Arbu
Well-known member
I spent six days walking through the Drakensberg Mountains (South Africa) doing this hike and looking for wildlife. March is of course the start of autumn there and I imagine the birds would have been a lot more in evidence in October/November when presumably they would be breeding. But I understand that the summer can be rather cloudy in the Drakensberg, and winter is not good for birding at all, so the times to go are quite limited.
I saw most of my targets (iNaturalist). Birds seen, but not included on INaturalist included Kestrel, Greater Striped Swallow, Cape Bunting, Cape Crow, Grey-winged Francolin, Verreaux's Eagle, Speckled Pigeon, Lammergeyer, African Dusky Flycatcher and Double-collared Sunbird (lower down). I missed Mountain Wheatear (thought it would be easy, but I've seen it in Johannesburg anyway), Cape Rock Thrush, Mountain Pipit, African Rock Pipit and Gurney's Sugarbird (probably not on the plateau anyway).
Does anyone know if I'd be likely to find my missing birds if I went back in the spring? There's lots more hiking that I could do there.
I saw most of my targets (iNaturalist). Birds seen, but not included on INaturalist included Kestrel, Greater Striped Swallow, Cape Bunting, Cape Crow, Grey-winged Francolin, Verreaux's Eagle, Speckled Pigeon, Lammergeyer, African Dusky Flycatcher and Double-collared Sunbird (lower down). I missed Mountain Wheatear (thought it would be easy, but I've seen it in Johannesburg anyway), Cape Rock Thrush, Mountain Pipit, African Rock Pipit and Gurney's Sugarbird (probably not on the plateau anyway).
Does anyone know if I'd be likely to find my missing birds if I went back in the spring? There's lots more hiking that I could do there.
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