On 30th May we drove to the Natal coast. It was an easy drive, as these days one doesn't have to go into Durban. Mtunzini is one of my favourite places in Natal. In fact, one of my favourite places in South Africa! It is a small, very pretty town surrounded by excellent birding opportunities. There is little crime here & the municipality run the place very well. We arrived late afternoon to our campground on the edge of the town. We quickly set up camp & enjoyed the much higher temperatures! One is surrounded by sub-tropical vegetation here. What a contrast to the rest of our trip!
We had a lazy morning in camp on 31st May , as we were both tired from the previous days drive. Then we set off to bird the forest around the Raphia Palm Monument. To say it was late morning, we did very well, seeing a host of new species for the trip.
Natal is a funny place to bird, as most of it is covered by the monoculture of sugar cane. First impressions are not good & one sees few species as you pass through. However, once one hits patches of indigenous vegetation everything changes & bird life becomes abundant. The other thing about Natal is that so many species are found here, which are restricted to this region. So we were hoping for an increase to our photographic big year. And so it proved.
In the afternoon we briefly visited the Umlalazi Nature Reserve on the edge of town. This reserve has a great range of habitats from sand dune forest, lowland forest, mangroves & associated muddy areas with a beach. It is a great place to walk around & do some birding.
Our main target species for this location was Mangrove Kingfisher & it didn't take us long to find one! This species is very localised & breeds in coastal forest along the Wild Coast in summer. However, in the winter months it moves northwards along the coast to mangroves. Numbers are low, as the coastal forest it relies on for breeding have been rapidly diminished by human activity. Umlalazi is one of the best places to see it in the winter months.
On the 1st June we hired a local bird guide for the day. It proved to be a good decision as he was both knowledgeable & very good company.
We were up at dawn & headed for the Dlinza Forest. This is a relatively small patch of forest up in the hills & holds two very special range restricted species: Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon & Spotted Ground Thrush. Both of these species have small populations in the highly fragmented mid-elevational forests. The Spotted Ground Thrush is a winter visitor here, as it breeds in afro-montane forests at a higher elevation. Both species are totally reliant upon these small indigenous patches of forest which remain today.
Our next stop was the famous Ngoye Forest, which holds the only population of Green Barbet in South Africa. This is an isolated sub-species of a bird which is found mainly in montane forests from southern Kenya, through Tanzania, Malawi & Mozambique.
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