On Monday the 25th October 2010 I set out to bird Breedtsnek Pass route (chapter 74 in Birding Gauteng) as well as Mountain Sanctuary Park and Buffelspoort Dam. I took the R24 from Krugersdorp towards Rustenburg and turned onto the dirt road at the Maanhaarrand shops. Within a kilometer of driving along the Marikana gravel road I arrived at the wetland. It would be a full hour before I was able to get away from this amazing spot. Here is a panorama shot - looking back towards the R24:
I immediately started to record species in the dip: Pin-tailed Whydah, Cattle Egret, African Reed Warbler, Southern Masked Weaver, Levaillant's Cisticola, Common Moorhen, Little Bittern (one flew away from a spot right in front of me and then 2 flew right past me but I was too slow to react with my camera in both instances), Lesser Swamp Warbler, Black Crake, Blacksmith Lapwing, White-throated Swallow, Lourie, Red-eyed Dove, Cape Turtle-Dove, Common Mynah and Malachite Kingfisher:
Normally birding on a Monday morning is ideal as it is quiet but cars and trucks flying past were covering me with dust and I knew that I needed to bird the wetland from a different spot. There is a farm house on the right hand side, just past the dip where the wetland meets the road, and I approached the farm and asked permission to visit the wetland in front of their farm. After a bit of arm wrestling and explanation of what I was doing, I was given permission and made my way towards the wetland - here is a panorama shot of the area:
I was trying to snap pics of little brown jobs that were flying in and out of the reeds in the wetland and somehow managed to capture this image of an unidentified flying object:
Some of the other birds around this part of the wetland included: African Purple Swamphen, Little Grebe, Reed Cormorant, Yellow-billed Duck, Maccoa Duck, Red-billed Teal, Thick-billed Weaver, Lesser Swamp Warbler, and two great fly-overs included Comb Duck and Purple Heron:
These pics of a Widowbird look a lot like the picture of White-winged Widowbird in my Roberts Multimedia package - but I don't think that is conclusive enough for my liking!
The area from the wetland to the foot of the mountain included sightings of Southern Red Bishop, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Common Fiscal and Lourie.
By now it was approaching 8am and I needed to make my way up the mountain. I had once before made the rather challenging drive over the hill and was somewhat apprehensive whether it would be doable. The road up the mountain turned out to be fine with only one spot presenting any degree of difficulty (the way down would prove to be a different story!). Here are some pics of the road on the way up:
I soon got my first sightings of groups of Cape Vulture flying around the mountain (two Verreaux's Eagles disappeared over the ridge before I could get a shot):
Just before arriving at the top of the mountain there is an amazing spot which overlooks a gorge on the northern slope of the mountain. There is a fresh water spring and a forest of Tree Ferns and Common Sugarbush. My first sighting as I pulled over was of Lazy Cisticola and suddenly what has turned out to be an incredibly rare sighting of African Cuckoo Hawk came flying up the gully (from the gorge) almost straight at me. I was in a flat spin as it flew so close past me that I totally messed up the pics - here is all I could get out of the experience:
A Cape Bunting showed no signs of fear as it sat on a rock right next to me, and a few Lazy Cisticola were called from rocks and bushes all around me:
As I took a walk down the slope I came across the fresh water spring and at some point decided against walking to the bottom of the mountain and returned to my car to continue to the top of the mountain (Streaky-headed Seedeater and Red-collared Widowbird entertained me on this part of the outing):
As I made my way to the top of a mountain an African Grey Hornbill waved goodbye and a huge Red Hartebeest grazing on the rocky slopes ignored me completely. Near the top I got out to view Familiar Chat, Mountain Wheatear, Cape Rock-Thrush, Dark-capped Bulbul and a Lark (that was identified as Rufous-naped Lark by Faansie Peacock):
At the top of the mountain range I was frustrated at all the no-entry signs - and wondered what selfish person owned so much of the land and did not want to share it with anyone else!
My HUGE surprise of the day happened a few minutes after I had muttered unkind thoughts about the landowners - maybe to help me feel better at being forced to stay on the road - a Temminick's Courser. It is not listed on the list of confirmed species for the Pentad (2550_2725) - so I will consider it a special sighting. Here are the pics for any doubters! It is only my second sighting of this bird species:
The road on the way down was hectic! At one point it was so bad that when I got out to take a closer look it was so bad that I could not find a good path to take so I just went straight and hoped for the best. Somehow my clearance was high enough and I made it okay. I would not recommend that you do this trip in the reverse direction with anything less than a 4x4. I think our Toyota Avanza would struggle to make it up.
I stopped a few times on the way down - looking out for Flappet Lark but came up empty handed. I was also hoping to see Alpine Swift and African Black Swift on the mountain - but these tantalising pics of Swifts flying around above me are all I managed and I am pretty sure they are not conclusive:
At the bottom of the mountain there is a stream that passes under the road and I took a walk up the stream on the western side of the road and discovered some little dams - not much bird life apart from a lonely Reed Cormorant - but some great scenery (the last pic is looking east from the bridge down the river):
There was a lot of bird life in the thickets around the stream that kept me entertained for a while - some got to see but others never showed themselves apart from Fork-tailed Drongo, Common Fiscal, Crested Barbet, African Grey Hornbill and White-fronted Bee-eater. A Lesser Striped Swallow on the bridge stayed around long enough for me to get a few pics (this spot is just before a farm called Kloofwaters):
I made my way to Mountain Sanctuary Park (a resort where my family and I spent a day some time back jumping off cliffs into the deep pools in the deep river gorge above the resort) and just after the main entrance gate stopped at the stream that passes under the dirt road leading up to the reception. Here I saw White-fronted Bee-eater, Pied Kingfisher and African Grey Hornbill.
I made my way to reception and asked if I could spend an hour birding on the property and was welcome to do so without needing to pay anything. I saw about 20 bird species on the property (not bad for birding from 11:30 to 12:30) including: Southern Masked Weaver, Crested Barbet, Dark-capped Bulbul, Karoo Thrush, Red-winged Starling, Common Mynah, Yellow-fronted Canary, Lourie, Cape Turtle-Dove, Groundscraper Thrush, Southern Boubou, Arrow-marked Babbler and African Hoopoe.
There is a beautiful swimming pool on the property with a great view of the Buffelspoort Dam which was to be my next stop on the day's outing:
On the way to the tar road leading to the dam I stopped at a stand of alien trees and while looking for Little Sparrowhawk or Shikra which is supposed to be in the area saw Black Cuckooshrike, Crested Barbet and Red-winged Starling.
When I pulled into the entrance at Buffelspoort Dam I was greeted with the same welcome I received at Mountain Sanctuary Park and without having to pay was allowed to spend an hour birding around the dam. It is a stunning spot as these scenery pics reveal:
The water birds I saw at the dam included: Egyptian Goose, Reed Cormorant, Black Crake, Yellow-billed Duck, White Duck, Red-knobbed Coot and African Jacana.
A whole Mallard family kept me amused: Dad, Mum, their teenager and toddler!
The birds I saw around the dam included: African Palm Swift, Cape Turtle Dove, Amethyst Sunbird, Groundscraper Thrush, Black-throated Canary, Cape Wagtail, Southern Masked Weaver, Blacksmith Lapwing, African Fish-Eagle and Speckled Mousebird.
On my way from the dam I stopped off at the ATKV Buffelspoort Resort but the red-tape to gain permission to enter the place made me leave somewhat frustrated. I backtracked past the Buffelspoort dam and took a dirk road below the dam to check out the river crossings that lead into the dam. All I saw was a White-throated Swallow before I was "hijacked" by a farmer who said that a "Suikerbekkie" nests on their stoep (I had no idea what that was). Their house was right next to the dam so I followed him home (he was driving a quad bike and he and a farm worker had been out trying to locate cattle that had wandered off). I saw the nest and looked in my birding book to discover that he was referring to a White-bellied Sunbird. We sat outside and chatted at his braai area and I counted about ten bird species in the 30 minutes or so we spent there. Nothing really significant to report on, but a good place to chill and chat. Okay, honestly I was trying to find an excuse to continue birding elsewhere but he had been so gracious and seemed really pleased to have someone to chat with given that his wife works in Rustenberg. I eventually left and on the way to the Sterkstroom river bridge I spotted an African Grey Hornbill and realised that I had not seen a single Red or Yellow-billed Hornbill all day. The harsh afternoon sun made it difficult to id some of the birds around the stream, but I did see Red-collared Widowbird and Tawny-flanked Prinia.
I made my way towards Rustenburg and then onto the R24 - a bit of a detour - but I was not about to tackle the mountain crossing again. All in all, a superb outing - amazing scenery and around 70 bird species spotted in the day, as well as a successful time atlassing the Pentad that covered part of the whole route and also the special surprise of seeing a Temminick's Courser on the mountain. Probably no Lifers on the day - but that's not the primary goal - is it?
On a previous visit in December 2008, I spent time up in the gorge with my family and took these scenery pics:
