Chris Lansdell's Birding & Nature Diary: South Africa, Day 25, 25 September 2018

The previous afternoon (24th) we visited the Debegeni Falls near Magoebaskloof and I had a walk around the extensive grounds of our luxurious Bramasole Guesthouse as the sun set. They seem better placed in this blog post rather than the last rather long one about Kruger!

The Debegeni Falls were overrun with tourists but at least my main target, Mountain Wagtail was very quickly bagged!

Mountain Wagtail

The grounds of the guesthouse yielded some nice views of c4 African Stonechats, Levaillant's Cisticola, Cape Canaries, Crested Barbet, Cape Grassbird, a Black Saw-wing, 2 White-throated Swallows, several Greater Striped Swallows over the dam and a Jackal Buzzard carrying nest material.

Levaillant's Cisticola

African Stonechat

Cape Canary

Jackal Buzzard

The following morning I left Belinda relaxing by the boathouse overlooking the dam at Bramasole and heded up into the hills to try the Magoebaskloof loop. Renowned for being a good forest birding site I found it slow as I did every forest in SA! A gorgeous African Crowned Eagle did start things off well and several stops along the track (reputedly a 4WD only track!) eventually yielded 2 Knysna Turacos, Yellow-streaked Greenbul, Olive Woodpecker, Cape Batis, Kurrichane Thrush and 2 Black Sparrowhawks plus Little Bee-eater on the way back.

African Crowned Eagle

Yellow-streaked Greenbul

Little Bee-eater

Later, back to Bramasole and evening walk was excellent giving me both African Olive Pigeon and Drakensberg Prinia as lifers plus Long-tailed Cormorant, Purple Heron, African Grey Flycatcher, Burchell's Coucal, 2 African Palm Swifts, 2 Speckled Mousebirds, Giant Kingfisher, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Cape Robin-chat, 3 Greater Double-collared Sunbirds, 2 African Pied Wagtails and Yellow Bishop.