Punda Maria Waterhole

Pre-sunrise at Punda Maria camp waterhole. I decide to make coffee to ‘take with,’ so it’s fully light when I get into the hide, and the sun is about to show. It’s Feb 2024

The resident Egyptian Geese, Blacksmith Lapwings, Three-banded Plovers; and foam nest frog nests are there.
A Bearded Woodpecker drums a tattoo in a dead tree while a Cape Turtle Dove exhorts me to Work Harder. Good luck with that, I’ve been ignoring them for almost four years now.
Two damp Striped Kingfishers sit in the falling mist, not quite a drizzle, giving their trilling call. A Brown-hooded Kingfisher silent nearby. A Tawny-flanked Prinia going crazy, scolding something I can’t see.
Also Fork-tailed Drongo, Red-backed Shrike, Cinnamon-breasted Bunting, Chinspot Batis, Pintail Whydah, Blue & Lipstick waxbills (I don’t like the word ‘common’), Paradise Whydah, Red-billed Oxpecker, European & Carmine Bee-eaters; Greater blue-eared Glossy Starling, GHS girls (Grey-headed Sparrows), Laughing, Emerald & Cape Turtle Doves; Mosque, Barn & Lesser-striped Swallows;  Puffback & Red-back Shrikes; Red-billed Quelea flock; Red-Billed firefinch, Indigo bird, Lilac-breasted Roller, Crested Barbet,  Grey Goway Bird, Black-crowned Tchagra, Arrow-marked Babbler, Yellow-bellied Greenbul, Dusky & Paradise flycatchers; Long-billed Crombec, White-browed (Hooligans) Robin-chat. A great morning.

Somewhere in the middle distance eles rumble and baboons bark.
A flock of White Helmet-shrikes – The Seven Sisters – fly into the hide tree just a few metres from me. I get a blurry pic.

A skreee from a Blacksmith Lapwing announces a raptor and there he is: A Little Sparrowhawk strafes low over the water, then banks up and lands in a tall mopani tree too far away for a definite ID, but his size tells me he’s a Little.

Now those eles arrive to drink, and one drops a huge dump while doing so. I zoom in on their dry skin.

Uh oh! Three primates enter the hide. Loud talk and cigarette smoke sets off my internal alarm. Oh well, I enjoyed a lovely couple of early morning hours alone at the hide. Time to wake Jess up for breakfast in the hut she hired after tiring of camping!

~~oo0oo~~

Places nearby

Luvhuvhu river banks
White-fronted Bee-eater
Collared & White-bellied Sunbirds
Brubru Kurrichane Thrush
Black flycatcher
White-crowned Lapwing
Bob the Sandpiper (common)
Marsh Sandpiper
Orange-breasted Bush-shrike
Tambourine Dove

Kloppersfontein waterholes
Grey & Black-headed Herons
White-faced Duck
Whiskered Tern
White-backed & Hooded Vultures

Outside the park, near Pafuri Gate

Nthakeni Bush Camp
Dark-capped Bulbul
Golden-tailed Woodpecker
Black-headed Oriole
Good Lord Deliver Us Nightjar
Wood & Pearl-spotted Owlets
Blue Waxbill
Bearded Scrub-robin
Blue-Grey (ashy) & Paradise Flycatchers
Green-backed Camaroptera
Green-winged Pytilia

Red-billed Firefinch dancing on a perch holding a tiny twig with leaflets.

*put video here *

Golden-breasted Bunting
Willow Warbler
Mosque Swallow

Emerald spot Dove
Chinspot Batis
Spectacled Weaver
Klaas’ Cuckoo

Cattle bells plink-klonking as they graze along the Mutale river

~~oo0oo~~

That Punda Maria waterhole at night: