Creighton birding trip
In November 2009 I went birding in the Creighton Area …
17 November Vernon Crooks :
I arrived at Durban Airport just after 9am and drove directly to Vernon Crooks Nature Reserve.
It had been raining heavily so the dirt road to the reserve in a little Chev Spark was entertaining .
Birds found were : African Firefinch, Black Cuckoo, Brown Snake-eagle, Cape Longclaw, Common Waxbill, Crowned Hornbill,Dark-capped Bulbul, Fan-tailed Widowbird,Natal Francolin, Pintail Whydah, Rufous neped Lark, Starling, Yellow Billed Kite, Yellow fronted Canary but to name a few.
Arrived at Button Birding around 3pm
18 November Donnybrook :
5am rise and shine , a little bit of sunshine outside and we moved onto Donnybrook along with other birders in search of Cape Parrot.
18 November Umzimkulu :
For the midday and afternoon shift it was off to Umzimkulu in search of the Blue Swallow. Malcolm neglected to mention that we would be walking a marathon on the hillsides, only to find the Blue Swallow on the way back .
Lifers : Blue Swallow, Dark-capped Yellow Warbler, Wing-snapping Cisticola
18 November Creighton :
Evening birding lead us on the trail of Cape Eagle-owl, we headed just out of Creighton to some hillsides and looked for the Cape Eagle-owl. We found 2 which were taking shelter from the Rain.
Lifers : Cape Eagle-owl
19 November Creighton :
The rain kept comming down so birding in the rain it was and we did some more birding in the Creighton surrounds.
Lifers: Broard-tailed Warbler, Orange-breasted Waxbill
20 November Insekeni :
Yet another 5am start in the rain to Insekeni .
Lifers: Eastern Long-billed Lark, Bush Blackcap, Yellow-breasted Pipit, Striped Flufftail
21 November Creighton :
Up at 4am to get to Donnybrook for the Orange Groung-thrush before sunrise.
We arrivered there at 4:43 am and got the bird at 4:45 am , within 15 minitues they were gone again.
we had some coffee and watched the Cape Parrots fly by.
Back at Malcolms house the resident Buff-spotted Flufftail had been keeping away from my camera for to long , so I put in some quality time to find it and get a photograph.
Lifers:Orange Ground-thrush, Buff-spotted Flufftail
22 November Creighton :
Last chance for Black-rumped Buttonquail and the really BAD shot below is all i could get, I suppose next time we will nail it.
Lifers: Black-rumped Buttonquail
Extreme Birding
