TWO! more rarities at The Cavern on consecutive days Grey-headed Kingfisher This is a tropical migrant, rare in South Africa, and “confined” to the Kruger Park, with a couple of records in northern Zululand. Imagine the surprise when one appeared on the bare branches of the big gums not 60 metres from the hotel. It […]
Yet another new, and fairly unlikely bird has turned up at the Cavern. The Terrestrial Bulbul is confined to damp evergreen forests, being common at the coast, but increasingly rare inland. Only once or twice has it ever been seen in Berg forests. It is difficult to see anyway, being plain dull brown except for
The weather was about as bad as it could get without closing the show down altogether. Fierce hot winds all Saturday, freezing cold and heavy cloud on Sunday. But the birds always do something. It’s Spring, as the weather suggested, and the tropical migrants have arrived. Not full voice yet, but the Red-chested and Black
New birds turn up at the Cavern all the time. Often they are uncommon species that we have not noticed before, but occasionally something very out of its normal haunts arrives. Imagine our amazement when perched on a chimney on the hotel roof was a Red-billed Oxpecker. Just to make sure it was noticed it
Since a fresh leopard kill was found in the Cavern grounds a couple of years ago trip cameras have been set up at strategic spots. The idea is to found out more about “our” leopard. But an unexpected bonus is that all sorts of other nocturnal animals have been photographed too. The most recent has
The May birding weekend produced 77 birds. Not bad considering that all the summer migrants have departed. Glorious weather helped, but the main attraction at this time of year is the burst of aloe flowers. All the specialised nectar feeders in the area spent all day buzzing among the flowers, chasing each other around, and
It’s aloe time again at the Cavern, what a wonderful time to be here. The garden is alive with the fiery orange spires, and the sunbirds and their ilk cannot resist. Gurney’s Sugarbird is a special visitor; there are only two sugarbirds in the whole world and we have them both in South Africa. Gurney’s
The last of the Barn (European) Swallows that have graced our skies all summer set off northwards in early April. Departure signs appeared a week or two before. Usually during summer the swallows spend all day on the wing, returning to a communal roost, usually in a reed-bed, overnight. But as the days grow shorter,
The leguaan is South Africa’s biggest lizard, and may grow to 2 metres in length. It loves the waterside and is a good swimmer and diver, using sideways movements of its flexible tail. Several live in the Cavern grounds and can be seen in the small dams.
The small raptors that perch, often in large numbers, on the telegraph poles and wires on the way to the Berg, are Amur Falcons. Males are almost pure pale grey, females have speckled black on white underparts. They are migrants from their breeding grounds in Siberia. The migration is one of the longest of all,
