Wakkerstroom 22-25 September 2006

During the long weekend of 22-25 September, Marietjie & I went to Wakkerstroom with Derick & Charmaine Oosthuizen, one of our goals being taking my lifelist past 500. Having never been to Wakkerstroom, I did not quite know what to expect, but I have to admit that all expectations were exceeded!

Birding-wise the weekend was a huge success. On Saturday morning we went out from 7 to 12 with local guide Lucky Ngwenya (arranged through BLSA). I can really recommend Lucky, he has an excellent knowledge of the local birds and birding spots, communicates well in both English and Afrikaans, not to mention having very sharp eyes! During this few hours I added the following lifers to my list:

• Yellowbreasted Pipit (Paulpiet road)
• Wailing Cisticola (Paulpiet road)
• Blue Korhaan (Paulpiet road)
• Eastern Longbilled Lark (Paulpiet road)
• Sentinel Rockthrush (Paulpiet road)
• Longbilled Pipit (Dirkiesdorp gravel road)
• Whitebellied Korhaan (Dirkiesdorp gravel road)
• Redwing Francolin (Dirkiesdorp gravel road)
• Rudd's Lark (Amersfoort road)
• Mountain Chat (Amersfoort Road)
• South African Shellduck (Wetlands)
• African Rail (Wetlands)

During the morning we also saw six more species that would have been lifers if I could have had time to check them out thoroughly, but unfortunately they were either flying or not hanging around long enough for me to really "meet" them. Not good enough for a tick in my book anyway.

On Sunday we drove to Zaaihoek dam, and at the gorge below the dam wall I saw three lifers within a stretch of 100m!

• Ground Woodpecker
• Cape Bunting
• African Rock Pipit

Excitement ran high when the African Rock Pipit answered to our calls, and came flying from across the gorge and perched on a rock, calling continuously, about 10-12m away! A lifer for Derick and Charmaine (both approaching the 700 mark), who have been trying to find this one for many years!

Sunday afternoon we went up Ossewa mountain in the hope that the wind would die down and offer a valley release so I could take a flight or two with my paraglider, but alas, the wind strength just increased and almost blew us away that evening! Wakkerstroom gave new meaning to the term "wind" - Never in my life have I experienced three consecutive days of such strong winds.

Had the wind been more friendly, I'm sure the birding would have been even better, as a lot of the birds were hiding from the wind. But still - this was a HUGE weekend!