On Monday 3rd of January a friend and I left home at 2am to do the Motheng Pass in Lesotho (Chapter 99 in Birding Gauteng). Our target species for the trip were Drakensberg Rock-Jumper, Drakensberg Siskin, Sickle-winged Chat and Bearded Vulture. After some of the heaviest rain storms I have ever driven in, we eventually arrived at the border post at by 6:30 were in Lesotho near the town of Butha-Buthe taking pics of male and female Amur Falcon:
We turned onto the mountain pass road heading towards the Ski Resort - some 75 kilometers away. We were immediately blown away by the amount of water in the rivers and pouring out of the mountains in spectacular water falls - here is some pics taken along the route:
We stopped to bird in the vicinity of the Oxbow Lodge and enjoyed getting fairly close to an adult and juvenile Jackal Buzzard:
This bird we saw in the area remains unidentified:
A few hundred meters above Oxbow Lodge we spotted two birds on the rock face and caught our first sight of a Drakensberg Siskin:
And just another few hundred meters further we spotted Drakensberg Rock-Jumper:
We finally arrived at the top of the pass and spent some time at the top of the ski slope - we visited the AfriSki resort but not much was happening there in Summer:
On the way down I spotted the Rock-Jumper again and stopped for some more pics:
I stopped to enjoy a Malachite Sunbird in flowers and got a surprise lifer in Grey Tit as well as a few other birds:
Close to Oxbow Lodge we stopped again to get some more pics of the Jackal Buzzard:
At about 1:30 I noticed a bird on a rock - I fired off 4 shots and it disappeared for good. When I was processing my pics, I was ecstatic to see a Ground Woodpecker! I have hunted for this species for a long time! I remember wanting to climb the cliff face but it looked really treacherous and was not sure what I would be chasing at the time and whether it was worth risking my life for!
As we were heading down the mountain pass we appreciated the beauty of the mountains - that is an understatement!!!
We stopped off at Meula Dam for a picnic lunch - apart from Grey Heron and Red-knobbed Coot there was nothing else on the dam:
Here are a few more shots of birds that I took on the way down:
When I tried to secure accommodation at the top of the pass I struggled to get through to either of the two resorts - just as well because Camelroc Guest Farm on the South African side of the border was an awesome option and is incredibly affordable for the luxurious accommodation that they offer. At the guest farm I took some scenery pics and managed to get a few bird species as well:
On the second day after an incredible breakfast at the guest farm we decided to travel back to Johannesburg via Clarens and through the Golden Gate National Park - with the hope of seeing Bearded Vulture. The scenery around Clarens continued to cause us to marvel (and on the way we appreciated seeing Rock Kestrel, Steppe Buzzard and Yellow-billed Kite):
And the scenery in the Golden Gate National Park was not going to be overshadowed at all!
We passed through the gate into the national park (there is no entrance fee) and made our way to the Vulture conservation spot. We parked in the road and climbed up over the "hill" towards the spot where the vultures are fed:
I spotted a Black-backed jackal in the area and noticed that it was desperate to drag off a leg bone or hind quarter and it allowed me to get really close - it was a surreal experience:
Small raptors were flying around - they turned out to be Amur Falcon and one vulture caught our attention overhead - but it was Cape and not Bearded:
We were at the point of debating how much longer we could afford to spend at the spot with our need to press on back to Joburg - when my friend suggested that I take a look at the large vulture that had appeared overhead - we got really excited when we realised that it was Bearded Vulture! We had almost given up hope of seeing it!
As we left the spot we snapped a few more shots of the scenery on the way out of the park (amazingly the only rockfall that we saw on our whole trip was near the exit of Golden Gate NP):
Here are a few more bird pics from the Park:
On the way out of Harrismith we stopped off at the Botha's Lark Triangle to try one more time to find the elusive Botha's Lark. The road to the windmills was impassable so we had to take off our shoes and wade through water that was up to our knees. We saw African Pipit, Long-tailed Widowbird, White-faced Duck, Yellow-crowned Bishop, Yellow-billed Duck, Whiskered Tern, African Spoonbill, Cape Longclaw, Southern Red Bishop, White-throated Swallow and Spike-heeled Lark. I believe the flock of birds flying overhead may have been African Spoonbill.
As we drove through the town of Warden I was amazed at how extensive the flooding was in the area. Warden was so flooded that it looked like it had more birds than Kgomo Kgomo.
Here is the full list of bird species that we saw in Lesotho - not impressive in terns of bird count, but highly significant in terms of the new birds that we saw: Cape Bunting, Jackal Buzzard, Steppe Buzzard, Cape Canary, Sickle-winged Chat, Cape Crow, Amur Falcon, Common Fiscal, Cape Grassbird, Hadeda Ibis, Neddicky, Karoo Prinia, Cape Robin-Chat, Drakensberg Rock-Jumper, Sentinel Rock-Thrush, Drakensberg Siskin, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow, Red-winged Starling, African Stonechat, Malachite Sunbird, Greater Striped Swallow, White-throated Swallow, Grey Tit, Cape Weaver, Pin-tailed Whydah, Ground Woodpecker, Black-shouldered Kite, Common Myna, Pied Starling, Speckled Pigeon, Cape Turtle Dove, Cape Sparrow, Rock Pigeon, African Black Swift, Red-chested Cuckoo, Southern Masked Weaver, Wing-snapping Cisticola, House Sparrow, Cape Wagtail, Familiar Chat, Grey Heron and Red-knobbed Coot.
Here is a list of birds species that we saw at the Golden Gate National Park: Steppe Buzzard, Yellow-billed Kite, Cape Canary, White-necked Raven, Amur Falcon, Pied Starling, Wing-snapping Cisticola, Long-tailed Widowbird, Red-collared Widowbird, Greater Striped Swallow, Cape Vulture, Bearded Vulture, Diderick Cuckoo and Bokmakierie