Introduction:
Chapter 97 in Birding Gauteng explores the Memel Area and even though I am yet to spend a day in the area, on a trip to St Lucia my family and I, following my Nokia GPS took a detour that led us through the town of Memel. It was early morning and the area looked spectacular. Some time soon I would love to get there at sunrise and spend the day birding the route. Here are a few scenery pics we took on our way through the town:

Trip 1 - March 2011
On Thursday the 31st March 2011, during the school holidays, SR (a birder from the GBT forum) and I left Johannesburg at 3am and arrived at Memel (near Harrismith) before dawn. We decided to head for the high lying grasslands around Krantzkop. Despite the low light we were able to record the following birds: Zitting Cisticola, Cape Longclaw, Cape Turtle-Dove, Hadeda Ibis, Cape Bunting, Bokmakierie, Common Waxbill, Levaillant's Cisticola, Cape Sparrow,Common Fiscal, Swainson's Spurfowl, Ant-eating Chat, Croaking Cisticola, Banded Martin and Barn Swallow.

As we arrived at the summit of the plateau we took a walk in a field we stumbled across this amazing scenery as the sun rose:

On this walk we found a little pan where a Three-banded Plover, Pied Starling (a whole flock of these birds), Cape Wagtail and an African Quailfinch where hanging out:

We headed further along the dirt road and had a great sighting of an African Wild Cat in a field with cows - they suddenly ganged up on the cat and chased if away. Apart from a sighting on a night drive in the Kruger some years back, this is only the second sighting I have had of the cat in the wild:

We spotted a few other Larks on the plateau - including Spike-heeled Lark, Red-capped Lark, and Eastern Long-billed Lark:

On the way down the mountain we saw an adult and juvenile Bokmakierie:

Once down in the valley we headed towards Mont Pelaan as we planned to keep looking for the Memel Specials around the silver pens and the communications tower as recommended by the authors of Birding Gauteng. These include Yellow-breasted Pipit, Rudd's Lark and Botha's Lark. We had looked in vain up on the plateau with no luck. Here are some pics I took in the valley - the place is truly stunning and totally unspoilt:

On the S472 I flushed a Common Quail - the first Quail that I have ever seen! It was a huge highlight - and I was also able to flush another 2 birds when I was looking for the first one where it had landed on the side of the road. Here is the best I was able to do by way of photos as they flew away from me in a blind panic:

We heard some more Red-winged Francolin calling and this is all I was able to manage by way of a pic (they sounded close but were actually far away on the other side of the valley):

The Cosmos in bloom added to the beauty of the place:

We saw relatively few raptors on the day apart from Rock Kestrel, Jackal Buzzard and Black-shouldered Kite:

Before heading to the cattle pens we decided to head further down the valley to the area filled with rocky slopes (closer to Mont Pelaan) - hoping to see Ground Woodpecker. This is another beautiful part of the area:

We were fortunate to see Horus Swift (a second lifer for me on the day) and it took a lot of work to get a few shots as they darted around:

When I climbed down (actually risking my life) the deep gorge that the river had cut into the rock - I found a second lifer - Drakensberg Prinia - although it was difficult to get really close to them.

As we turned around and made our way towards the cattle pens - we spotted the first of two pairs of Blue Korhaan for the day. We watched with great amusement as they proceeded to crouch down and sneak away from us, but the grass was too short and it was easy to see where they were going. Hilarious! You can clearly see that this is a male and a female.

We finally arrived at the cattle pens - half expecting to see the specials standing in the pens waiting to be photographed. Hardly likely! We walked down the dirt track, in the fields under the power lines, around the communications tower - all without seeing a single Lark or Pipit. Strange! Here are some scenery pics from the area:

We did spot Meercat, Yellow Mongoose and Sentinel Rock-Thrush in the area!

We debated whether to prioritise visiting the forest or wetland habitats for the rest of our time there and decided to head to Lunch Forest. On our way there we started seeing good numbers of Larks - but they all turned out to be either Red-capped or Pink-billed Lark (which for a moment we thought might have been Botha's Lark).

We headed over a stream and heard Drakensberg Prinia calling - and one of the birds turned out to be a juvenile (we also saw Pin-tailed Whydah, Malachite Sunbird, Southern Red Bishop and Levaillant's Cisticola in this area):

After what seemed like a long drive we arrived at the lookout spot over the forest. The view is just spectacular:

We saw African Olive Pigeon, Red-winged Starling, Black Saw-wing (a fourth lifer for me on the day) and Jackal Buzzard flying over the forest canopy.

As we left the forest to head back for one more look around the pens for the specials we spotted a Pipit that we struggled to positively identify - we seemed torn between Buffy or Plain-backed. I am not sure my photos are good enough to be sure:

We passed a stunning mountain formation that looked like it could have the heads of our past presidents carved on it - with minimal work:

We had seen many Southern Bald Ibis on the day - and finally a few birds were close enough to the road for me to at least get a shot:

We also saw this species hanging by a thread onto a wire fence - it looks a bit damaged. Any ideas?

We searched the cattle pens in vain and realised that we were probably not going to see any of the specials on this outing. We kept stopping to take a closer look at every LBJ that we saw but kinda knew that we had lucked out! We did have another sighting of Blue Korhaan - this time even closer to the road:

The last birds we saw before we arrived back to Memel were Cape Canary, Red-collared Widowbird and Yellow-crowned Bishop.

Some of the other bird species that we saw on the day which were not mentioned in my report include: African Stonechat, Long-tailed Widowbird, Spotted Thick-Knee, Cape Crow, Pied Crow, Black-headed Heron, Cattle Egret, Greater Spriped Swallow, Egyptian Goose, White-throated Swallow, Helmeted Guineafowl, Speckled Pigeon, Yellow-billed Duck, Wailing Cisticola, Ground Woodpecker (heard), Rock Martin, Little Swift and Steppe Buzzard.

All in all, despite missing out on the three specials, it was a stunning day out in the field - although we had hoped to see more than just 75 bird species in the day. The four lifers bring my life list to 480 species for Southern Africa. Memel definitely deserves another visit - preferably between October and February.

Trip 2 - July 2011
On Saturday the 9th July 2011 I headed off at 3:30am, with a birding pal, Justin, to Memel in the Free State. I had previously birding the area to the south of the town but did not have time to bird the wetland to the north of the town. This time our focus would be primarily on the Seekoeivlei Nature Reserve and any time left would be spent in the area to the south of the town. We arrived at 7am and met Morne' Pretorius the conservationist at the office in town (9 Voortrekker Street - his cell number is 0823259760) to collect the key to the gates in the reserve. After chatting a bit and gaining valuable insights into bird sightings in the area we paid the R30 entrance fee and made our way from the town towards the reserve. The mist was heavy over the town, the temperatures probably below freezing because all the water we saw was frozen - and we wondered if we would see the sun all day!

We stopped briefly to bird the fields just north of the township and then made our way to the two farm dams a few kikometers beyond the Waterval entrance to the reserve. Morne had suggested we start looking for the Crane species (Wattled, Blue and Grey Crowned) there before entering the reserve. The farm day had a good amount of water birds but no Cranes were spotted. We had great sightings of Blue Korhaan on the way to the dams and on the way back to the entrance to the reserve. From the town to the entrance gate to the reserve we saw Common Myna, Cape Sparrow, House Sparrow, Pied Starling, Cape Turtle Dove, Common Fiscal, Bokmakierie, Blacksmith Lapwing, Long-tailed Widowbird, Red-capped Lark, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Cape Longclaw, Spike-heeled Lark, Black-shouldered Kite, Southern Red Bishop, Red-knobbed Coot, Spur-winged Goose, Ant-eating Chat, Blue Korhaan and African Stonechat. On the way to the entrance, and at the farm dams to the north of the Waterval entrance to the reserve we saw Cape Shoveler, Little Grebe, Yellow-billed Duck, African Spoonbill, Sacred Ibis, Red-billed Teal, Hadeda Ibis, Egyptian Goose, Cape Crow and Yellow-billed Egret. From the farm dam to the Waterval entrance we saw Black-headed Heron, Blue Korhaan and African Stonechat.

With great anticipation we arrived at the road to the Reserve, opened the gate and got our first glimpse of the wetland - it seemed to stretch for ever and despite the low light and mist around it was still breathtaking! Here are some scenery shots - and some taken as we made our way through the reserve towards the Old Merelsvlei farmstead:

At last a bit of light was breaking through and photography was almost possible - here are some birds that I photographed:

We had a great experience with 3 Grey-winged Francolin who responded almost aggressively to the call we played - one ran to within a meter of my car - too close for the lens that I was using to focus on the bird!

We made our way across the treacherous river crossing - it has a unique double bend and narrow concrete tracks and one wrong turn will see your car drifting down the river (hey, sounds like a great way to get close to birdlife!!!) But it was worth it as we got a nice sighting of African Rail in a small stream not far from the bridge:

We made our way to the farm northern section of the reserve. We soon doubled back and set off on foot to bird the area around the koppies where we hoped to find Pale-crowned Cisticola but the area seemed too dry for them. Here are some pics that I took in this area:

As we arrived back at the main river through the wetland we drove alongside an African Marsh Harrier that was hunting over the grass and the river:

We saw a group of Blue Korhaan and forgot about the Harrier in our efforts to get some close up shots - but they soon flew away and the Harrier was a long way off and not worth chasing:

We crossed back over the river and made our way back towards the Farmsteads seeing a field full of Helmeted Guineafowl and then good quantities of waterbirds around the oxbow lakes that have formed in the wetland.

A highlight was spotting a family of four Grey Crowned Crane near a farm dam and following them down into the wetland by vehicle and then on foot. They proved to be really shy and would move off as soon as I got to within 50 meters of them.

Here are a few more shots of the scenery that I took:

Near the entrance to the reserve we stopped to admire the river and the Oxbow lakes that have formed in the wetland - now that the sun was shining it made for better photography:

Here are a few pics of birds that I took in the grassland on the way out:

In the Seekoeivlei Nature Reserve we saw African Pipit, Cape Longclaw, Long-tailed Widowbird, Cape Turtle Dove, Spike-heeled Lark, Swainson's Spurfowl, Bokmakierie, Speckled Pigeon, Cape Turtle Dove, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Red-eyed Dove, Common Waxbill, Cape Wagtail, Purple Heron, Yellow-billed Duck, Reed Cormorant, Little Egret, Common Moorhen, African Spoonbill, Grey Heron, Glossy Ibis, Blacksmith Lapwing, Giant Kingfisher, African Snipe, African Purple Swamphen, Malachite Kingfisher, Brown-throated Martin, Grey Crowned Crane, Spur-winged Goose, Helmeted Guineafowl, Marsh Owl, Jackal Buzzard, Pied Kingfisher, Levaillant's Cisticola, Hamerkop, White-breasted Cormorant, Grey-winged Francolin, Common Greenshank, African Rail, Little Bittern, Cattle Egret, African Black Duck, African Marsh Harrier, Blue Korhaan, Zitting Cisticola, Egyptian Goose, Secretarybird, South African Shelduck, Common Ostrich, Hottentot Teal, African Quailfinch, White Stork and Red-billed Teal.

It was 2 o'clock and we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon birding the road up to Kranskop (and hopefully make our way to the Forest if time allowed). We had good luck with Larks and Pipits on this road (strangely the most common bird of all - Red-capped Lark - is not one that I was either able to, or bothered to, photograph):

A huge highlight on this road (just before the Klip River valley) was seeing Ground Woodpecker - a male and female left their perch on the mountain slopes to pay us a visit before returning to the safety of their rocky villa:

Here are a few other sightings I managed to photograph on the way to Kranskop:

On the road to Kranskop we saw Red-capped Lark, Southern Red Bishop, Common Fiscal, African Spoonbill, Long-billed Pipit, Mountain Wheatear, Rufous-naped Lark, Cape Bunting, Ground Woodpecker, Eastern Long-billed Lark, Red-throated Wryneck, Rock Martin, Cape Rock-Thrush, Ant-eating Chat, Long-tailed Widowbird, Cape Crow, Sentinel Rock-Thrush, Southern Bald Ibis and Egyptian Goose.

Here is a selection of scenery pics from our journey to Kranskop - the scenery is incredible (incidentally there is a gate that is not locked that you need to drive through - it is marked Eshakeleni/Ezemvelo Conservancy, see the pic below - this road leads right up to the foot of the mountain - GPS: 27°44'04.10"S and 29°41'12.53"E):

We spent a good deal of time birding the slopes of the mountain getting closer to Drakensberg Prinia that I have done before and also spotting a Lanner Falcon (in fact our crazy idea to climb to the top of the mountain came from our desire to get close shots of the Lanner - we got to the top of the mountain but never saw the Lanner again!):

On the Kranskop mountain we saw Lanner Falcon, Alpine Swift, Neddicky, Golden-breasted Bunting, Cape Bunting, Red-winged Starling, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Cape Robin-Chat, Drakensberg Prinia, Cape Crow, Jackal Buzzard and Cape Sparrow.

Here area some shots of the mountain:

To get closer to the Lanner Falcon we chose to route up the mountain that looked "easy" - but it turned out to be rather tricky to put it mildly - and coming down was even harder. But the scenery from the top, despite the no show of the Lanner, was worth the climb! Even the view to the south of the mountain was something that we would not have had if we had not followed the phantom bird up the mountain:

And here are some panorama shots that I took:

We had great sightings of mammals during the day - here is a selection of pics that I took:

Our bird species count for the day was 93 - that is 3 birds more than the book Birding Gauteng says is good for a day in Summer - the winter target being 60 - so we felt rather good to put it mildly! We completed a checklist of our sightings to leave with Morne' - dropped the keys off at the office - and hit the road back to Joburg! What a day!!!