Sightings in the Subregion

Mid-November 2021 to mid-January 2022 -Summer delivered some top-shelf birds and fortunately a number of the best ones stayed sufficiently long to be twitchable for many birders throughout the region.

- By Trevor Hardaker

Headline news what perhaps qualifies as the best bird of the review period was southern Africa’s ninth Red-throated Pipit, which was found on the San Sebastian Peninsula near Vilanculos. The bird was present for just two days before it disappeared. The first record of this species in the subregion dates back to March 1983 when one was found at the Umvoti River mouth. This was followed by records in January 1989 at Chirundu in Zimbabwe; March 1992 at Lake Manyame, also in Zimbabwe; January 1998, again at the mouth of the Umvoti River; January 1999 at the mouth of the Swakop River; March 2008 at Serra Choa in Mozambique; January 2015 at Avis Dam, Windhoek and, most recently, in December 2020 when two birds were seen together at Gaborone Dam.

The subregion’s 18th Baird’s Sandpiper, at Macassar Sewage Works outside Cape Town, also proved extremely popular, especially when it was joined by a second individual. Originally added to the southern African list based on a specimen collected in Walvis Bay in October 1863, there was a wait of more than a century before the next Baird’s Sandpiper was found in October 1984 at Olifantsbos in the Cape of Good Hope section of Table Mountain National Park.