Rain, rain and more rain

40mm+ today, and its still dripping. The mornings rain very quickly put paid to what was supposed to be some good birding time. Oh, I did see a few birds, most resembling drowned rats, but the rest were doing the only sensible thing and staying under cover, like me.

The pentad covering Sun City (2520_2705) has finally turned RED, with the 25th list submitted recently. I was intending to make it 26, with a quick dash to pentad 2525_2705 in search of Yellow-throated Sandgrouse and the Temminck's Coursers I noted a few days back, but that was not to be.

However, without the distraction of birding, I could sit back and appreciate the beautiful rain and what it is doing to the veld in the area. Pilanesberg and surrounds is looking very lush, and the dams are nice and full. In my home pentad (2525_2700) I have recorded the following rainfall this season:

October 2008 - 80mm
November 2008 - 71mm
December 2008 - 26mm
January 2009 - 255mm and counting

This is still about 200mm short of our average, so still some catching up to do. When will there be time to atlas??

Here's hoping for a dry day shortly to get some fresh air and tackle some pentads.

Well Done!!!

Huge congratulations to the atlassers who pushed Gauteng's coverage to the magical 100% mark!

Awesome work!!

Next stop North West ????!!!!

Atlassing Pilanesberg National Park

I am fortunate that my workplace is Pilanesberg National Park, a stunning reserve with great birding. Inevitably, Pilanesberg receives most of my attention when it comes to atlassing, simply because of the ease of access.

Pilanesberg covers 55o square kilometres, and is pretty well situated to allow for easy atlassing. The park has a road network of over 200km, allowing fairly good coverage of the 9 pentads accessible by the roads. 4 additional pentads cover some part of Pilanesberg, however, no public access roads are available. These I will tackle as I can with the assistance of other guides in the park.

Below is a map of Pilanesberg with the pentads overlaid (A printable version is available, email me for a copy)

I recently posed a challenge to other atlasers in an article I submitted to Pilanesberg News, a quarterly newspaper. This challenge was to turn Pilanesberg BLUE!!

11 cards in a pentad turn it Light Blue, 16 for Dark Blue, 25 for Red. 3 Pentads currently are Dark Blue, with one pentad (2520_2705 Sun City) needing only one more card to turn RED!!

Below is the latest coverage (number of cards per pentad) of Pilanesberg as at 25.01.2009

I challenge atlasers to focus on the pentads still needing some attention, and lets see how quickly we can TURN PILANESBERG BLUE!!

In search of Yellow-throated Sandgrouse

I was contacted recently by a birder interested in locating the Yellow-throated Sandgrouse (YTSG), and we arranged to head out today.

My first target was to search the mielie fields between Boshoek and Robega, with a back-up spot being the Sun City site.

We arrived at the fields just after 13:30, as I was hoping to discover a bit more about the schedule these birds follow; I had seen them previously between 16:00 and 18:00. We scanned the 4km of road bordered by fields back and forth a few times, and although we couldn't find the YTSG, I managed to pick out at least 6 Temminck's Courser's in a fallow field. Stunning birds these. All this while we were constantly watching an approaching storm, and hoping that it would miss us. We weren't that lucky, and the storm arrived in all its glory just before 16:00. Timing couldn't have been worse, as we collectively noticed a flock of 5 YTSG fly in and land just as visibility was being lost by raindrops covering the windows. A patient 10 minute wait ensued, and we were graced with a 5 minute reprieve from the storm, just enough time to locate the birds and have a quick look.

That was all we were given, the storm closed in again and we made our way home, "paddling" our way through flooded roads (at least the roads are tarred ;-).



Hopefully this spot will prove to be a very reliable stakeout as time goes.

See you there?????

Birding with a reason

When I first learnt of the Second South African Bird Atlassing Project (SABAP2), I must admit I found myself amongst many others that felt they could get more benefit spending their time differently. Although my father had been actively atlassing since the beginning of the project, the bug still didn't bite.


That was until I led a Wits Bird Club outing in search of the beautiful Yellowthroated Sandgrouse on the 23rd August 2008. The group leader, Mrs Gisela Ortner, delegated me to keep her birdlist as she atlassed the area surrounding the muddy little patch of water we were patiently waiting alongside. Thankfully, the Sandgrouse put in a great display, and everyone left happy.

Yellow-throated Sandgrouse pair

The following morning saw the group spending the morning birding on the Kedar Country Hotel property outside Rustenburg. My birdlist after 6 hours stood on 60 species, and this was to be my first list submitted towards SABAP2.

To date, I have submitted over 45 full protocol lists as well as over 20 adhoc lists. I have listed over 2800 records covering 327 different species.

You may ask the simple question: Why?

The answer is just as simple: Birding with a reason.

Gone are the days of visiting an area just to birdwatch. Now lists are kept, GPS co-ordinates noted, and plenty of birding is had!! These lists are submitted into the SABAP2 database, along with over 400 other observers' contributions, in a project aimed at improving our knowledge of bird distribution across the whole of South Africa.

Now an individual can contribute meaningfully towards an amazing project, and this gives me a reason to go out birding, knowing that I am making a difference.

For those looking for more information, visit http://sabap2.adu.org.za/, or hit the link on the righthand column.

Happy birding and atlassing!!!