Personal Adventures Into The Magnificent Addo Elephant National Park

The Greater Addo National Park Experience

Once again it was that time of year for me to visit the Addo Elephant National Park. It was the 12th of January 2008 and it was a windy 33 degree day. I entered the Mathyolweni gate close to Colchester on a beautiful South African Eastern Cape morning, where a Striped Field Mouse welcomed me. It was slightly overcast as I entered the Addo Game Reserve and a good day for wildlife viewing! I started the drive through the first part of the park as a small flock of Common Waxbills flew past me. I was amazed to see the little red and brown birds and i knew from that point it was going to be a good day in the Addo Elephant National park.

A small herd of Greater Kudu were my first major mammal sighting and then to my surprised delight a tiny Steenbok was grazing in the opening in between some dense Addo bush. Steppe Buzzards were all over the skies and bush and I was lucky enough to see one with prey in hand (Or in this case talon). It was a half eaten snake! I thought it might be a small Boomslang but I did not get a good enough look to be sure. And then in one gulp the Steppe Buzzard swallowed the snake...

Many other species of South African wildlife were seen after the Steppe Buzzard with its prey including the African Long-Crested Eagle... This was the first sighting I have had of this magnificent bird of prey (Raptor). Other birds that I was able to identify on this journey into the Addo wilderness were as follows: Black Shouldered Kite, Fiscal Flycatcher, Blackheaded Heron, Cape Turtle Dove, Yellowbilled Kite, Helmeted Guineafowl, Cape Crow, Common Fiscal Shrike, Common Ostrich, Dark Capped Bulbul, Egyptian Goose, Blackwinged Lapwing, Hadeda Ibis, Red-Faced Mousebird, Crowned Lapwing, Cape Weaver, Little Grebe, Red Knobbed Coot, Yellowbilled Duck and South African Shelduck. It was definitely not my best birding time in the Addo Elephant National Park but it was enjoyable nonetheless. As I drove into Addo's main Rest Camp, the Cape Glossy and Redwinged Starlings greeted me with their delightful chirps and driving past the wetland area the Spotted Backed Weavers and Southern Red Bishops flew from reed to reed oblivious to the passing traffic. To top this all off as I was enjoying some lunch a pair of Cape White Eyes came within an arms length of me and looked at me mysteriously as if to say "May I have some please?".

It wasn't the time of the plentiful in terms of mammals too... I didn't manage to see any small mammals apart from the Striped Mouse which greeted me at Mathyolweni Rest Camp although the Common Warthog with their young ones abounded every where you looked. I did see quite a few African Elephant, Red Hartebeest, Burchell's Zebra and Common Eland. I also saw 2 separate male African (Cape) Buffalo. And on the way out Addo's own Flightless Dung Beetle made an appearance.

Despite all these factors it was still an amazing visit, as it always is, to the Addo Elephant National Park!

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