bird which was previously thought to be extinct in the Southern African sub-region, that is until Greg Davies and Hugh Chittenden made a momentous discovery back in January 2013. The bird I refer to, you may ask; non other than the Green Tinkerbird (Pogoniulus simplex) a species of Tinkerbird most commonly found in east Africa.

The Green Tinkerbird is a fairly unassuming bird being relatively small in size (roughly 11.5cm), weighing in at a massive 9g, greenish/olive above and a paler grey/olive below and sporting some serious golden/yellow jewelry on his wings just to add the cherry on the top. It prefers lowland evergreen forest and riparian thickets which make the area around the small town of Unguane ideal habitat for this frugivorous species.

Perfect Green Tinkerbird habitat

After roughly an hour and a half of nerve wrecking driving, stressing about the possibility of "dipping", we finally arrived at Unguane and the searching began- Gorgeous Bushshrike, Red-throated Twinspot, Sombre Greenbul, Livingstones Flycatcher, Rudds Apalis, Eastern Nicator, Dark-backed Weaver and Woodwards Batis all put in an appearance but much to our disappointment there was still no sign of ANY Tinkerbirds, let alone the more common Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird which is generally found with relative ease in the area. It was decided that we were to try a spot near a local homestead, passing through what looked to be a makeshift chicken pen, smiling and waving and getting equal, somewhat toothless gestures back. We carried on birding the area, keeping our ears peeled for the distinct, rapid paced pop, pop, pop, pop, pop call or any other sign leading us to the presence of our desired bird.

All of a sudden a call similar to that of a Green Tinkerbird burst into chorus somewhere in the surrounding thickets and immediately our hearts started to pound in our throats, a wave of nausea hitting me like a sledgehammer in the gut, my mind wondering not about the bird but how I was going to be transported to a nearby hospital. If my heart carried on pounding at this speed it would seem necessary. However much to our dismay (but thankful my heart had now calmed down somewhat and a hospital looking as if it was no longer needed) it was merely a contact call from a Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird, taunting us but at the same time reassuring us that there were indeed Tinkerbirds in the area and that they were not just a local myth.

We decided it was time to drive further along the well worn dirt track (not exactly what some would consider a road) to a spot where another fellow birder had previously had sightings of the "GT". We pulled off, got out the car and immediately were immersed in a bird party moving through the area, with Livingstones Flycatchers and Woodwards Batis's putting on a show for all in the group. I decided to wonder off a bit and see what else I could find when I heard a distinct, fast paced pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Immediately my heart dropped to the pits of my stomach as I managed to spew out something along the lines of "Guys, get here now!" assuming they picked up on the tone of my voice and the nerves which controlled it, as in a matter of seconds they were standing next to me and we then proceeded to play the call of the Green Tinkerbird, hoping that it would initiate some sort of response and bring the bird out into the open. But nothing. We waited and waited but no response and the call I previously heard had now stopped, vanished into the now deafening silence that enveloped us.

Green Tinkerbird putting on a show

The rest of the group went back up the road to try for photographs of the Woodwards Batis's which were still prancing around like they were on a fashion show runway in Paris and I decided to stay on and see what else popped up, having my mind set on getting visuals of a calling Gorgeous Bushshrike when all of a sudden the same rapid, machine gun like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.            Trying my best not to get my hopes up,
I brought out my phone and played "the music" and within seconds my eyes were fixed on a previously regionally extinct species as an adult Green Tinkebird hopped up into full view and started to voice his position (I'm assuming not on politics).

yet another shot of this most unassuming bird

Not thinking the slightest about being quiet (being caught up in the moment and all) I called for the rest of the group who ended up jogging to my side and within moments had their eyes fixed upon the bird. Immediately we started snapping away, taking record shot after record shot and after announcing itself to all around and putting on a very fine show, Mr/Mrs Tinker decided it was time to call it quits and flew off, leaving behind it a group of four, dumbfounded, incredibly ecstatic birders who had just seen one of those "dream birds", a species which we had previously given up on seeing in the sub-region due to its status of regionally extinct but a species which we had now just had cracking views of and one which earned a most welcome spot on our life lists and claimed a spot in our biding highlights bank of memories.

....And still the Mosquito's kept on launching their full blown assault on any exposed/covered body part- you
gotta love Mozambique!

A VERY happy me, moments after connecting with the Tinkerbird

A Birding "Small" Year- The Aftermath of One Man's Year Long Pursuit for Birds

January 1st, 2015 (16h50) - Dirk Human: "So John Kinghorn, what are you doing today??". The answer was quite simple, nothing, but I couldn't help but find myself driving around my suburb looking for House Sparrow, Rock Martin, Crested Barbet, Grey Go Away Bird, Black Collared Barbet, Speckled Mousebird and any other unsuspecting garden bird which I could add to my newly born 2015 year list.

The year 2014 was a big year for me, not because it was the Soccer World Cup or the Sochi Winter Olympics, or even because it was my first year out of school but instead because it was literally that, a Big Year! The year prior saw me make a very rash, bold and quite frankly stupid (in some regards), decision to tackle a Southern African Birding Big Year and attempt to break the record for the youngest person to do so. Now what is a Southern African Birding Big Year you may ask, well I shall elaborate: Come January 1st of any calendar year a birder, whether it be a he or she, will set out to record as many avian species as they possibly can within the southern African sub-region in the space of a calendar year, but the real challenge comes in when birders aim for the magical 800 mark, a number seen only by extreme, dedicated, tough, experienced birders who have pretty much been birding from the womb. Now to record 800 species within a calender year was previously unheard of until the Southern African Big Year took off a good few years back and to date six individuals have managed to record the magical 800 milestone within the space of a calendar year (Ian Sinclair, Mark Kirk, Alisha Kirk, Trevor Hardaker, Niall Perrins and most recently, myself).

Bohms Bee-eater, Villa de Sena, Mozambique

My year was spent traversing the corners of the sub-region targeting species I only ever dream't of adding to my life list and here I was actually doing it!- Basra Reed Warbler, Bohms Bee-eater, Pacific and American Golden Plovers, Spotted Creeper, Red-faced Crimsonwing, Buff-spotted Flufftail, Green Headed Oriole, Racket-tailed Roller and the list goes on and on, but all of which are species which were ticked, and this time not in my dreams. I spent roughly 300 out of the 365 days of the year enveloped in intense day-to-day birding and a state of determination and what some would call, pure madness, but to me it became the norm, especially when it involved trashing months of planning in order to chase one rarity on the opposite side of the country. Completely normal.

Fiery Necked Nightjar, Gorongosa, Mozambique

My year ended on December 31st 2014 at 11:59 just before the clock struck twelve and champagne started to flow. 803 species later, thousands upon thousands of kilometers and my year was over in a blink of an eye and a burst of fire works. So what would 2015 hold? To be honest I hadn't the slightest clue having been caught up in birding non-stop for a calendar year I hadn't had time to focus on any other birding plans other than those at hand, but first things first I would be able to sleep in on new years day and not find myself chasing birds in north-western Gauteng. However sitting back and seeing fellow birders log their totals for the start of their year lists ignited the flame inside (yet again) and there I was hanging outside my bedroom window at a few minutes past eight ticking off Cape Sparrow and Laughing Dove...Completely normal.