In July 2012 my family and I headed off to Durban to visit my folks and to get away from the Joburg winter. We managed to squeeze in a day out birding along the way. We arrived at the Amatikulu Nature Reserve about an hour north at 7am and used the services of an amazing bird guide, Junior Gabelo, who is available on 0826673704. We walked from the main picnic site (where we had a look for Crested Guineafowl but were unlucky) to the lagoon and then took the path along the stream inland. Sadly the weather was really dismal which made photography almost impossible in the forest. The highlight in the forest was seeing and photographing a lifer in Black-throated Wattle-eye. As well as Green Twinspot which proved almost impossible to photography - here are a few record shots:

The highlight of the day happened when Junior suggested that we spread out (him with my wife and I) and walk down a hill through a moist dip with the hope of flushing Swamp Nightjar. We walked all the way down the hill, through the dip and then along the next hill for about 100 meters before turning back and suddenly a male Swamp Nighjar flushed and we managed to get great sights of the bird. We flushed it one more time before decided to leave it to rest in peace. Here are a few shots:

Here is a selection of other birds that I managed to photograph on the day:

Here is a full list of the birds we saw in the reserve: Greenbul Sombre, Flycatcher African Dusky, Flycatcher Ashy, Flycatcher Blue-mantled Crested, Weaver Dark-backed, Weaver Spectacled, Weaver Thick-billed, Weaver Yellow, Weaver Lesser Masked, Greenbul Yellow-bellied, Neddicky, Drongo Square-tailed, Drongo Fork-tailed, Twinspot Green, Camaroptera Green-backed, Goshawk African, Buzzard Forest, Tinkerbird Yellow-rumped, Dove Tambourine, Dove Lemon, Apalis Yellow-breasted, Turaco Purple-crested, Prinia Tawny-flanked, Wattle-eye Black-throated, Bush-Shrike Olive, Boubou Southern, Firefinch African, Coucal Burchell's, Bulbul Dark-capped, Puffback Black-backed, Robin-Chat Red-capped, Sunbird Olive, Starling Black-bellied, Stonechat African, Nightjar Swamp, Cisticola Croaking, Twinspot Green, White-eye Cape, Flycatcher Ashy, Flycatcher African Paradise, Crow Pied, Sunbird Scarlet-chested, Sunbird Collared, Barbet White-eared, Barbet Black-collared, Fiscal Common, Weaver Village, Widowbird Fan-tailed, Bee-eater White-fronted, Kingfisher Brown-hooded, Sparrow House, Whydah Pin-tailed, Tchagra Black-crowned, Longclaw Yellow-throated, Mannikin Bronze, Mannikin Red-backed, Starling Red-winged, Myna Common, Saw-wing Black, Heron Grey, Heron Goliath, Egret Western Cattle, Ibis Hadeda and Ibis African Sacred.

Next to headed off to Mtunzini - taking a back road via Fairbreeze - looking out for Palm-nut Vulture that I was yet to see. We had 18 months ago passed through the town and searched everywhere for this species but failed to get a sighting. This time we were lucky as our guide, Junior, spotted a bird on a Rappia Palm Tree near the railway line that runs towards the town of Mtunzini. We could not get close to the tree but were delighted with this sighting. Here are a few pics I managed to get:

We made our way to the Umlalazi Nature Reserve in search of the last Kingfisher that I needed to get - the Mangrove Kingfisher - and we were lucky to have a sighting but the bird disappeared before I could get a shot. We were surprised to have a sighting of Eastern Nicator this far south on the KZN north coast. We had another sighting of a Palm-nut Vulture as we left the town heading towards the highway and a second sighting of Black-throated Wattle-eye for the day was stunning as well. Here are a few shots taken in the area:

Here is a full list of birds we saw in and around the reserve: Canary Yellow-fronted, Vulture Palm-nut, Hornbill Trumpeter, Kingfisher Mangrove, Kingfisher Pied, Wagtail African, Kingfisher Pied, Egret Little, Kingfisher Giant, Nicator Eastern, Wattle-eye Black-throated, Woodpecker Golden-tailed, Sunbird Purple-banded, Plover Three-banded, Kingfisher Mangrove, Eagle Black-chested Snake, Eagle African Fish, Eagle Long-crested, Goose Egyptian, Egret Cattle, Lapwing Blacksmith, Stork Woolly-necked and Wood-Hoopoe Green.

A great day outing where we saw 82 bird species and I picked up 6 lifers.