The Coastal Forests

Kosi Bay

We arrived at Kosi Bay on 17th May for a six night stay. We were lucky to get a campsite right on the lake & it was a comfortable camp. 

The view from the campsite

Our very pleasant & sheltered camp.

The lake walkway close to camp was an

 excellent spot for birding.

Brown Scrub Robin

Nice to see this species again.

Dark backed Weaver

Birding around the camp was quite good in quality of species, but poor on variety. Palm Nut Vulture; Osprey; Pink backed Pelican; Brown Scrub Robin & Dark backed Weaver were all seen well.

View from the camp at dusk.

Getting there was a little tricky!

One of the lakes just before the river mouth.

This is a World Heritage Site because of the 

traditional method of fishing.

This is the largest & one of the oldest

 fish trapping methods.

The fish are trapped as the tide comes in every day.

Kosi Bay River Mouth

The place is pristine & stunning!

We were joined on this leg of our trip

 by Annelle & Lourens

On the 18th May we drove to the Kosi River Mouth, it was an interesting drive as we had to ford a river! But once we got there there place was simply stunning! 

It is a beautiful stretch of coastline here.

Girls going snorkeling.

Samango Monkey

Dusky Flycatcher

Black backed Puffback

African Yellow White-eye

On the 20th May we moved camp the short distance to Madibi, a community run campsite set right on the beach. It is set in good forest & is a nice spot on the map. Quite a bit of time here was spent on the beach, not birding. 

Lake Sibayi

Crested Guineafowl

On the drive to the lake we passed through 

several nice patches of sand forest.

Pin throated Longclaw

By walking the slightly flooded lake margins

 we quickly found a pair of these beauties!

Hadn't seen this species for many years.

On the drier more sandy areas we found 

Yellow throated Longclaw.

Zitting Cisticola

We had an interesting time sorting out the

 Cisticola species along the lake margins.

Playback proved these to be

 Zitting Cisticola

All these birds were very pale.

Pale crowned Cisticola

Notice how heavily marked it is.

They were very vociferous & responded immediately

 to playback.

Notice the warm buff flanks.

It was nice to get close to this species,

 one I hadn't recorded for quite a while.

But we did enjoy a great birding day out at Lake Sibayi on 21st May. This area has great potential for birding having lots of micro habitats. However human disturbance is high. We had a good time here but never felt particularly safe in this area. Need to return with a larger group of birders.