Neil Gray Birds

16 February 2007. Why do I keep going back to Marievale? Well, its an ever-changing environment. After my last two very disappointing visits with hardly a bird to be found, yesterday morning I sat for three hours in Hadeda Hide spell-bound by the sheer numbers of both birds and species, and the frenetic activity in the area immediately in front of the hide - and nowhere else along that 2km long stretch of water between the new south gate and the old entrance road.

1 February 2007. I spent a very rewarding day yesterday birding in the Wakkerstroom district. Having dipped on the big three specials on my previous visit two years ago, I went again to try my luck with Botha's Lark, Rudd's Lark and Yellow-breasted Pipit.

19 January 2007. My wife and I have just returned from our annual week away at Ngwenya Lodge, near Komatipoort in Mpumalanga province. Ngwenya is only 12km and a 15-minute drive from the Crocodile Bridge entrance gate to the Kruger National Park, so we spent only one day at Ngwenya and made five day trips into the Kruger Park.

1 November 2006. Just back this evening from the Kalahari. I had returned to the Hotazel field camp after 3 weeks away to find that the old woodpecker nest-holes in the camelthorn above my trailer that I had hoped might be occupied by the African Scops-Owl had been re-inhabited by a pair of Bennett's Woodpeckers (see Hotazel gallery). A pair of Cape Glossy Starlings that seem to think the camelthorn belongs to them, chase the poor male unmercifully whenever he puts in an appearance.