Lucky me, Jess chose St Lucia village for a three night getaway with good friend Tarryn for her birthday this year. The beautiful isiMangaliso Wetland Park is nearby, and I thought, ‘Great!’
The word mangaliso means ‘miraculous’ or ‘wondrous’ or ‘amazing’ in isiZulu, and it lives up to its billing. The tiny section I explored this time is marked on the map of the greater park in squiggly yellow: from St Lucia estuary to 20km up the Eastern Shores. I’ve been to many corners of this amazing place since my first visit ca.1965.
Birds I was looking for were White-backed Duck and Southern Banded Snake-Eagle (my main targets, I hadn’t seen them in ages); Also Lesser Moorhen; Rufous-bellied Heron; Pygmy Goose; and I saw all of those. Plus, as a bonus, Half-collared Kingfisher and Green Coucal – now Green Malkoha. I stared at these last two thru my lovely Zeiss binocs and by the time I remembered the camera they’d moved off. I’m still mainly a binocular person, not a photographer! Gazing in awesome wonder rather than recording.
The Samsung phone feature pic is on the vlei loop road, looking west across Ngunuza Vlei towards the setting sun. I turned round where the road went underwater as I wasn’t sure of the depth of the water flowing across the road. Being 2WD, lazy to deflate my tyres, and on my own, I thought best let discretion be the better part of valour! And retracing your steps is a new road anyway – you never cross the same river twice*. On the map, the vlei is south of Mission Rocks. What a joy the frog calls are all over the park after good rains.
I’ll upload pics when I get home – (done) – left my Canon to laptop cable behind! My mighty Canon is a SX620 HS. Lovely pocket camera, tragically ‘discontinued!’
Meanwhile, Gen Z was taking pics of their food. This in Mtunzini, well south of St Lucia.
~~oo0oo~~
Some more birds seen and heard: Livingstone’s Turaco; Tambourine, Red-eyed & Emerald-spotted Doves; Nerina Trogon; Yellow-throated Longclaw; Rufous-naped Lark; Rattlng Cisticola; Red-breasted & Barn Swallow; Black Saw-wing; Jacana; Black Crake; Three-banded Plover; Intermediate Egret; Dabchick (Little Grebe); Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird; Square-tailed Drongo; Hamerkop; Reed Cormorant; Darter; Spurwing & Egyptian Geese; Puffback puffing; Yellow-bellied Greenbul; Black-capped Bulbul; Speckled Mousebird; Orange-breasted & Gorgeous Bush-shrike; African Goshawk; Fish Eagle; Crowned & Trumpeter Hornbills; Burchell’s Coucal; Red-chested Cuckoo; Yellow-billed Kite; Hadeda; European & Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters; Harrier Hawk/Gymnogene; Green-backed Camaroptera; Cape & Pied Wagtails; Crested Guineafowl; Southern Boubou; Water Thick-knee; Brown-hooded & Striped Kingfishers; Wattled Lapwing; Tawny-flanked Prinia; Black-crowned Tchagra;
~~oo0oo~~
For more organised and more frequent trips into Southern Africa’s wild places, see Dewetswild. Dries De Wet recently went to isiMangaliso – he guides photographic safaris. His blogpost on his last visit is what prompted me to look for that duck and that snake-eagle.
*Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher said, ‘No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.’
