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In the past few weeks there has been some great mega tics in the Gauteng area. Looking back in the past there are frequently mega ticks elsewhere in the country.

The aim of this post is to provide a place where info can be placed on what these mega tics are and where to find them. I noticed another old thread on ultra rare birds, but this was more a “brag list” than a help to go and find the current ones.

At present I am aware of 2 Mega tics:

Franklins Gull at Centurion lake, which at last report was still there. Details on can be found in these 2 threads:

Franklins gull

Franklins Gull

The other is the Lesser Black Backed Gull spotted at Leeupan, close to Leandra, in Mpumalanga (close to Gauteng border.)

This bird was first spotted on Monday 25 August and was again spotted today. Information to get there can be found in a post at SABN :

LBBG at SABN

The Lesser Black-backed Gull was still present at more or less the same spot this morning.
At around 7h25 it flew as it had done earlier. When I left at 8h00 it had not returned but I'm sure it is still somewhere on the dam. It would fly off, make a few circles and return to the same spot. Seems to be this bird's routine for the day.

Also a lot of Coots, Flamingos, Little Stints, Kittlitz's Plovers, Southern Pochards, Egyptian Geese, Cape Longclaw etc to be seen around the dam.

And hows this for a nice tick and in Kruger nogal. News just in via SA Bird Net. Birders in the area was asked to keep a look out for these and double check the Golden-breasted Buntings they see.

Saw that as well. It seems to be more or less the same area where the Hyliotas have been reported from? I also went looking there before but have not had any luck up to now.
I also saw a post from Andre Botha mentioning a Black-eared
Seed-eater he located in the same area.

Are we maybe seeing some Miombo birds moving in? That would be fantastic!

Eish. So I drove to Leeuwpan this morning for a serious DIP. I should have left my bed in Pretoria even earlier than 4.45am because the Lesser Black-backed Gull was showing nicely from 6h00 untill 6h45. When I arrived someone was still following the bird with a scope far away, but then lost it. From then on a strong wind started blowing and the gull presumably didn't feel like doing it's flying rounds.

Several eager parties - me included - explored several dirt roads around the dam but to no avail and my time was up at 8.30am.

Not sure if I really like this twitching business... What I did enjoy was the general birding around the dam and I added 12 new ticks to my Mpumalanga list (now on 244). A brilliant close-up sighting of a group of Orange River Francolins was the highlight.

Just received the latest Rare Bird Alert from Trevor Hardeker and according to that the bird was showing at 12:30 today so you left to early

If I was only a fulltime birder and could hang around some random splash of water on weekdays for hours and hours...

I just had this email in this morning from the SABAP2 Team:

That would be a nice sighting!!!!!