Margaret and I flew up to Johannesburg on Thursday evening and were collected at the airport by friends Johann and Lizet Grobbelaar and their daughter, Nadia. We spent the night at their new home on an estate called Leeufontein just north of Pretoria and I was up and about early this morning to reintroduce myself to the birds of the bushveld. After a couple of hours of looking around in the general area of their house (Johann had to pop in to the office early in the morning, so we were waiting for him to return), we eventually packed the car and headed north towards Nylsvlei where we would be meeting up with our other friends, Warwick and Michele Tarboton.
Our first stop was at the Tarboton's new home in an estate called Kokanye just outside Modimolle (formally known as Nylstroom). While the ladies caught up on all the gossip, Warwick, Johann and myself took a "tour" through the estate where Warwick and Michele have already clocked 302 nests this season alone!! It was great to see a lot of the common bushveld birds again and, before we knew it, a couple of hours had passed by. We returned to the house for lunch before heading off to Dinonyane Lodge (www.dinonyane.co.za) where we would be spending the rest of the weekend. The lodge is situated very near to the entrance of Nylsvlei Nature Reserve and is set in lush gardens, very different to the drier surrounding woodland. There are also a couple of ponds within the lodge grounds.
Once settled in, we decided to head over to Vogelfontein, but on arrival, the skies darkened and the heavens erupted with an immense rain storm. We quickly headed back to the lodge and arrived as it was dusk. My attention was immediately distracted by the immense frog chorus that had started up and, other than a short break for a scrumptious dinner, I spent the next several hours hunting around the grounds for all the various frogs. I even had the rest of the "team" out in the rain looking at frogs, but their endurance waned a lot sooner than mine and I ended up catching and photographing a number of frogs on my own.
