Unexpected piece of Paradise on the upper Olifants River

About a month ago, I was contacted by David Miles via e-mail, as a result of some of the publicity from the International Vulture Awareness Day, with an inquiry on whether I would be able to advise a friend of his on the establishment of a vulture feeding site on his game farm near Middelburg in Mpumalanga, South Africa. I agreed and an arrangement was made for us to meet at the Shell Ultra-City outside Middelburg at 08:00 on the 19th of September. This is where Dave introduced me to Eric Dorner, one of the co-owners of the farm Bezuidenhoutshoek and from where we proceeded to the farm to talk about vulture restaurants.

Having grown up on the eastern Highveld of South Africa and also working there for some time on various occasions, I must admit that it is not one of the areas that rates very highly on my personal scale of favourites from an environmental perspective, especially at this time of year when it seems mostly dull, windy and dusty and where veld-fires often turn large areas into blackened wastelands of soot and little else. The fact that huge tracts of land in this area have been transformed into either mealiefields or open-cast coal mines does in no way contribute positively to the picture of this area that comes to mind when the names Witbank, Middelburg, etc. are mentioned. It was with exactly such a picture in mind, that I followed Dave and Eric down the road to the entrance gate of the farm. The initial impression of the farm seemed to confirm my expectations as we drove through dull brown grassveld interspersed with the odd stand of exotic Black Wattle with a few obligatory Blesbok completing the picture of a highveld game farm.

However, we started to descend into a bit of a valley and here and there a few more indigenous trees started to appear. As we rounded a bend a short while later, I saw a large cliff in the distance that was very obviously part of a fairly deep river valley that in no way resembled anything that I could have expected. It was as if I was heading down into the Lowveld not more than 90 minutes' drive from Johannesburg! We eventually arrived at Eric's house and we had time to chat. I learnt that the farm is situated close to the confluence of the Olifants River and one of its major tributaries in the upper-catchment, the Little Olifants River. It is no secret that I have a long-standing relationship with the Olifants River and am currently involved in an annual survey of Pel's Fishing Owl along this river in the Kruger National Park which has this year been expanded to include a range of other fish-eating bird species too. The Olifants River is probably one of the river systems in South Africa that is experiencing the most impact from a range of anthropogenic factors of which extraction of water for a range of uses as well as pollution from mining and other activities are the most important. The project I am working on has already identified a decline of almost 40% in the populations of Pel's Fishing Owl and African Fish Eagles along this river in the Kruger National Park, whilst the numbers of other larger fish-eating birds are also quite low. It is also on this river where almost 200 Nile crocodiles have died from pansteatitis in the Bangu Gorge on the eastern border of Kruger.

It was therefore a great opportunity to get a look at a section of the upper-catchment of this river. Eric built a house that has a deck over-looking the river (see first photograph) where we finally were able to stand and chat about the farm and the primary reason I was there, to provide advise on the establishment of a vulture feeding site. While we were talking, Eric suddenly pointed down to the river and mentioned that he thought there may be an otter moving in the water below. We scanned the area and were very chuffed to locate the animal in question as soon as it surfaced. As it climbed out on a flat rock in the water, we noted another otter swimming towards the first, and then another, and then another until there were nine in total! What made the sighting even more special, was the fact that these were Spotted-necked Otters and not the more common and widespread Cape Clawless Otter.

After this excitement and completing our discussion, Eric suggested that we go for a drive to go and look at some sites on the farm that could be used as a feeding site for vultures. We used the farm's game-viewing vehicle and Eric And Dave pointed out certain places of interest as we moved along. They were particularly excited by the sightings of two leopard on the farm earlier in the week and we also found some spoor of one of these animals at one of the spots where we stopped. During the discussion, they mentioned that a neighbouring farm was called "Aasvoelkrans" (Vulture Cliff) and it was quite easy to identify the cliff in question which most likely contained a vulture roost or small breeding colony years ago (pic below). I still need to take a look at the Cape Vulture site directory to see if this site is listed there, but am quite sure that this site was used by vultures previously.

Another great feature of the area is the presence of two cycad species which are both specially protected. Encephalartos lanatus occurs in good numbers while E. middelburgensis is generally more rare. This farm is an important site providing protection for these plants which are often the target of illegal collectors. Although we didn't see a lot of game, there are good numbers of antelope such as Klipspringer, Eland, Kudu and others while wildebeest and zebra were also spotted.

From a birding perspective, the area provides an interesting range of species due to the diversity of habitats on the farm and the checklist currently stands at 227 species. During my short visit to the area, we spotted a breeding pair of Verraux's Eagles, African Fish Eagle on two occasions as well as a Secretarybird patrolling the veld, looking for food. There is a good chance that the latter is also breeding on the property. Dave also mentioned that they have previously recorded African Crowned Eagle in an area of montane forest on the farm and that Bateleur has also been recorded on two occasions over the last few years! Other birds of interest that we saw included Striped Pipit, Giant Kingfisher, Green-backed Heron, Mocking Cliff-chat and several others. African Finfoot is also regularly seen on the river and Southern Bald Ibis have bred on the cliffs along the river last year.

Although vultures are not regularly seen over the farm, I believe that, with a lot of patience and careful consideration of the management thereof, a feeding site could indeed attract vultures back to an area where they historically occurred and could fill a significant gap in the network of vulture restaurants. The fact that there is very little human activity or settlement in the immediate vicinity of the farm is also particularly encouraging. If Eric and his partner's approach to the management of the farm is anything to go by, the feeding site has every chance to succeed. At this stage, the farm does not facilitate visits by the general public, but there are plans to develop a small number of accommodation units that could be used in future. I am grateful for Dave and Eric inviting me and look forward to returning to the farm soon to discover even more of this little gem on the upper Olifants River.