Trogon outing report - Sezela Sugar Mill, 14 February 2016

Attendees:  Barry Willis & Sue Hansbury;  Margaret Jones; Doug & Angie Butcher; Stan & Val Culley;  Stanley Gengan; Sandy Olver;  Hazel Nevin

Text: Sandy Olver

Bird count: 76 (see end)

Red-chested Cuckoo (photo: Stan Culley)

The new venue of Sezela Sugar Mill was a great success,  with 76 species noted.  Below the mill are vast reed beds full of interesting sightings,  I am told it’s an excellent place for swallow roosts.  Birding was quite a challenge,  though rewarding,  with some special warblers  -  lucky we had Stan to ID!   The river then winds down towards the sea,  but choked unfortunately with water hyacinth,  so there were no ‘swimmers’ or ‘bank sitters’.   Management told us a year ago that they were waiting for summer floods to open the mouth and scour out the river!!   Looks as if the problem has gone passed any other control.

The gate to the top dam was locked.  Stanley knew a way to walk round to check the birds,  but the lunch braai members repaired to the relative coolth of Umdoni Forest.

 Species:

Barbet Black-collared Bee-eater Little Bishop Southern Red Bittern Little Boubou Southern Bulbul Dark-capped Buzzard Steppe Canary Yellow-fronted Cisticola Rufous-winged Cormorant White-breasted Coucal Burchell's Crane Grey Crowned Crow Pied Cuckoo Diderick Cuckoo Red-chested Darter African Dove Red-eyed Drongo Fork-tailed Duck White-faced Duck Yellow-billed Eagle Long-crested Egret Cattle Egret Great Fiscal Common (Southern) Fish-eagle African Flycatcher Southern Black

Goose Egyptian Goose Spur-winged Grebe Little Greenbul Sombre Greenbul Yellow-bellied Heron Black-headed Heron Purple Heron Squacco Ibis Hadeda Jacana African Kingfisher Brown-hooded Kite Yellow-billed Lapwing Blacksmith Mannikin Bronze Moorhen Common Mousebird Speckled Plover Three-banded Prinia Tawny-flanked Quelea Red-headed Reed-warbler African Reed-warbler Great Sandpiper Wood Saw-wing Black (Southern race) Seedeater Streaky-headed Snake-eagle Black-chested Sparrow House

Sparrow Southern Grey-headed Sparrowhawk Black Spurfowl Natal Starling Black-bellied Starling Red-winged Starling Violet-backed Stonechat African Sunbird Olive Swallow Barn Swallow Lesser Striped Swallow White-throated Swamp-warbler Lesser Tinkerbird Yellow-rumped Turaco Knysna Wagtail African Pied Wagtail Cape Warbler Sedge Waxbill Common Weaver Spectacled Weaver Thick-billed Weaver Village Whydah Pin-tailed Widowbird Fan-tailed Woodpecker Golden-tailed