On Monday morning the 20th June 2011 I left home at 5am with a really difficult task facing me - to gain access to the Ditholo Nature Reserve (covered in chapter 62 in Birding Gauteng). The book says that the nature reserve is on Air Force land and that you can only visit if you are with a birding club. Following the directions in Birding Gauteng I took the Hammanskraal/Boekenhout offramp from the N1 coming from Pretoria. I crossed the highway and then turned left towards Rust de Winter before the road becomes a dirt road. After 3.4 kilometers (just after the gate entrance to the Dinokeng Nature Reserve) I turned left towards De Witskraal (although it is not signposted as such). After 4.8 kilometres on this dirt road I came across the entrance to the Ditholo Air Force Base - a pretty ominous blockage across the road with no other way forward (GPS Co-ordinates: 25°20'23.92"S and 28°19'48.27"E). Here are some scenery shots:

I confidently greeted the gate guard (a corporal), swapped "war stories" from my military days, shared my coffee with him, signed the visitors book - and drove through the gate into the private property of the base. I could scarcely believe my eyes - I was in the reserve. I would later realise that I was not actually in the Nature Reserve proper!.

I started by birding the road that leads towards the base itself - appropriately called Kwevoel Road (Lourie Road) - they were everywhere. On this road I saw Natal Spurfowl, Arrow-marked Babbler, Burchell's Coucal, Magpie Shrike, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Grey Go-away-bird, Levaillant's Cisticola, Swainson's Spurfowl, Red-billed Hornbill, Black-backed Puffback (seeing the back puffed up was special), Brown-crowned Tchagra, Chinspot Batis, Neddicky, Blue Waxbill, Fork-tailed Drongo, Red-eyed Dove, Dark-capped Bulbul, Black-shouldered Kite and Magpie Shrike.

Next I headed towards the air force base (still trying to figure out how to get into the actual reserve). Bravely I even entered the base (it was still early and not too many people were up yet) and saw Helmeted Guineafowl, Groundscraper Thrush, Crowned Lapwing, Cape Glossy Starling, Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver, Crested Francolin, Burchell's Starling, Speckled Pigeon, Cape Turtle Dove and Brown-hooded Kingfisher.

There is a road that leads to the air strip (which I wisely was trying to stay away from, not wanting to end up in prison for the night) and it is marked Ditholo Nature Reserve - but it had a locked boom over it and it was a bit too cold to head out on foot, plus I did not want to spend the night in detention barracks! I decided to head back to the main gate and try and find another way into the reserve. I had noticed on Google Earth that a road on the other side of the electric fence runs close to the entrance gate. A new guard was at the gate and he said that the only way into the reserve is through the base and that I needed to speak to a Sargent Boshof (who had not yet arrived on the base).

I headed back towards the base and decided to spend some time at the settling pond that supplies the canals that run through the air base and the nature reserve (25°20'17.21"S and 28°19'9.28"E). Here I spotted Lizard Buzzard, African Jacana, Three-banded Plover, Reed Cormorant, Egyptian Goose, Spotted Thick-knee, Burchell's Starling, Little Grebe, Blacksmith Lapwing, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Red-knobbed Coot, African Darter and Pied Crow.

I then took a closer look at the agricultural lands just off Kwevoel Road and saw: Helmeted Guineafowl, Burchell's Starling, Swainson's Spurfowl, Egyptian Goose, Magpie Shrike, Red-billed Firefinch and Desert Cisticola.

It was just after 8am so I headed to the air force base and found the HQ building and asked for Sargent Boshof (when I called him Corporal Boshof in my struggle to communicate in Afrikaans I thought I would be marched off the property right away). He seemed open to me visiting the reserve but needed a Captain's permission. He called a Captain on his cell phone and suddenly I was chatting to the Captain on the phone. He was most welcoming and "ordered" the Sargent to open the reserve gate for me. Amazing! It actually took a while for a bakkie to be found and fuelled before I was escorted by Sargent Boshof and some other military personnel through the base and towards the reserve. We arrived at the reserve entrance gate (25°19'22.22"S and 28°19'50.24"E) and I was briefed (it felt like I was back in "South West Africa" being briefed before a mission into Angola) on not picking up an military ordinances (after having some of my troops blow themselves up because they picked up misfired mortars, I assured the Captain that I had no intention of doing that) and not run away from the anti-poaching reaction force who would shoot me on sight if I resisted. Chilling stuff! The Captain gave me directions to get to the northern and the southern dam. He told me that the third dam (in the far northern section of the reserve) had been "decommissioned" so should not be on my itinerary. He unlocked the gate, pointed me in the right direction and disappeared to do air force stuff.

Here are some shots of the area around the reserves entrance gate:

This road led me to the northern dam (25°19'14.16"S and 28°20'26.35"E) where I saw Blacksmith Lapwing, Egyptian Goose, Reed Cormorant, Green-backed Heron, White-faced Duck, Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Swainson's Spurfowl, Water Thick-knee, African Spoonbill, Black Crake, African Darter and Hadeda Ibis.

I followed the road past the dam and found a great little spot near the northern side of the dam (past a wetland) where I spotted: African Grey Hornbill, Laughing Dove, Red-billed Firefinch, Karoo Thrush, Green-winged Pytilia, Little Sparrowhawk, Burchell's Coucal, Southern Boubou, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Arrow-marked Babbler, Burchell's Starling, Black-chested Prinia, Crested Barbet, Cardinal Woodpecker, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Cape Glossy Starling and Crowned Lapwing.

I continued further north along this road (which I later found out was called Leopard Road - 0h, there are apparently Leopards in the reserve - maybe I should have been more careful wandering around on foot with my camera for protection!) and stumbled across a great little spot where the Pienaar's River comes up to the road (25°17'39.96"S and 28°19'51.74"E). I did not see anything new in this area - but it is a great spot to potentially spot African Finfoot.

One of my regrets in this area is that I did not know that there is a river camp with a picnic area near this northern dam (Google Early has a River Camp marked at: 25°19'0.75"S and 28°20'38.91"E). Next time!!!

I made my way back to the entrance gate, turned left and drove along the fence for a few hundred meters until the road took a sharp right hand tern and ended up at the Southern Dam (25°19'47.37"S and 28°20'32.06"E). Along the way I saw: Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver, Neddicky, Cardinal Woodpecker, Crested Barbet, White-browed Scrub-Robin, Crested Francolin, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Black-crowned Tchagra, Blue Waxbill and Chestnut-vented Tit-Babbler.

I arrived at the southern dam and was a little disappointed with the bird life around the dam (Natal Spurfowl, Egyptian Goose, African Darter, Hadeda Ibis and Laughing Dove):

Despite the lack of birds around the southern dam a huge highlight was getting really close to six Hippo standing on the little island on the dam). And I mean getting really close - I stood on the bank of the dam watching the Hippo (probably not more than 30 meters away from them - but I went running back to my car in mild panic when a mother and her kid jumped into the water - I swear I heard them all laughing at me as I got into my car and moved on!

From here I spent some time in the area just north of this dam - on route back to the entrance gate. Here I saw Cape Wagtail, Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver, Rattling Cisticola, Chestnut-vented Tit-Babbler, Cape Turtle Dove, Crested Barbet, Crested Francolin, Burchell's Coucal, Fork-tailed Drongo, Grey-backed Camaroptera, Lesser Masked Weaver, Jameson's Firefinch, Black-faced Waxbill and Lizard Buzzard.

Instead of leaving the Reserve I decided to follow the road north alongside the electric fence and probably stumbled across the "decommissioned" dam - in this area I saw: Crested Barbet, White-browed Sparrow-Weaver, Burchell's Starling, Fork-tailed Drongo, Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, Crimson-breasted Shrike and Red-billed Hornbill.

I made my way back past the northern dam and left the reserve through the gate which I locked behind me (earlier I nearly locked myself inside the reserve when I had left the reserve on foot to chase after a Lizard Buzzard sitting in a tree overlooking the canal - that would have been a major blunder!!!).

The highlight of the day happened as I made my way through the bushveld back towards the base - a noticed what looked like a pale branch in a tree and nearly continued down the road. Fortunately I stopped and reversed and the white branch did not fly off. It turned out to be a Barn Own - that allowed me to slowly approach it and get to within 4 meters of it. Only when I finally took one step too many towards it (getting close enough to shake hands with it was probably too close) did it slowly and majestically fly off revealing the grey back diagnostic of Barn Owl and not African Grass Owl which apparently looks rather similar. Here are a selection of pics that I took.

I thanked the Sargent for allowing me to spend the day on the base and in the reserve and before I left took a photo of a Black-chested Snake-Eagle that has been stuffed and mounted in the HQ entrance - the raptor died when it flew into a cable.

Just outside the gate I noticed an interesting sight: in a field of dry sunflowers - Laughing Doves and Cape Turtle Doves were sitting on too of the dried flowers. Here is a pic:

Here is a map I created from Google Earth with key spots that I visited during the day:

Here is a selection of pics of animals that I took during the day:

Now that was an awesome day birding! Whenever I see all 3 Hornbill species (Red, Yellow and Grey) it is a good day! And seeing 70 bird species in winter and getting a lifer in the Barn Owl - just made it one of the best trips so far in 2011!!!