Our next stop was the African Spirit Game Lodge, which is one of the private lodges in the Zululand Rhino Reserve. The ZRR is a private property that was created from a collaboration of farmers that put their land together to create a haven for the fast disappearing rhino. One would think, though, that highlighting the existence of rhino in a reserve, by putting its name to the reserve, is a strange thing to do given the poaching pressures, but perhaps it allows the reserve a greater ability to draw visitors. Incidentally, we didn’t see any rhino on our visit but perhaps it was due to the short time we were there.

The ZRR lies in a predominantly north-south orientation to the west of the N2, a fraction south of Mkhuze town. The private nature of the reserve means that it is shared amongst a variety of owners and so private lodges are dotted around in relatively random locations within the reserve. Our lodge was more or less right in the middle.

The timing of our visit was unfortunate. The drought in northern KZN has hit the reserve very hard. The fact that much of the reserve is also regenerating bush (from farmland) means that the vegetation does not seem to be as mature as you would find in a more mature protected area such as you’d see in an historically proclaimed national park. The combination of the drought and the nature of the vegetation made birding quite challenging and the atlas cards that I opened struggled along during the time we were there. There was also no river or wetland in the sections that we traversed on our two complementary game drives and that reduced the list further.

The major highlight we had on our visit was a particularly drab and nondescript little bird. On our first game drive on the evening that we arrived, the land rover flushed a pipit on an open hillside. I immediately knew this was likely to be a Bushveld Pipit as I crossed off all other possibilities in my mind. We fortunately relocated it but it stayed cautiously away from the vehicle and the inability to walk in a reserve where they have inserted the Big 5 meant that we never really got close enough for a decent pic.

This sighting was a highlight (I am sure you are wondering why such a drab little bird would be a highlight) because it was the first time I had seen one of these birds since I was probably Tommy’s age. It was one of those birds that I had ticked in my book back when I was a fledgling birder and, to be honest, I couldn’t quite remember the moment that I saw it.

It has always irked me that a bird is counted on my list that I simply couldn’t ever remember seeing. You are probably thinking that it was an overly enthusiastic snap ID of an LBJ back when I was a trigger happy ticker (as many young enthusiastic birding kids generally are) but I have always been confident of it as it was seen whilst on a birding trip in the Pilanesberg with the legendary Ken Newman.

Ken Newman was my hero back when I was a kid. I’m not talking about a birding hero. I am talking about a hero, full stop. My hero wasn’t Naas Botha or Clive Rice or John McEnroe. It wasn’t even Superman. It was Ken Newman.

If you are a birder and you don’t know who Ken Newman was, then you should hang your head in shame. If you are a non-birder and you don’t know who he was, then I would say you should almost do the same (i.e. hang your head in shame). In just the same way that all non garderners know who Keith Kirsten is and non golfers know who Gary Player is, then even those that don’t know the difference between a mossie and a Jacky Hangman (colloquialisms used for the benefit of the laymen), should know who Ken Newman was.

So, after that lecture, let me remind you all.

Ken Newman was the author of Newman’s Birds of the Kruger National Park, which was soon followed by Newman’s Birds of Southern Africa. Those two books were the first bird books that I ever owned and they still have pride of place on my bookshelf. Yes, I agree that they weren’t technically the greatest books on the planet and neither were the distribution maps always the most accurate but, in my opinion, no one before, nor since (except perhaps Faansie Peacock) was able to capture the true essence of a bird quite like Ken Newman did. When you opened your field guide on the page of larks, you just knew you were looking at larks. It didn’t matter that the third primary wasn’t quite as rufous as it should have been, you just knew you were looking at a lark that had been beautifully painted.

Ken Newman’s books bridged the gap between the Ornithlogist’s Robert’s tome to something that the common birder could take along with them and identify 90% of the birds they were seeing. I spent many hours as a kid, during the school holidays, with my Newman’s open on the rollers, bee-eaters, korhaans or even the pelagic birds (I have heard many people criticise his pelagic bird illustrations) and I would try and copy them, dreaming of being a bird artist and author just like Ken Newman.   He also encouraged me to travel more widely as a birder because  nothing makes you want to see an African Pitta quite so much as drawing and colouring in one yourself (although it still remains as a bird I have yet to see).

Furthermore, Ken was a true gentleman. With the “gentle” part of that word being the operative one. He was authoritative in the field, however I don’t think he ever claimed to be the best birder, but he sure knew a lot and he loved sharing it. I attended a few of the lectures that he gave (my dad had to traipse me across Jo’burg to attend them) and I was also fortunate enough to spend a day in the field with him when he pointed out that Bushveld Pipit to me. And if Ken Newman told me it was a Bushveld Pipit then I was going to have it ticked in my book regardless of whether I could remember the exact moment. I was probably too star-struck on that day to remember much of anything, anyway.

So, we fast forward 30 years to our evening game drive at the ZRR and when that pipit came into focus in my bins it was a momentous and nostalgic bird to see. The shutter snapped as I took a whole bunch of pictures making sure that in another 30 years from now I will at least be able to remember seeing it this time. I also hope that my boys think of me in the same light as I thought of Ken Newman and that this Bushveld Pipit will be just as memorable.

There were a few other enjoyable birds seen on our visit but I was looking forward to our next stop which would be back into the sand forest at Bushwillow near Hluhluwe.

Click here for the next instalment.