These tales record some of the more memorable experiences while atlasing – in this case two atlasing outings 4 months apart in time and 1250 kms apart in distance –
And in case you’ve forgotten or have not heard of Atlasing, there’s a brief synopsis at the end of the post
North in Winter
One of my last atlasing trips in Gauteng, before our move to Mossel Bay in October 2023, was a mid-winter outing to the farming area about 30kms south-east of Pretoria, not far from the town of Bapsfontein.
Good friend Koos, also an avid atlaser, had suggested the outing and he picked me up around 6.15 am with 40 minutes to go before sunrise. We headed east along Lynnwood road extension, which was already busy with Saturday morning commuters and keen cyclists heading out along their favourite route.
At the T-junction with the R25, we turned southwards towards Bapsfontein, then east again at the Witpoort road. The road changed to gravel and heavy mist enveloped the car, slowing our progress considerably until we reached the northern boundary of our target Pentad
Pentad 2600_2830
A side road signposted “Knoppiesdam“ invited exploration and after turning off we came to a ‘gate’ – one of those unique rural designs consisting of strands of barbed wire attached to thin poles each side, one side fixed, the other side secured by loops of strong wire (known in Afrikaans as ‘bloudraad’ or “bluewire”) which allow the gate to be detached and secured as needed. The ‘gate’ has no frame so you have to pull it over to the side and lay it flat on the ground while the vehicle drives through, then attach it again before moving on.
While I was opening the gate to let Koos drive through and closing it again, an Ostrich (of the farm variety, so not recorded) approached and started doing a mating dance of sorts – this is not the first time I have experienced this when stopping near Ostriches – Koos reckoned it was my woollen beanie that caused the unwanted attention this time around!
A short distance after the gate we came to the dam where we found a group of fishermen setting up for the day and a substantial body of water largely hidden by the heavy morning mist.
As usual the first birds listed were those calling in the early morning, some visible others not – Swainson’s Spurfowl has a particularly raucous call that carries a long way in the relative peace and quiet of the countryside and was my first record of the day. That was followed quickly by several other species – Kurrichane Thrush, Red-eyed and Laughing Dove, good old Hadada Ibis and a few others.
We lingered and listened intently while walking the shoreline of the dam as the mist slowly dissipated, revealing a few Red-knobbed Coots and Common Moorhen as well as a Little Grebe.
As we headed to the car Koos spotted a pair of large birds flying overhead but away from us – clearly Flamingoes! But which species – Greater or Lesser ? Fortunately they changed direction while still visible and gave us a view of their large bills, which were light coloured compared to the dark colour of the Lesser Flamingo, confirming that they were indeed Greater Flamingoes.
On the way back to the main road, more fine spotting from Koos produced two Little Bee-eaters high up in the trees.
Back on the main road, the habitat of open fields with short grass and stones prompted me to comment that ‘this is Wheatear territory’ – my words were barely cold when the first Capped Wheatear was spotted, along with Red-capped Lark, Crowned Lapwing, Wattled Lapwing and African Pipit – all species that share a fondness for this habitat.
The road left the pentad so we headed quickly southwards to join up with the R50 Delmas road which took us back to the pentad. The R50 is a busy road with heavy trucks that rumble back and forward constantly, making it awkward, even dangerous to try and pull off onto the verge to check for birds. At the first opportunity we turned off onto a gravel side road to escape the traffic and were soon back into a more relaxed atlasing mode.
Long-tailed Widowbirds (almost unrecognisable in their drab winter non-breeding plumage) were next up – the males lose their long tails and most of their black colouring (summer plumage shown in the first photo below), but retain their colourful ‘epaulettes’ to differentiate them from the all-brown females (the second photo below)
White-winged Widowbirds (equally drab females and non-breeding males) were encountered .
Just after finding a Namaqua Dove, always a pleasing species to encounter, we saw a large dam some distance from the road and found a track leading to it. Hoping that we were not intruding on someone’s farm we headed a short distance down the track to the dam only to find that a few large trees had been chosen as a roost by numbers of Black-headed Herons. We watched their comings and goings for a while and picked up a few other species before heading back to the road.
Smaller roadside pans and dams that we stopped at further along the road held a few species such as Reed Cormorant, Malachite Kingfisher, African Snipe and Lesser Swamp Warbler, to close out the morning’s atlasing with a total of 39 species recorded in the pentad
South in Spring
For my first atlasing trip proper since arriving in Mossel Bay permanently, I chose a pentad in the area between the Oudtshoorn and Herbertsdale roads.
Pentad 3405_2155
Bang on 6am I stopped in lovely rolling country with a few small farm dams and with many birds calling and I spent the next half hour listing those I could identify along with some that showed themselves.
Most prominent were the first of dozens of Common Quail that I was to hear (and encounter as described below) throughout the morning, along with Cape Spurfowl, Little Rush Warbler calling from the reeds of one of the dams and Common Moorhen.
I could pick out Blue Cranes in a distant field – a common bird in the southern Cape but always a pleasure to see.
Knysna Warbler calling from dense bush – I didn’t bother to try and see it as it hardly ever shows – was species number 22 after as many minutes of atlasing, after which the pace slowed somewhat, nevertheless I kept adding new species regularly.
Moving on from my first stop, the habitat changed from farming land to short grassveld, which produced three Larks in quick succession – Long-billed Lark, Large billed Lark and Cape Clapper Lark, the latter calling and displaying beautifully.
Up ahead small birds at the edge of the road attracted my attention and a look through the binos had me grabbing my camera – there were two Common Quails pottering about in the grass tufts at roadside! This is a species which I have heard dozens of times but have only had one short glimpse in all the years of atlasing, so this was an opportunity not to miss.
I was still some distance from the quail, which is a small bird about the size of a Lark, so I tried to edge the car closer for a better photo opportunity. However they were on to me and moved further along at the same pace as the car, so I turned the car slightly sideways to get a view with the camera and took as many shots as I could. Fortunately, I managed to get a few reasonable shots – my first ever photos of this species in the bag!
After crossing over the R327 I proceeded on the Kleinberg Road and soon stopped to scan a large farm dam which lies some distance from the road. I set up my spotting scope and used the maximum zoom (60 X) to identify the many waterfowl on the dam, which included Red-knobbed Coot, Cape Shoveler and Little Grebe – all common in the area.
Less common, in fact it turned out to be a new species for the pentad, was a pair of Black-necked Grebes, swimming in the middle of the dam. I have only ever found them further east at the lakes beyond the village of Wilderness so was really pleased to record them so close to Mossel Bay. They were way beyond my camera’s reach so the photo below is from a visit to Strandfontein near Cape Town.
The dam edges had both fresh water Cormorants present – White-breasted and Reed Cormorant as well as Blacksmith Lapwing.
I continued along the road adding Red-capped Lark and Capped Wheatear before entering the next pentad, which signalled the close of the atlasing of the pentad with a total of 53 species.
Atlasing?
Atlasing is the regular mapping of bird species in a specific area called a “pentad”. Each pentad has a unique number, based on its geographical position according to a 5 minute x 5 minute grid of co-ordinates of latitude and longitude, which translates into a square of our planet roughly 8 x 8 kms in extent.
As a registered observer / Citizen scientist under the SABAP2 program (SA Bird Atlas Project 2), I record all of the species I see or hear in a particular pentad over a period which can be anything between 2 hours and 5 days, for submission to the project database at the ADU (Animal Demography Unit) based in Cape Town.
Mostly Birding 