Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, 11 January 2006.

 

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve

 

After a few hours in the morning spent at the Ramsar-designated wetlands of Marievale, the rest of the day was spent driving slowly around Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, a beautiful and peaceful 13000ha island of protected highveld grassland and thornveld just off the N3 - one of the trunk roads out of Johannesburg, and about a 30 minute drive away.

 

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve - the visitor centre is housed in the brown buildings centre-left

 

I was first shown Suikerbosrand (named after the Afrikaans for the Sugar Bush Protea cafra) in 1991, and have been returning almost every year since then. It is a gem of a Reserve, with rolling hills and wide views, red rocks and yellow and purple flowers, and excellent birding which is done mainly from the car as you wind your way along the “Tourist Route” - a hard-top road that goes in a one-way 66km loop from the visitor centre and back again. Given how close it is to both Johannesburg and Pretoria it is usually remarkably free of visitors during the week - and in fact I saw just ONE other car the whole day. It’s superb for photography because of it - if you cut the engine to slowly “roll up” to a bird it’s almost guaranteed that nothing will come up behind you to frustrate your efforts. Try that in parts of Kruger National Park where any stopped car is taken as a signal that something rare has been spotted and see what happens…

Suikerbosrand is probably so quiet because there is little in the way of large mammals to attract tourists (though there are Zebra and small numbers of eg Red Hartebeest and Blesbok, and plans apparently to breed White Rhino - which may already be underway, as the Reserve has expanded hugely since I first visited by embracing a number of old farms giving translocated Rhinos ample room to roam unseen in the areas visitors can’t get to). If birds are your interest though Suikerbosrand is highly recommended.

Many of the species found in Suikerbosrand are highveld specialities whilst others are more widespread, but they do include a number of southern African endemics and near-endemics such as Orange River Francolin, Mountain Wheatear, Cape Rock Thrush (which - surprisingly - I failed to see this time), Long-tailed Widowbird, Fiscal Flycatcher, Red-eyed Bulbul (photo left), and African Pied Starling. Older guide-books refer to Ground Woodpecker being fairly common - I’ve never managed to see one here, and I’m told it’s not likely. At this time of the year many birds are singing (invaluable for getting to grips with the cisticolas that occur here) the widowbirds are in their remarkable, long-tailed full breeding plumages (making ID much easier for us, but flying very difficult for them - evolution can play some odd games sometimes!), and there are huge numbers of visiting Barn Swallows spending the Palearctic winter in the sunshine as well as resident and intra-African migrant hirundines.

 

African Hoopoe Upupa africana, main Car Park

 

Before starting - and after finishing - the Tourist Route, it is definitely worth birding around the beautifully designed Visitor Centre, the main car park and the short grass picnic areas - especially if you’re into photography. It’s one of the easiest places in the Reserve to see African Hoopoe, various “canaries”, and Cape Robins.

The Reserve itself consists of a number of different habitats, and the bird species here are more varied than might first be thought. It’s easiest to think of the habitats in terms of the one-way route and try to give yourself enough time to cover the Reserve properly. When I first went I was always spending “too long” - a very subjective term of course - birding the higher, rockier areas of grassland either side of the first 1/3rd of the route (where most of the chats, larks, and pipits tend to be), and having to rush through the equally interesting arid thornveld and acacias that dominate a roughly 20km stretch towards the end of it (where shrikes, barbets, waxbills, warblers, and such are found).

 

Levaillant’s Cisticola Cisticola tinniens (for a gallery and discussion go to Levaillant’s)

Rufous-naped Lark Mirafra africana

1st winter Lesser Grey Shrike Lanius minor

Breeding-plumaged male Red-collared Widowbird Euplectes ardens

Breeding-plumaged male Pin-tailed Whydah Vidua macroura

 

Another area that mustn’t be rushed past is the Picnic Site - which is conveniently situated almost half-way round the Route and well-signed (and unmissably close to the road anyway). A small, fenced-in recreational site this is the one area along the Tourist Route where you can get out of the car and have a wander around. Being the one and only place to stretch your legs the Picnic Site is of course attractive to people other than birders, and there are barbecue sites and tables here which can get busy sometimes (somewhat inevitably the one car of the day I saw also came into the Picnic Site, but there’s nothing like a bleary, glowering birder coated in too much sun-screen to discourage conversation and they soon moved on).

Fiscal Flycatcher, Red-eyed Bulbul, and White-browed Sparrow-weaver are common here (and it used to be the best place in the Reserve to get good close views of the rather lovely Mocking Chat, but I’ve not seen one here for a while now). The trees here are pretty reliable for Red-throated Wryneck and Cardinal Woodpecker (which are difficult to see from a moving car) and often has Ashy Tit. On this occasion they hosted a pair of displaying Diederik Cuckoos - beautiful birds, they’re like little red-eyed tornados of emerald green and white whipping through the canopy…

 

Diederik Cuckoo Chrysococcyx caprius

 

Though the Reserve itself closes at 18:00 (way too early, as it rules out any real chance of seeing birds like koorhans which are crepuscular) one trick always worth doing is to stay until dark outside the Reserve, and drive up a dirt road (signed to Eendracht) close by - it’s excellent for Marsh Owl: at about 18:30 (close on dusk) on this occasion six suddenly appeared out of the long grass where they’d been roosting and began hunting nearby - one or two often sit on the dirt road and can be fairly approachable if you take care. One thing to be aware of if you try this is that the local land-owners are invariably suspicious of any vehicles cruising up and down this road: if they see you they will approach you, and they are always armed. I’ve never had any trouble once I’ve explained what I’m doing, but it’s probably worth knowing what you may be getting into…

 

Marsh Owls Otus capensis

Sunset over Suikerbosrand

 

Anyway, another really great day ended with the owls - which brought the day total to about 120 species. I missed a few ‘regulars’ that I normally see (Spike-heeled Lark, Cape Rock Thrush, and Orange-breasted Waxbill but that may have been as much to do with the time of year (lush and long grass) and the wet weather conditions as me getting a blinding headache by the afternoon), and I saw a few that I normally don’t (Steppe Buzzard, South African Cliff Swallow, Banded Martin, Lesser Grey Shrike, and Acacia Pied Barbet for example).

Whatever, I’m certainly not complaining…

 

Day List: English and scientific names mainly from “SASOL Birds of Southern Africa”, Struik 1996 :
Reed Cormorant Phalacrocorax africanus 20+; Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis 20+; Hadada Ibis Bostrychia hagedash c)10; Spur-winged Goose Plectropterus gambensis 1; Black-shouldered Kite Elanus caeruleus c)10; Common (Steppe) Buzzard Buteo buteo vulipnus 2; Orange River Francolin Francolinus levaillantoides 2; Swainson’s Francolin Francolinus swainsonii c)15; Helmeted Guineafowl Numida meleagris 10+; Spotted Dikkop Burhinus capensis 2; Feral Pigeon Columba livia +; Rock (Speckled) Pigeon Columba guinea 10+; Cape Turtle (Ring-necked) Dove Streptopelia capicola 20+; Laughing Dove Streptopelia senegalensis 50+; Diederik Cuckoo Chrysococcyx caprius 6-8; Marsh Owl Asio capensis 6; Little Swift Apus affinis c)10; White-rumped Swift Apus caffer 20+; African Hoopoe Upupa africana 1; Red-billed Woodhoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus 4; Acacia Pied Barbet Tricholaema leucomelas 2; Black-collared Barbet Lybius torquatus 3; Crested Barbet Trachyphonus vaillantii 1; Lesser Honeyguide Indicator minor 1(2) ; Red-throated Wryneck Jynx ruficollis 1; Rufous-naped Lark Mirafra africana 5-6; Banded Martin Riparia cincta 4+; Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 500+; White-throated Swallow Hirundo albigularis 10+; Greater Striped Swallow Hirundo cucullata 30+; South African Cliff-swallow Hirundo spilodera c)20; Cape Wagtail Motacilla capensis 4-5; Orange-throated Longclaw Macronyx capensis 5-6; Long-billed Pipit Anthus similis 2; Red-eyed [Black-fronted] Bulbul Pycnonotus nigricans 10+; Olive Thrush Turdus olivaceus 2; Levaillant’s Cisticola Cisticola tinniens 10+; Neddicky (Piping Cisticola) Cisticola fulvicapillus 3-4; Zitting Cisticola Cisticola juncidis 3-4; Wailing Cisticola Cisticola lais 3-4+; Tawny-flanked Prinia Prinia subflava 2; Black-chested Prinia Prinia flavicans 2-3; Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus 2; Chestnut-vented Warbler (Tit-babbler) Parisoma subcaeruleum 4; Fiscal Flycatcher Sigelus silens 4-5; Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata 1; Cape Robin-chat Cossypha caffra c)10; Kalahari Scrub Robin Erythropygia paena 3; African Stonechat Saxicola torquata 20+; Mountain Wheatear Oenanthe monticola c)10; Familiar Chat Cercomela familiaris 4; Southern Anteater-chat Myrmecocichla formicivora 6-8; African Paradise-flycatcher Terpsiphone viridis 1; Malachite Sunbird Nectarinia famosa 1; White-breasted (-bellied) Sunbird Nectarinia talatala 2; Cape White-eye Zosterops pallidus 3-4; Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio 2; Lesser Grey Shrike Lanius minor 1; Fiscal Shrike Lanius collaris c)10; Three-streaked Tchagra Tchagra australis 2; Bokmakierie Telophorus zeylonus 2; Common Myna Acridotheres tristis 10+; African Pied Starling Spreo bicolor 8; House Sparrow Passer domesticus 10+; Cape Sparrow Passer melanurus 10+; Southern Grey-headed Sparrow Passer diffusus 3-4; White-browed Sparrow-weaver Plocepasser mahali 5-6; Southern Masked-weaver Ploceus velatus 100+; Southern Red Bishop Euplectes orix 200+; Golden Bishop Euplectes afer 20+; Yellow Rumped Widowbird Euplectes capensis 1; White-winged Widowbird Euplectes albonotatus c)10; Red-collared Widowbird Euplectes ardens 15+; Long-tailed Widowbird Euplectes progne 20+; Common Waxbill Estrilda astrild 10+; Pin-tailed Whydah Vidua macroura c)10; Black-throated Canary Serinus atrogularis 30+; Yellow-fronted (-eyed) Canary Serinus mozambicus 1; Streaky-headed Seedeater Serinus gularis 1; Cape Bunting Emberiza capensis c)10

 

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Information on the status and occurrence of birds within Suikerbosrand NR is collated by the Birds in Reserves Project (BIRP) run by the Avian Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Please consider adding your sightings to this Project

 

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores.