Re: Two Days in the Crater.
Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 12:42 pm
Time to wrap up our short stay in the crater.
Driving the roads, we saw quite a few bird species, some of which were new to me at the time. As it was Winter, the best method would be to stop somewhere quiet and listen out for bird parties moving through the bush as they fed. This often worked, but other times you would simply come across a single bird perched on a roadside bush.
White-browed Scrub-robins were quite common here.
As were Kalahari Scrub-robins.
Chestnut-vented Tit-babblers were seen a few times, but were very camera shy.
Familiar Chats were seen almost everywhere we went.
Whilst Pied Crows cawed from the bushtops before flying noisily away.
Wattled Starlings fed at the roadside verges.
With Plain-backed Pipits also seen (or is it a Buffy? These things do my head in
).
We saw several small flocks of Red-faced Mousebirds.
Along with Cape Weavers.
Scaly-feathered Finches were common here.
With White-browed Sparrow-weavers seen in several places, usually in car parking areas?
Marico Flycatchers seemed to be very common in the park.
And Capped Wheatear were seen in the more open ground parts of the park.
(Lesser) Short-toed Rock-thrush was a sought after lifer for me.
and the Ubiquitous Red-winged Starling was always around human habitations.
We left the park satisfied with what we had seen and headed back to Pretoria. The strange thing I noted is that whenever we were outside of the park, Pale-chanting Goshawks were very common on roadside poles. Inside the park, we failed to see a single one?
Still, for a brief 48 hours, we had enjoyed ourselves immensley and hopefully I'll get the chace to return one day.
Driving the roads, we saw quite a few bird species, some of which were new to me at the time. As it was Winter, the best method would be to stop somewhere quiet and listen out for bird parties moving through the bush as they fed. This often worked, but other times you would simply come across a single bird perched on a roadside bush.
White-browed Scrub-robins were quite common here.
As were Kalahari Scrub-robins.
Chestnut-vented Tit-babblers were seen a few times, but were very camera shy.
Familiar Chats were seen almost everywhere we went.
Whilst Pied Crows cawed from the bushtops before flying noisily away.
Wattled Starlings fed at the roadside verges.
With Plain-backed Pipits also seen (or is it a Buffy? These things do my head in
).We saw several small flocks of Red-faced Mousebirds.
Along with Cape Weavers.
Scaly-feathered Finches were common here.
With White-browed Sparrow-weavers seen in several places, usually in car parking areas?
Marico Flycatchers seemed to be very common in the park.
And Capped Wheatear were seen in the more open ground parts of the park.
(Lesser) Short-toed Rock-thrush was a sought after lifer for me.
and the Ubiquitous Red-winged Starling was always around human habitations.
We left the park satisfied with what we had seen and headed back to Pretoria. The strange thing I noted is that whenever we were outside of the park, Pale-chanting Goshawks were very common on roadside poles. Inside the park, we failed to see a single one?
Still, for a brief 48 hours, we had enjoyed ourselves immensley and hopefully I'll get the chace to return one day.
.............but I love them all 
