With a recent trip to the Wild Coast in January a number of new galleries have been added:
Lifers added were Tibetan Sand Plover, Pondoland River Crab and Common Sand Hermit Crab
New photo Lifers added are Knysna Woodpecker and Greater Sand Plover
New location galleries added for the northern part of Eastern Cape and Cintsa and Kei Mouth gallery has been added to
After much dipping on this bird, I finally managed to see one on a recent trip to the Dolphin Coast. With much thanks to an awesome group of KZN birders and their willingness to go birding and sharing information.
With the announcement that the Avibase nomenclature will now be the standard, I have made the changes from IOC to AVIbase accordingly.
Sadly this also means some lost lifers.
| IOC Name | Avilist name | Comment |
| Fulvous Duck | Fulvous Whistling Duck | |
| Woolly-necked Stork | African Woolly-necked Stork
Asian Woolly-necked Stork |
Species split – additional lifer |
| Striated Heron / Green-backed Heron | Little Heron | |
| Intermediate Egret | Yellow-billed Egret
Medium Egret |
Species split – additional lifer |
| White-breasted Cormorant
Great Cormorant |
Great Cormorant | Species Lump – lifer lost |
| African Crowned Eagle | Crowned Eagle | |
| Yellow-billed Kite
Black Kite |
Black Kite | Species Lump – lifer lost |
| African Purple Swamphen
Grey-headed Swamphen |
Purple Swamphen | Species Lump – lifer lost |
| African Black Oystercatcher | African Oystercatcher | |
| Sub-antarctic Skua | Brown Skua | |
| African Mourning Dove | Mourning Collared Dove | |
| African Hoopoe
Eurasian Hoopoe |
Common Hoopoe | Species Lump – lifer lost |
| Grey-headed Parrot | Brown-necked Parrot | |
| Agulhas Long Billed Lark | Cape Long-billed Lark | Species lumped |
| Dark-capped Bulbul | Common Bulbul | Species lumped |
| Rock Marting | Large Rock Martin | Species split |
| African Reed Warbler | Common Reed Warbler | Species Lumped |
| Lazy Cisticola | Rock Loving Cisticola | Species split |
| Green-backed Camaroptera
Grey-backed Camaroptera |
Bleating Camaroptera | Species Lumped – Lifer Lost |
| Chestnut-vented Tit-babbler | Chestnut-vented Warbler | |
| Layard’s Tit-babbler | Layard’s Warbler | |
| Cape Glossy Starling | Cape Starling | |
| Mountain Wheatear | Mountain Chat | |
| Scaly-feathered Finch | Scaly-feathered Weaver | |
| Yellow Weaver | Eastern Golden Weaver | |
| Golden Weaver | Holub’s Golden Weaver | |
| Red-backed Mannikin | Black-and-white Mannikin | |
| Indian Jungle Crow | Large-billed Crow | Species Lumped – Lifer Lost |
| Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch | Indian Nuthatch | Species corrected |
| Germaine’s Swiftlet | Edible Nest Swiftlet | Species lumped – Lifer Lost |
| Cave Swiftlet | Linchi Swiftlet | |
| Malaysian Pied Fantail | Sunda Pied Fantail | |
| Black-crested Bulbul | Ruby-throated Bulbul | Species corrected |
I had the fortune in January to be invited again to guide a SANparks Honorary Rangers group in Mapungubwe, and what a difference in the park from the drought stricken scenes in November 2016 when there was not a blade of grass in the park, Now everything was lush and so overgrown in areas that you could not get through the bush. Wildlife did not disappoint with masses of insects around everything was flourishing. I added some nice new photos to some species, and a few new species were photographed.
New photos for the park
New Species photographed
New Photos:
Two new lifers has been seen in the last few months. A lucky sighting of a Cape Fox near Hermanus, and hard work getting a mega Red-throated Pipit at Mkhombo dam.
Our December trip through the Karoo, Staying at Transkaroo Adventures near Noupoort, and Prince Albert, both in the Greater Karoo added a few new specie photos. Both Poynton’s River Frog and Protea Canary were lifers, and Cape Clapper Lark i have seen before, but now managed to get photos of them.
New Gallery Added for Southern African Landscapes
New photos added for these species:
We visited the Indonesian Islands of Bali and Lembongan in August 2023. This certainly has been one of my favourite destinations that i have visited thus far. The islands are beautiful, the culture amazing but its the people that really make this special.
The trip consisted of three parts. The first, we were staying in a typical beach resort, and although we ventured out to some other sights this is really the type of holiday where you swim, drink cocktails and lounge around. Nice for a day or two, but not my type of holiday. Thank fully there was a small wetland park within walking distance and some good birding there.
The second part was into the interior of the island to Ubud, which is much more nature driven and more commercially driven with many larger markets. We stayed in a stunning villa on the edge of a green ravine, with stunning views. Initially we visited a number of the “must see spots” but soon realized that these has become very commercialized, sadly. Tegallalang Rice terraces is a good example where the actual attraction of the rice terraces and how they are irrigated is now second to the “Instagram activities” such as swings, bike cable rides, bottomless floors and swimming pools. Its an amusement park and not an attraction. But in my walks around Ubud I traversed other rice paddies, and had fantastic conversations with the local farmers and other people living there around their culture and life style. Ubud also provided me with one of my huge wish list birds, the Green Junglefowl. Easy to hear, difficult to see in the lush forest, but we did get some good views for a few minutes.
The last part of our stay was Lembongan, reached by ferry. This small island and its neighbour, Ceningan, is best explored by renting a scooter, and by far the best part of our trip. The freedom to be able to travel on your own on the island from one stunning beach to the next, passing by coffee shops, little bars and restaurants and having a host of massages was just the highlight of the time spent in Bali. Our host, Yoni, at Dini D’nusa was unbelievable in helping us organise everything we wanted, from scooters, various snorkel dives, and restaurants, not effort was too much. Another fantastic islander that we met was Rai from https://www.raiartspace.org/. Not only was his art inspirational, but he as a person gave me much food for thought on how we live our lives.
Naturally I spent some time out looking for birds 79 species of which 35 were new to my world list and some nice sighting of other creatures, including crabs, butterflies and dragonflies.
We visited Singapore in August 2023 for four days and divided the time there between general sight seeing and shopping in Orchard Road. Here are links to the main sight-sightseeing areas we covered. The Botanical garden and Orchid gardens was by far the highlight of the visit.
The visit allowed for some birding as well and 50 species were seen of which 35 were new world lifers. Below are a few of my highlight species:
Grootvallei Game Ranch is a game farm on the Boshoff Kimberley gravel road, in an area that transitions from Freestate grasslands into Kalahari grassland. Where we spent a few days in December 2022
Other Species Updated:
Recent trip to the Northern Cape visiting Upington, Keimoes, Kakamas and Augrabies Falls.
