WE DID IT IN THE RAIN !!!!!!!

11 pm on Friday 28th November was a rude awakening for me - still exhausted after just returning from a solid month of hardcore birding in Madagascar. The weary members our team (No Tern Unstoned) accumulated at Cedara College just outside PMB [the rest of the gang was Athol Marchant from NPB, Dave Hoddinott and Jonathan Rossouw (who was also no doubt suffering from overbirding syndrome brought back from Madagascar.)]

12:00 on the dot had us playing the Wood Owl tape and it took a few seconds before we had chalked up our first tick. The night was clear after a massive rain storm and we all hoped beyond hope that the weather would hold. Next in quick succession were Buffspotted and Redchested Flufftails. By now it had started raining - and typically it did not stop for the entire day except for a few precious minutes snatched here and there.

Midmar Game Reserve was the following destination and we immediately had a pair of Spotted Dikkops. The owls treated us well here with many Marshes, a pair of Barns and a Grass responding to its call - however Spotted Eagle was dipped for the first time in three years. Our fish eagle roost did not let us down with a drenched pair and a sad looking fledgling - again our only fish eagles of the day. The rain must have had some effect on daytime birds as many were flying around - the most welcome being several Kurrichane Buttonquails - another new one for us. A BSK was perched on a telephone line in driving rain - unusual but certainly not unwelcome !!

This year we tried something new, which was probably advantageous in the rain - dawn chorus in a grassland rather than the forest. Despite the rain, the birds were calling and we soon had two very unexpected species for the area (the Karkloof) - Longbilled Lark - several at that, and Bokmakierie. The large flock of resident Blackwinged Plovers were screaming well before dawn and the regular Buffstreaked Chat proved no problem. Rednecked Francolins were vocal and one soggy bird refused to leave the road as we drove past. Buffy and Longbilled Pipits were for some reason displaying soon after dawn as well as several cisticola species.

Next on the agenda was a dam we had not tried before and this proved to be our greatest bonus yielding two rare ducks for the area - Maccoa Duck and SA Shelduck as well as House Martin and Golden Bishop.

The mistbelt forests were beckoning and despite the rain and restricted dawn chorus we ended up getting most of the expected species - Orange Thrush, Bush Blackcap, Barratt's Warbler (actually more vocal than usual), Yellowthroated Warbler, Cinnamon Dove, Grey Cuckooshrike, Longtailed Wagtail, Knysna Lourie, Narina Trogon, Starred and Chorister Robin, Swee Waxbill, Olive Bush Shrike, Emerald Cuckoo (killer male seen), Forest Buzzard etc. Not unexpectantly the Cape Parrots and Ground Hornbills which are resident in the area and are seen on most recce trips let us down for the third year in a row. Our biggest dip was Cape Batis but hope for this species was not extinct as it also occurs in bushveld in the Otto's Bluff, believe it or not.

Some wetlands and marshes lower down the Karkloof range provided us with Crowned Cranes but no Blues or Wattled (we had done the crane sweep the previous year and were somewhat disappointed.) Another surprise in the area was Redwinged Francolin a new Karkloof record for us. An African Rail popped out of the reeds enticed by Jon's clapping - maybe we will try that on flufftails next time. By now we were freezing and soaked through - an unfortunate condition that would remain for the remainder of the day - at least we had no hope of falling asleep - we were far too uncomfortable!! A Gymnogene was spotted in Darter-like posture - very optimistically trying to dry out his wings - good luck to him!! The Pygmy Goose dam had to be skipped out due to bad roads - nothing like getting stuck in the mud to ruin your BBD as one Maritzburg team found out this year !!!

The bushveld's turn had arrived and here we had our undoing - where previously we had had birdparty after birdparty and song from every bush - there was now silence - other than one calling Cape Batis !!! With hard work and a bit of coaxing with tapes we managed to get the resident Greater Honeyguide to signal his presence - but no sign of the Scalythroats - or even a Sharpbill which is common in the area. A Coqui Francolin calling in the rain was a tough bird under the belt. We did manage to find Fiscal Flycatcher and a few migrants here - Spotted Flycatcher and Redbacked Shrike. With spirits down we left for Pietermaritzburg still needing common birds like both the tchagras, Natal Francolin, Longbilled Crombec, Pied Barbet, Scimitarbilled Woodhoopoe, Black Widowfinch etc.

Darvill Sewage Works in the rain is not the most pleasant place in the world as many Redheaded Quelea hopefuls have probably discovered for themselves. We did manage to find one lonely Redhead feeding by himself and an real surprise was a Fulvous Duck which must have moved in overnight as he certainly was not there the previous day. We missed the Pied Wagtail and Groundscraper Thrush that seemed so obvious on Friday but found a few migrant warblers . A Black Sparrowhawk hunting in the rain was another new one in the three years we have been competing.

Bisley Valley is a small patch of thornveld on the southern side of Pmb and for the first time in the day, the weather worked in our advantage and the rain ceased for a few precious moments - enough for us to pull out Blackcrowned Tchagra, Pied Barbet, Black Widowfinch and Scimitarbilled Woodhoopoe !! Another bonus francolin - Shelley's was calling throughout the reserve and Dave found a pair of Lesser Masked Weavers - a local rarity.

Passing through some farmlands on the way to Durban we managed to notch up another dip - a pair of dancing Blue Cranes and also Cape Sparrow but neither the resident Secretarybirds or Quail Finches put in an appearance.

Leaving Pietermaritzburg we were 1/2 hour behind our time schedule at 2:30 but doing OK birdwise on exactly 230 species. Our target of 280 was well within our reach.

Shongweni Dam was mediocre - the nesting Black Stork wouldn't budge off its nest in the rain so we dipped again. A pair of Pygmy Kingfishers was good as were Mocking Chat and Cape Rock Thrush. Striped Pipit gave us a hard time - after playing the tape, only Jon caught a glimpse of the pipit as it streaked past - but as we drove out, there he sat on the roadside in his full splendour and glory.

Blue Lagoon or Umgeni River Mouth was next and guess what .... it was raining. The Curlew which has been around for a couple of weeks was still there but we missed Lesser Blackbacked Gull for the first time in three years. An Osprey was flying out at sea - unusual in this weather. The tide was extremely high and very few birds were around, so we decided to race on to Umhlanga Rocks before we had found many of the coastal lagoon birds (after driving around the tea room to pick up some House Crows sheltering from the rain.) Well it was raining in Umhlanga too - surprise, surprise - but the forest was productive - Yellowbellied Bulbul, Brown and Natal Robin, Goldenrumped Tinker Barbet, Squaretailed Drongo, Olive and Grey Sunbird.

Back to Blue Lagoon - this time there were a few more waders and terns and we slowly squeezed them out - Terek Sandpiper 271, Goliath Heron 272, Kelp Gull 273 - this was greeted with much jubilation - the southern African record of 272 had been broken !!!!!

Nothing else was around and an agonising decision had to be made - stay here and try find some of the easy birds were missing like Whitefronted, Greater Sand and Kittlitz's Plover, Sanderling, Turnstone, Marsh Sandpiper and Sandwich and Lesser Crested Tern etc or risk driving to Bayhead and maybe get there too late to find any birds. Bayhead it was and we drove like bats out of hell through a deserted and flooded central Durban. The light was just fading as we arrived and we just managed to get our last tick of the day - Kittlitz's Plover before darkness set in.

Well we had broken the record but not reached our target - but there was no disappointment on our team considering the conditions. 285/290 is well within reach - read all about it next year !!!!

Biggest dips of the day - Palm Swift and Rock Martin - can you believe it - we hardly could. However we added 18 birds to our BBD list which now stands on 325 for 3 years doing the same route.

No Tern Unstoned : Data for last three BBD's

No Tern Unstoned tips for getting a big score on BBD