Weekend report by Maeva Louis Dewas
The birding weekend usually takes place at Borakalalo, but for the second time, the excessive water at Fish Eagle Camp forced us to change our plans and instead meet at the Pilanesberg National Park. Arriving at the Manyane campsite, we were surprised to find out that we were only four students joining this time. So, we were going to have a very private bird practical weekend. After setting up our tents, we all agreed to write our “climate and astronomy” test at the camp, surrounded by nature, birds and other animals sounds.
The evening ended around a nice fire but not too late, as we had an early start on Saturday at 05h30.
The following morning, one of our favourite lecturers and friend, Ulrich Oberprieler, joined us for our morning walk and bird identification was about to start. We found ourselves staying in the campsite for a long time, starting our practical at the very same place we were camping.
Indeed, birds were flying and calling from everywhere around us in this early morning bird chorus. We then headed toward the gate to get out of the camp. We had a lovely walk in the bush, learning about birds along the way.
Back to camp, exhausted by the heat, we decided to go for a swim at Manyane resort, where we enjoyed a well-deserved relaxing time.
To complete an already productive day in the field, we drove to the Mankwe Dam bird hide and spent some time observing water birds before heading toward a nice wetland area outside the park. We then sat there for a while, enjoying some beer and watching the sunset.
On Sunday morning, we went on a bird-watching drive, leaving our camp at 05h30 again to end up at Mankwe Hide. Back at the camp, it was already time to wrap up. Before saying our goodbyes, we put together the list of all birds we encountered over the weekend, which reached about 100!!!
It was quite an emotional time at the end, as we were already reaching the end of this year’s Mosaic Bushveld with only two more weekends to go.
Oh, and Ulrich, who really LOVES games, gave us a new challenge: we had to take note of interesting bird facts over the weekend. In the end, Darren was declared the winner with his massive hamerkop nest on a building roof – an extraordinary sighting!
A warm thank you to the Bushveld Mosaic team and Ulrich Oberprieler for a wonderful, intimate weekend in the bushveld. We will miss our time together.