The main attraction of the Bearded vulture hide in Giant’s Castle Reserve is the sightings of rare raptors such as the Bearded and Cape vultures. These vultures are not around the hide all the time. While waiting for the vultures to appear above the Bushman’s river valley there was plenty of wildlife activity in front of the hide to keep Helen and I occupied.

“One day your life will flash before your eyes, make sure it’s worth watching.” ~ Gerard Way

This post shows a selection of the wildlife that we saw in front of the hide when the vultures were elsewhere. The Orange-throated or Cape longclaw was a regular visitor. It has brown and cryptic upperparts. Its underparts are striking with its throat which is a deep orange colour which is bordered by a broad black necklace, and its belly is yellow with buff flanks. It has white-tipped tail feathers that make the tail distinctive in flight. Similar to a pipit, this species has a long hind claw.

It is summer in the southern hemisphere in January so it was light when driving up to the hide at 6h00. This was the first time we had seen a Secretary bird on the plateau leading up to the hide. This Secretary bird took no notice of us and continued to stride across the plateau looking for snakes, small mammals and birds, and reptiles and various invertebrates, such as insects, scorpions, and millipedes.

Another bird not seen at the hide but while driving up to the hide was an adult Southern Bald-headed ibis. The Southern Bald Ibis is endemic to a restricted region in South Africa with its main range lying in the north-eastern Free State, Mpumalanga and the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg. The distinguishing feature of an adult Southern Bald Ibis is its crown which is naked, bright red and domed. This species of ibis prefers grasslands in high rainfall and high-altitude areas. This species is classified “Vulnerable” by IUCN with an estimated population of 6 592 individuals which is in a declining trend according to the Southern Bald Ibis Species Champion Project of BirdLife South Africa.

“I think the most important quality in a birdwatcher is a willingness to stand quietly and see what comes. Our everyday lives obscure a truth about existence – that at the heart of everything there lies a stillness and a light.” ~ Lynn Thomson

You know when you are getting close to the hide because you can see the White-necked ravens sitting on the rocks near the hide and many Red-winged starlings waiting in the trees next to the hide. This pair of Red-winged starlings had been enjoying the fat and marrow offered by the bones.

One of the advantages of visiting the hide in summer is that the smaller birds have moulted into their breeding plumage. The Yellow bishop is also known as the Cape bishop, Cape widow or Yellow-rumped widow. Its breeding plumage is black with a bright yellow lower back, rump and shoulder patches. This bishop is a seed eater and was attracted by the grass on the terrace in front of the hide which was relatively long with plenty of seed.

“The presence of a single bird can change everything for one who appreciates them.”~ Julie Zickefoose

This trip was the first time we had seen Black crows in front of the hide. Black crows are also known as Cape crows. Their plumage is completely black with a slight gloss of purple in the feathers. The Black crow has a sharp narrow beak which is differently shaped to the White-necked raven and so feeds differently. In front of the hide it pecked at the marrow in the bones. It normally eats seeds and fruit but will also feed on reptiles and invertebrates, small birds and their eggs. These crows are known to be highly intelligent.

The Greater striped swallows were challenging to photograph because they fly fast and do not have a constant flight path and are highly agile in flight. Fortunately, they flew past the hide regularly so gave me plenty of practice.

Several pairs of Greater striped swallows flew around the hide each day for most of the day. We assumed there must have be plenty of flying insects for them to feed on. The insects could have been attracted by the meat and fat on the bones and also borne up onto the terrace from the updraft from the Bushman’s river valley below.

A male Speckled pigeon. This pigeon is a seed eater and was not visiting the terrace in front of the hide for the bones but for the plentiful seed on the long grass in front of the hide. The Speckled Pigeon has strong, fast flight. We normally did not see these pigeons arriving until the last moment as they flew up from below the ridge.

A female Cape Rock thrush. There was only one pair around the hide. They were there mainly for the fat and marrow in the bones. The female is differentiated from other rock-thrushes by her shape and rich buff underparts broken only by a small white patch on the centre of the throat. This female’s underparts were mottled and not a uniform rich buff indicating she was a young female.

“Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty.” ~ Anne Lamott

A male Cape rock thrush. This species is larger than the other species of rock thrushes and has darker uniform grey-blue breeding plumage on his head and neck. His underparts and outer tail feathers are a rust-orange, and his wings and back are brown. This pair of rock thrushes were feeding on the fat and marrow on the bones but had to regularly submit to the larger Red-winged starlings and White-necked ravens.

A Streak-headed canary. This small seedeater only visited the area in front of the hide once. I have never seen this species of canary before or since around the hide. This little seed-eater was not there for the marrow but the seeds on the long grass in front of the hide.

An African pipit visited once and foraged for insects mainly on the rocks. This is a slender bird with an erect stance. It has dark brown upperparts with buffy-brown leading edges to its primary wing feathers and coverts. The underparts are white or pale buff with a streaked breast and plain belly and flanks. The face is boldly patterned with a pale stripe over the eye and a dark malar stripe. The legs are long and pinkish and the slender beak is dark with a yellow/pinkish lower mandible.

A Familiar chat was very busy trying to get at the bone marrow while avoiding the larger birds. This chat was the smallest bird competing for the bone marrow in front of the hide. It was, and needed to be, the artful dodger.

A male Malachite sunbird stayed briefly in the trees just below the edge of the terrace. This male was adorned with his breeding plumage which is a iridescent copper green colour with dark green primary wing and tail feathers. Its central tail feathers are around 25 cm in length.

We did not see the female Malachite sunbird which has much duller plumage with brown upperparts and a light yellow coloured throat, chest and belly with malachite green flecks. She has shorter central tail feathers around 15 cm in length. The male spent some time in the coral tree below the hide and seemed to be looking for nectar.

A Black-backed jackal. One or two members of the jackal family appeared through the day to steal bones that still had meat and fat on them. The jackal family must have lived in the rock shelves further along the ridge. The jackals certainly claimed their fair share of the bones despite being very skittish.

There is a fascinating variety of wildlife activity on the terrace in front of the hide. The weather affects the dynamics of the activity. In summer the weather in this part of the Drakensberg can be highly variable. It might be heavily overcast and raining at 5h30 but a break in the clouds later in the morning can produce beautiful light. The clouds do provide dramatic backgrounds and the mist adds mood to the backgrounds.

We spent six days in the hide in an attempt to better understand the avian behaviour in front and around the hide. Each day the weather was different and birds that appeared differed. There were the perennials such as White-necked ravens and Red-winged starlings but different seedeaters, insectivores and even nectarivores appeared.

The longer time in the hide took off the pressure from expectations and gave repeated opportunities to practice my bird in flight photography.

“Birds will give you a window, if you allow them. They will show you secrets from another world– fresh vision that, though it is avian, can accompany you home and alter your life. They will do this for you even if you don’t know their names– though such knowing is a thoughtful gesture. They will do this for you if you watch them.” ~ Lyanda Lynn 

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and let it be.

Have fun, Mike