Neil Gray's birds and other wildlife
Atlasville, 19 Jan 2007 My wife and I have just returned from our annual week away at Ngwenya Lodge, near Komatipoort in Mpumalanga province. Ngwenya is only 12km and a 15-minute drive from the Crocodile Bridge entrance gate to the Kruger National Park, so we spent only one day at Ngwenya and made five day …
Atlasville, 23 Dec 2006 Today was my 5th visit to Marievale in the last 8 weeks. I was there for about 3-4 hours on each occasion, but varying the time of day, once early morning, twice in the middle of the day and twice in late afternoon. These were not bird-watching visits as such, rather …
Atlasville, 01 Nov 2006 Last Sunday morning I paid a visit to the vulture restaurant at the Molopo Nature Reserve on the southern fringes of the Kalahari in the far western corner of North West Province, tucked up against the Botswana border near the village of Vorstershoop. It was a truly amazing spot, with between …
Atlasville, 01 Nov 2006 Just back this evening from the Kalahari. I had returned to the Hotazel field camp after 3 weeks away to find that the old woodpecker nest-holes in the camelthorn above my trailer that I had hoped might be occupied by the African Scops-Owl had been re-inhabited by a pair of Bennett’s …
Atlasville, 16 Oct 2006 After spending the nights of 6-7 October in Mapungubwe, my wife and I headed for the Kruger National Park via the most direct route, to Musina and on to the Pafuri Gate, the northernmost entrance into Kruger National Park. We needed to enter the park and make our way south to …
Atlasville, 16 Oct 2006 Since seeing Mapungubwe National Park for the first time on the bird club outing in June last year I have wanted to take my wife to see this gem, one of South Africa’s newer national parks. So when the opportunity for a week away arose we combined Mapungubwe with the Kruger …
Hotazel, 22 Sep 2006 I’m doing an awful lot of commuting from home to Hotazel and back, a distance of 610km each way. So for a bit of variety I decided to break the journey down to Hotazel yesterday. I left home earlier than usual and stopped off at the Barberspan Nature Reserve between Sannieshof and …
Hotazel, 15 Sep 2006 Finally! When I came back to camp this week I brought a second spotlight from home. Knowing where the resident African Scops-Owl perches in the camelthorn every night – well within 3 ft of the same spot – I set up the two spotlights last night trained on that branch, one …
Atlasville, 08 Sep 2006 The African Scops-Owl has been putting in a regular appearance the past ten days, always about 90 minutes after sunset and on the same branch of the camelthorn overhanging my trailer roof every time. This is either a regular nocturnal perch (I haven’t been able to locate it during the day) …
Atlasville, 26 Aug 2006 Our daughter is visiting from the UK to make final arrangements for her wedding next March here in South Africa. Her fiancé is a South African whom she met in London. Her fiancé’s mother from Port Elizabeth is also staying with us. So we arranged a timeshare mid-week at Ngwenya Lodge …
