On the 29th of June we visited the Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve which is about 80 kilometers from Durban, on the South Coast - near Park Rynie/Pennington. It is set in the rolling hills of KZN and includes sugar cane fields, hills and forest areas. We arrived at around 8:30am and left at 1:30 - enjoying a picnic along the way! We got to do roadside birding along the way, exploring picnic areas on foot and our favourite experience, a walk through the forest on the most eastern part of the reserve. By the time we left the reserve we had seen 40 bird species and I had photographed 8 Lifers (Black-bellied Starling, Trumpeter Hornbill, Crowned Hornbill, Square-tailed Drongo, Yellow-throated Longclaw, Cape Grassbird (I have hunted for this chap for months and only got one shot off before it disappeared), African Dusky Flycatcher and Olive Sunbird.

Here are a few pics of the scenery around the reserve:

Here are some pics of the birds that we saw:

Some of the birds we saw but have not shown in this report include: Red-throated Wryneck, Yellow-throated Canary, Common Waxbill, White-breasted Sunbird, Bar-throated Apalis, Zitting Cisticola, Black-collared Barbet, Brown-throated Martin and Pin-tailed Whydah.