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Hi everyone!

We're going to Satara restcamp from 7 -13 July this year (can't wait!!) and was just wondering who's got the record for the most bird species seen during winter. Mmmmm, lets say per day and per stay in Kruger.

Not being the best birder in the world but still a passionate one I would like to get some inspiration! hehehe

Howzit Jurgens,
If you see 100 species on a winter trip, you are doing well. I think our July record is 102, or about there.

I think mine is about 140 for a week in winter - but then it is a family holiday and not an all out birding trip.

Just a breakdown of a number of us mites who had a recent trip to Satara at the start of Feb

Total seen in 4 days: 179
First day: 111
second day 167 (56 added)
3rd day: 175 (8 added)
4th day 179 (4 added)

Imax, I'm going to ignore your reply and convince myself that 100 is the target hehehe.

The last time I was there (last July) I saw 88 in three days so I suppose the 100 mark set by BB is the target I'm going to set.....179? not this trip! July's not the month to try and break THAT record.

thank for the replies

Just remember we had 3 dedicated birders and one obsessive birder. the same weekend was BBW in Punda and the hard core birders there beat us by about 10 in the same time.

the 88 I last saw was between me and my girlfriend.......I feel little better about myself now!

I do not stop for all the birds, and consider non birders in my party, but 100 is about par. The most in summer is 133, also in a non birding group.

same situasion here, no real birders. Hehehe, i've made myself unpopular on more than one occasion.

Once I stopped for about 10 minutes to look at an Afrikaanse Sperwer (english name?) that was sitting probably only 3 metres away in a tree, great sighting!! As luck would have it, only about 200m further we found my sister and her family telling us that we just missed a leopard walking right in the middle of the road for at least 10 minutes!! Man, now THAT got the tongues going!!

My best KNP score thus far is 197 for a end January trip in 2006. Was me and the wife.

For my trip coming up in a couple of days I've set a target of 120. Have not yet visited Kruger this time of year so not sure what is around and I also have a 2 1/2 year old daughter in the car so will have to see how much birding she allows dad although she likes birds and knows the call of Dikkop, Guineafowl and African Hoopoe already.

Francois, would love to hear from you when you come back.

I'll post something once I'm back. Are coming back via a detour so that will only be after 28 April. My trip will include 3 nights at Satara.

Looks like we will cross on the 'road' 'cois

Well I'm back and manage to list 147 birds in 7 days. This does not include any LBJs (think there is one) as my daughter did not allow me to stop to long for birds. Most of the birds were recorded in the camps we stayed in or stopped over at.

Some birds you normally hear was silent the whole trip e.g. Brown-hooded Kingfisher, Woodlands Kingfisher, Burchell's Coucal, Purple-crested Turaco. Unlike on other trips I could not connect with Purple-crested Turaco at places like Skukuza and had to wait till our last afternoon to see the one and only one for the trip.

As for Satara and surrounds I managed 94 birds of which 51 was also seen in the camp or just outside the perimeter fence.

As Jurgens asked about the Satara birds I'll list only them here. A "c" behind the name indicates that it was seen inside the camp. I only list owls based on calls and not other birds. We did for instance hear Gorgeous Bush-shrike on a couple of occasions but could not see it.

Take some time to walk through the whole camp to bird.
Good places is the camping area and especially the thickets at the south side. Also behind G179.

For some reason although I've set my Roberts PDA to the Roberts 7 names the old names were extracted to my PC. No idea why so some names might be old names

African Fish Eagle
African Hoopoe {c}
African Jacana
African Mourning Dove {c}
African Pied Wagtail
African Scops Owl {c (heard)}
Bateleur
Bearded Woodpecker {c}
Bennett's Woodpecker {c}
Blackcrowned Tchagra
Blackeyed Bulbul {c}
Blackheaded Heron
Blacksmith Plover {c}
Blue Waxbill {c}
Brown Snake Eagle
Brownheaded Parrot {c}
Brownhooded Kingfisher
Burchell's Coucal
Burchell's Starling {c}
Cape Turtle Dove {c}
Cattle Egret
Chestnutbacked Finchlark
Chinspot Batis {c}
Common Moorhen
Crested Barbet {c}
Crested Francolin
Crowned Plover
Diederik Cuckoo {c}
Doublebanded Sandgrouse
Egyptian Goose
Forktailed Drongo {c}
Gabar Goshawk
Giant Eagle Owl {c (heard)}
Glossy Starling {c}
Goldentailed Woodpecker {c}
Greenbacked Heron {c}
Greenspotted Dove {c}
Grey Heron
Grey Hornbill {c}
Grey Lourie {c}
Groundscraper Thrush {c}
Hamerkop
Helmeted Guineafowl {c}
Hooded Vulture
House Sparrow {c}
Laughing Dove {c}
Lesser Grey Shrike
Lilacbreasted Roller {c}
Shikra (Little Banded Goshawk) {c}
Little Bee-eater
Little Swift {c}
Longbilled Crombec {c}
Longtailed Shrike {c}
Marabou Stork {c}
Marico Sunbird
Martial Eagle
Melba Finch
Mocking Chat
Namaqua Dove {c}
Natal Francolin {c}
Orangebreasted Bush Shrike
Ostrich {c}
Paradise Flycatcher {c}
Paradise Whydah
Pearlspotted Owl
Pied Kingfisher
Puffback {c}
Purple Roller
Redbilled Buffalo Weaver {c}
Redbilled Firefinch {c}
Redbilled Hornbill {c}
Redbilled Oxpecker
Redbilled Woodhoopoe {c}
Redeyed Dove {c}
Saddlebilled Stork
Scimitarbilled Woodhoopoe {c}
Secretarybird
Southern Greyheaded Sparrow {c}
Southern Ground Hornbill
Southern Yellowbilled Hornbill {c}
Speckled Mousebird {c}
Stonechat
Swainson's Francolin {c}
Tawny Eagle
Tawnyflanked Prinia {c}
Threebanded Plover
Water Dikkop
Whitebacked Vulture
Whitebellied Sunbird {c}
Whitefaced Duck
Whiteheaded Vulture
Whitethroated Robin {c}
Woodland Kingfisher {c}
Woollynecked Stork

I've just returned from a birding trip too, and I hadn't realised just how poorly timed this was until we got there. A combination of migrants having already departed and post-breeding moult/dispersion had me scratching around for what I expected to be "common" birds. I completely dipped on Purple-crested Turaco, for example.

Overall, however, I was pretty happy with 195 species and also had a couple of difficult/rare sightings (Yellow-streaked Greenbul, Marico Flycatcher, Gorgeous Bush-shrike, Orange-breasted Bush-shrike) to make things more interesting.

According to the books a "competent" birder should be able to see between 150 and 250 species in 10-14 days depending upon the season.

Suddenly I question my competency

Alf, 195 species including those specials is very well done IMHO.