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There
was a time when Wakkerstroom ranked as one of the least known places in
South Africa, tucked away as it is in the hills on a road to nowhere and
a claim to nothing. Things
have certainly changed.
In
the space of a few years, Wakkerstroom has not only become known but it
has become an almost obligatory stop-over for the global birder, the
person who spends every holiday finding new birds in new countries.
Birds
apart, there are several good reasons to visit Wakkerstroom. Firstly, it
is not too far from main centres like Johannesburg, Pretoria,
Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg and Nelspruit.
You can step off a jumbo from Connecticut or Frankfurt and be
there in less than three hours in your rented car, without much risk of
getting lost.
Secondly,
Wakkerstroom’s surroundings offer quality scenery and grassland
landscapes that are as near pristine as one will find in South Africa.
There are also nice places where one can spend the night, with a
range of accommodation to suit any pocket, from backpacker to ritzy
traveller.
But
the real reason for the visit, of course, is the quality birding
experience the Wakkerstroom district provides and the village is a
convenient base from which to range.
 Wakkerstroom
is situated in a protected valley, surrounded by high-lying, rolling
grassland country. Fifteen
kilometres east of the town lies the Drakensberg escarpment, where the
steep, rocky topography offers a different landscape and small outcrops
of Afro-montane forest, in other directions, the grassland gradually
merges into croplands as one descends to warmer altitudes which favour
the growing of maize.
Several
rivers have their sources around Wakkerstroom and a number of important
wetlands are associated with these.
The most accessible is the large (700 ha) reed swamp that half
circles the town. Managed
as a bird reserve for the past 12 years, the Wakkerstroom Wetland
Reserve is home to a fair proportion of South Africa's water bird
species, a suite of herons and rallids, numerous waders in summer and a
large resident population of Ethiopian Snipe.
This march also has its specials.
It is, for example home to several pairs of African March
Harriers, a species that is becoming scarcer by the day. 12-13 Breeding
pairs of Crowned Cranes, Grass Owl and it offers a place where the
patient birder stands a good chance of seeing Baillon's Crake and Little
Bittern. The "gold
star" of the march though, is the White-Winged Flufftail. Elusive, enigmatic, this species is here in some years and
not others and the prospect of seeing it is remote. If present, its
distinctive hooting call can be heard during summer, just before
daybreak.
Within
easy range of the town are several seasonal pans that support a quite
different water bird community. These
pans only fill with water after periods of good rain (usually during
summer : September - March) and the often dry up, so one takes one's
chances with them.
There
is an explosion of life on these when they fill with the first good
summer rains and numbers of such species as Whiskered Tern, Great
Crested and Black-necked Grebes and White-backed and Maccoa ducks move
onto them to breed. As they
dry out in winter (April - August/September), so the host of man-made
dams in the district offer a winter refuge to waterfowl from the
seasonal pans. The largest such refuge is Heyshope Dam (12 000 ha) and is
easily accessible, lying 50 kilometres east of Wakkerstroom. At times it can provide a remarkable spectacle of wintering
waterfowl : as many as 55 000 have been counted here.
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The
grasslands are Wakkerstroom's real birding attraction as these are home
to many of South Africa's endemics.
Wakkerstroom is probably the best single locality in the country
to find Bald Ibis, Blue Korhaan, Ground Woodpecker, Buff-streaked Chat,
Rudd's- and Botha's Larks and Yellow-breasted Pipit. All of these occur
within a few kilometres' radius from the town and all can be found while
birding from the car on the network of roads that radiates out from
Wakkerstroom.
There
are at least seven Bald Ibis breeding colonies in the district (all on
rock faces) and in winter up to 100 birds come to roost at night in the
willow trees surrounding the town dam.
Blue Korhaan live in pairs or small groups that can be found in
the same places throughout the year. Their preferences is for flat, or
at most, gently undulating, open grassland.
Rudd’s- and Botha’s Larks have similar needs and the two
species sometimes occur together and alongside the Korhaan.
Rudd’s Lark is however, restricted (around Wakkerstroom) to
altitudes about 1 900 metres and Botha’s Larks to heavily grazed
upland sites on the “turf” soils (black clays).
Ground
Woodpeckers and Buff-Streaked Chats often occur side by side, as both
frequent rock-strewn hillsides. The
rocky ridge in the wetland reserve in town has a resident pair of
Buss-Streaked Chats and Ground Woodpeckers nest in the backs of the
large quarry just above the town. The
last of the “specials”, Yellow-Breasted Pipit, occur here and there
in pockets on high-lying ground (above 1 900 metres), especially where
the grass cover has been spared from burning the previous winter. This
bird only visits Wakkerstroom in summer and migrates elsewhere in
winter.
With
the exception of the Pipit, most of the grassland birds mentioned above
are year-round residents. About two-thirds of the grassland species
remain in the area all year round and some species, such as Long Tailed
Widow Birds, Orange-throated Longclaw and Ant-eating Chat are abundant
and conspicuous at all times. The
other thirds of the species are seasonal visitors and the massive influx
of birds onto the grassland in late spring / summer (September/October)
is very noticeable.
The
Grassland Pipit is one such visitor, being abundant in summer and
virtually absent in winter. Flocks
of Eastern Red-Footed Kestrel line the telephone wires at this time of
the year and swallows and swifts are prolific, especially Greater
Striped Swallow, Banded Martin and White-Rumped Swift.
Black Harriers visit the district in summer, when Stanley’s
Bustard, Blue Crane and Black-winged Plovers also arrive from
lower-lying country to breed.
East
of Wakkerstroom, where the escarpment receives more ran than the town,
isolated patches of evergreen forest occur.
The larges of these cover 532 ha and forms the Pongolo Bush
Nature Reserve. Crowned
Eagles, Orange Thrush, Blue-mantled Flycatcher and many other forest
species are resident here.
Bush
Blackcap is found at Pongolo Bush, but also ranges into many of the
smaller pockets of the forest found closer to town, alongside
Barratt’s Warblers, Cape Batises and Bar-Throated Apalis.
 Wakkerstroom
offers the birder the best of South Africa’s grassland endemics and
other grass-loving species. A
good cross-section of waterbirds and a reasonable complement of forest
birds. You won’t come
away having seen a stunning diversity of species (as you would perhaps
see at Mkuzi or in the Kruger Park), but you’ll probably cont more
endemics on your list from here than you’d pick up at any other singe
locality in South Africa.
If
you have been to Wakkerstroom and hit a bad season – the mist never
lifted, it blew a gale or it rained non-stop – give it another try.
If
you have never visited the area, pray for good weather and the birds
won’t let you down.
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