Twitchers?

Bob-Dubery · 2011-06-19T08:20:46+00:00

Got early on this nice ... err.... crisp Johannesburg morning and took one of my dogs for a walk down at Delta Park (other dog has a dodgy knee, goes under the knife on Tuesday and can't do long walks at present). I used to walk the dogs at Emmarentia, but now we're on the Delta Park side of town walkies will be at that park. Now, I'm a sort of dilettante twitcher. From walking my dogs at Emmarentia for 8 or 9 years I've a fair idea of what goes on in the bird world there. I have no idea about Delta Park. Anyhoo... to cut a long story short, I spied a raptor. Saw it in flight first heading for some trees. Got closer and had a good look. Came back home and checked Roberts (the old one, not the coffee table book you get now and which confuses the heck out of me) and there it was. A gymnogene (how do you pronounce that?) or more properly an African Harrier Hawk (I can pronounce that OK). I was quite chuffed, and I think I was a bit on the lucky side to get such a good look at it. Interesting thing was that there were some Hadedas in an adjacent tree, catching some early morning sun and they seemed quite relaxed about the whole business. On the occasions I've seen a raptor at Emmarentia (and I've not seen one there as big as a Gymnogene) everything for miles around takes off and flies for it's life. Are there any proper twitchers out there with something to add or corrections to offer?

domhatch

agreed. we're off on 1 july. can't wait!

[deleted]

deefstes wrote
MoreCowBell wrote Speaking of twitching, I'm off to Joburg/Kruger tomorrow morning for four nights (with mother, binocs and a bag of bird books) at Punda Maria... Not the best time of year for birding admittedly, but we always see interesting things up there so it should be good fun. Now i just need to see if I can twist my dad's arm to lend me his 300mm Canon lens for some close-ups of them fowls! haha 8)
Awesome stuff! Might not be the best time of year but it certainly is the best part of Kruger for birding. That, and Punda is by far a better place to be in winter than Joburg.

75 bird species in four days, including some firsts like a Dusky Flycatcher and a Striped Kingfisher. No migrants obviously, and just about no water birds, which was odd but we had a great time, plus I borrowed my Dad's 100-400mm lens so got some fab close-up shots of them feathered friends. Needless to say, several days of balmy 30-degree weather was good for the soul too! 8)

deefstes

MoreCowBell wrote
deefstes wrote
MoreCowBell wrote Speaking of twitching, I'm off to Joburg/Kruger tomorrow morning for four nights (with mother, binocs and a bag of bird books) at Punda Maria... Not the best time of year for birding admittedly, but we always see interesting things up there so it should be good fun. Now i just need to see if I can twist my dad's arm to lend me his 300mm Canon lens for some close-ups of them fowls! haha 8)
Awesome stuff! Might not be the best time of year but it certainly is the best part of Kruger for birding. That, and Punda is by far a better place to be in winter than Joburg.
75 bird species in four days, including some firsts like a Dusky Flycatcher and a Striped Kingfisher. No migrants obviously, and just about no water birds, which was odd but we had a great time, plus I borrowed my Dad's 100-400mm lens so got some fab close-up shots of them feathered friends. Needless to say, several days of balmy 30-degree weather was good for the soul too! 8)

Lekker man! Have you got some of these pics up online somewhere so we can ogle them out?

[deleted]

deefstes wrote
MoreCowBell wrote
deefstes wrote
MoreCowBell wrote Speaking of twitching, I'm off to Joburg/Kruger tomorrow morning for four nights (with mother, binocs and a bag of bird books) at Punda Maria... Not the best time of year for birding admittedly, but we always see interesting things up there so it should be good fun. Now i just need to see if I can twist my dad's arm to lend me his 300mm Canon lens for some close-ups of them fowls! haha 8)
Awesome stuff! Might not be the best time of year but it certainly is the best part of Kruger for birding. That, and Punda is by far a better place to be in winter than Joburg.
75 bird species in four days, including some firsts like a Dusky Flycatcher and a Striped Kingfisher. No migrants obviously, and just about no water birds, which was odd but we had a great time, plus I borrowed my Dad's 100-400mm lens so got some fab close-up shots of them feathered friends. Needless to say, several days of balmy 30-degree weather was good for the soul too! 8)
Lekker man! Have you got some of these pics up online somewhere so we can ogle them out?

Indeedy. It's a mixture of general happy snaps & some more deliberate pics. here you go (this totally gives away my real identity, but wtf... lol!): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150241910857608.343876.504342607&l=9cb2b7c4ef
Let me know if the link doesn't work - might need to change my facebook privacy permissions for that particular album... ?

deefstes

MoreCowBell wrote
deefstes wrote Awesome stuff! Might not be the best time of year but it certainly is the best part of Kruger for birding. That, and Punda is by far a better place to be in winter than Joburg.
75 bird species in four days, including some firsts like a Dusky Flycatcher and a Striped Kingfisher. No migrants obviously, and just about no water birds, which was odd but we had a great time, plus I borrowed my Dad's 100-400mm lens so got some fab close-up shots of them feathered friends. Needless to say, several days of balmy 30-degree weather was good for the soul too! 8)

Lekker man! Have you got some of these pics up online somewhere so we can ogle them out?
[/quote]

Indeedy. It's a mixture of general happy snaps & some more deliberate pics. here you go (this totally gives away my real identity, but wtf... lol!): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150241910857608.343876.504342607&l=9cb2b7c4ef
Let me know if the link doesn't work - might need to change my facebook privacy permissions for that particular album... ?
[/quote]
Very nice! It makes me real jealous - although I found out just yesterday that I have to lead a trip there in Nov. Booyaaaa! I love that place.

I wanted to add a comment or two to some of your pics but couldn't - I couldn't even befriend you as there is no button for it. Anyway, here goes:
Your Tchagra is a Brown-crowned Tchagra
Your Southern Boubou is actually a Tropical Boubou
Your Red-billed Ocpeckers are actually Yellow-billed Oxpeckers

Some very nice pics there. I love the Vervet Monkey mugshot. Also the Sharpes Grysbok is awesome. They're certainly not as common as you would have your viewers believe.

singemonkey

deefstes wrote
Your Red-billed Ocpeckers are actually Yellow-billed Oxpeckers

I totally wondered about this one. Then I was like *shakes head and moves on*.

[deleted]

deefstes wrote
Very nice! It makes me real jealous - although I found out just yesterday that I have to lead a trip there in Nov. Booyaaaa! I love that place.

I wanted to add a comment or two to some of your pics but couldn't - I couldn't even befriend you as there is no button for it. Anyway, here goes:
Your Tchagra is a Brown-crowned Tchagra
Your Southern Boubou is actually a Tropical Boubou
Your Red-billed Ocpeckers are actually Yellow-billed Oxpeckers

Some very nice pics there. I love the Vervet Monkey mugshot. Also the Sharpes Grysbok is awesome. They're certainly not as common as you would have your viewers believe.

Oops - thanks for the corrections - I'll cross-check them with the Boss Birder in Joburg, though I suspect we identified those birds correctly at the time (particularly the Oxpeckers... I hope?! ??? Otherwise we're utterly hopeless at this twitching thing! lol!). It was late & I was tired and without the magic bird list when I uploaded those pics though, so that's probably where the mistakes crept in! ?

Awesome that you're going there in Nov - all the migrants will be back too!

lindsmuse

I don't think you should give the camera back to your dad ... tell him you lost it or something ? Lovely pics.

[deleted]

lindsmuse wrote I don't think you should give the camera back to your dad ... tell him you lost it or something ? Lovely pics.

lol! Thanks lindsmuse! too late though I'm afraid... Camera's mine, it's just the lens that I borrowed... Sigh. I need to get me one of those...

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