October 22, A Good Day With Lots of Hiking and Birding

I was JUST getting out of the shower this morning when Tom came in and said he'd seen a Knysna Turaco from our deck.  I was ready to bird in no time!!  This is an AMAZINGLY showy bird, and we found several more with quick glimpses of them flying - you'll need to Google what they look like since we didn't get any photos.  All you see are large bright red wings as they fly across in front of you.  Lots of trail work today; a boardwalk trail near the Groot River, then a grueling 3 hour hike up a mostly dry creek bed, and then a very steep uphill climb to the Nature Valley overlook.  We had a number of new birds for the trip, as well as longer and better looks at birds we've seen previously.  We also spent lots of time at the Groot River bridge looking for African Finfoot - not on the itinerary for us today - but had the Half-collared Kingfisher as a great consolation prize.  This tiny kingfisher looks like a turquoise bullet when it's flying away from you!  It's always interesting chatting with people that are out birding and hiking like we are, and today we engaged in lengthy conversation with a couple and their 30-something son from Australia.  We had heard a mystery bird singing several times today, and the son was able to solve the mystery for us!  SO glad we stopped and talked!!!

Lots of photos of birds today, with the first one being a Greater Double-banded Sunbird, a Forest Canary, Amethyst Sunbird, Sombre Greenbul (they're everywhere & they're LOUD), Streaky-headed Seedeater, our early morning forest hike on the boardwalk, the easiest section of our grueling hike up the dry creek bed, a humongous "grasshopper" that was about 3" long, Black-headed Oriole, the view of Nature Valley from the overlook with town on the very left, the Groot River from the bridge where we looked for Finfoot.