Eshowe & Dlinza Forest 10/13--WOOLY-NECKED STORK, RED-CHESTED CUCKOO, TRUMPETER HORNBILL + 27 More Life Birds

TRUMPETER HORNBILL

Shari and the watchdogs

From Durban, which is on the coast, we drove a couple of hours northeast to Eshowe, where we stayed the night at the Birds of Paradise B&B. We were greeted by a couple of huge dogs, never a good sign to me, but they turned out to be just big mushes.

It was early the next morning that I got the first of the big, spectacular birds that I came to Africa to see--and not 25 feet away from our room. Mike & I were standing outside his room around 5:30 A.M. when we heard a racket and looked up into a palm tree to see a couple of TRUMPETER HORNBILLS scarfing down the fruit of the tree.

The group then proceeded to the nearby Dlinza Forest, which features South Africa's only forest canopy walkway, which certainly makes viewing the birds that like the tops of trees easier. The weather was cool and rainy, so we didn't actually go on the walkway the first time we visited--instead we visited a blind where we got spectacular looks (and really lousy photos) of an AFRICAN FIREFINCH. We also had a look at the first of our (or at least my) long-tailed birds, an AFRICAN PARADISE-FLYCATCHER. When the rain started getting heavier, we returned to the B&B for a typical English breakfast with lots of meats, cheeses, along with mushrooms and tomatoes. On the way back to the B&B we came across the 2nd of the "Birds I Wanted to See" just walking along the street in front of a house--a WOOLY-NECKED STORK. Kim made a quick turn-around, we slid open the van door and clicked away.

WOOLY-NECKED STORK

We returned to Dlinza and this walked the length of the canopy skyway. At the end is an observation tower from which we were able to see a couple of new raptors: LONG-CRESTED EAGLE and LITTLE SPARROWHAWK. We also heard the much-sought after DELEGORGUE'S PIGEON, somewhat of rarity. However, during this trip, rarities didn't mean much to me; I wanted to see (or hear) as many birds as I could and since they were almost all new to me and I'll probably never see them again, whether they appeared in numbers large or small didn't interest me.

RED-CHESTED CUCKOO

While we were on the tower, Kim heard a RED-CHESTED CUCKOO and played a tape (for which he'd be hung by the thumbs in New Jersey but there seems to be no onus in other countries) and the bird flew into a bare tree right over our heads and continued to sing (to another cuckoo in the distance) for at least 15 minutes.

PALM-NUT VULTURE

Around mid-afternoon we started on our drive St. Lucia, back on the coast. Along the way, Kim was on the look-out for PALM-NUT VULTURES and he finally found one along the highway in a place called Mtunzini. I thought the definition of vulture was a carrion-eater but these birds live on (you guessed it) palm-nuts. I was able to take a very impressionistic digiscope photo of the bird. It's over there on the right hand side of the picture.

I also saw, at 80 kph, my first COMMON OSTRICH of the trip, off in a field. No one else seemed to think it was as big a deal as me--they'd already seen others.