A Diamond in the Rough – Zim’s Eastern Highlands @ Seldomseen & Aberfoyle

Some people might argue that staring out into the sea is one of the most beautiful views there is. I disagree. In my opinion mountains are a far better view. Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands, the mountainous border it shares with Mozambique, offers some stunning looks both from above and below. We were here in the mountains to bird some unique highlands habitat and along the way target some miombo specialists and of course, try AGAIN for Zambezi Indigobird. In case you missed it, we dedicated nearly 2 full days while we were at Masoka Camp and still dipped the bird.

Our main destination was Seldomseen Cottages, a popular spot among birders for years. I always appreciate a little gardening, but you’d be surprised as to how many places around the world don’t seem to value flowers. Life is hard and so perhaps the people are too busy caring about the important things like food and water instead of curb appeal. Seldomseen on the other hand was an oasis for birds and full of flowers. Someone cared a little bit about gardening and the place was absolutley beautiful. We had a quick but lovely evening and morning at Seldomseen, picking up our three biggest targets Swynnerton’s Robin, Robert’s Warbler, and Chirinda’s Apalis quite easily so we spent the remainder of our time seeing some of the secondary and tertiary species such as Stripe-cheeked Greenbul, White-browed Robin Chat, Livingston’s Turaco, Miombo Double-banded Sunbird, Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon, and Red-faced Crimson-wing. It was a very enjoyable morning that we had to cut shorter than we would have liked because we were on a mission to find a very specific target.

• 

• 

• 

• 

If you remember, we had already dedicated nearly two full days searching for Zambezi Indigobird at Masoka Camp and had missed them. Since Zambezi Indigobird can be found in this area, we left our cottage in the mountains and headed into the valley where we spent the rest of the day driving around. And when I say driving around, I mean we took the main road, the dirt road, the main road, a different dirt road, the main road again, and drove slow staring once again at the tops of trees. It was time consuming and felt a bit wasteful to be burning diesel like this in a country where fuel is so hard to come by. But our excessive efforts were rewarded when we found a lekking site of what we thought were our targets. It’s a very difficult ID that can only be done by assessing the males in breeding plumage. Outside of the breeding season it is impossible to tell them apart. We knew there were a total of 4 species of Indigobird in the area so we needed to be sure. It’s supposed to have a green sheen and at times it did, but sometimes it looked bluer. Regardless, the photos and songs matched up and we can say with near certainty that we did in fact have at least 6 Zambezi Indigobirds. We would have stayed longer had it not been for the chief security officer of the nearby university stopping to warn us that this particular area has become a hotspot for crime and more records of robberies have been reported than the police even know what to do with. Heck, even the police have been robbed. So with that information any hope of getting more photos and recordings went out the window. At least we FINALLY found that darn little black bird! (If you follow me on Instagram, @budgetbirders, I did do a little video segment that you might find amusing to watch all about this process. Go to Instagram and see the highlighted story: Zambezi Indigobird.)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We then headed down the mountains and over to Aberfoyle lodge. It was hard to pull ourselves away from a birding stop at Cecil Kop Nature Reserve (it got birdy and we found a flock) so we ended up arriving at the lodge much later than we anticipated. In the dark and rain is not the best time to show up. Thankfully the manager happened to pass us along the road and he and his girlfriend took us in and let us stay in their guest bedroom instead of camping in the rain. The luxurious Aberfoyle lodge is located amongst the tea plantations and seems a bit out of place. The lodge caters to high-end tourism and it’s not often that you will find yourself birding along a golf course in Africa. We picked up our main target Pallid Honeyguide, along with Scarce Swift, Mottled Swift, Green Twinspot, and Red-faced Crimsonwing. We were right along the border between Zim and Mozambique when we went searching for more grass-loving birds at the edge of the Katiyo Tea plantation. Our main target, Lesser Seedcracker ,eluded us but we did stumble across all kinds of seed lovers such as Bronzed, Red-backed, & Magpie Mannikins, Purple Indigobird, Green-winged Pytilia, and African Firefinch. Gray Waxbill, Common Waxbill, and all of the regulars like Pin-tailed Whydah, Black-winged Bishop, and Red-collared Widowbird were happy eating the seed as well. Along the tea plantation made for good birding.

In case you are wondering tea is grown in hedge rows and my British friends hopefully will laugh along with me when I say that a tea plantation is a Brit’s dream– hedges and tea all at the same time!

• 

• 

We realized after the fact that the marsh birds that we were targeting (and missing) could be found elsewhere and we really could have eliminated this section of our tip. We were targeting birds on a continent-wide basis so we decided to cut our losses and move on with our trip, we could get Anchieta’s Tchargra, Moustached Grass-warbler, and Lesser Seedcracker elsewhere.

We attempted to visit Nyanga and I had high hopes of walking across the highest skywalk in the world but the mountains were fogged in and the skybridge was closed. A bit disappointing! But we didn’t have the luxury to spend multiple days waiting for the clouds to clear so we left. Ross, who happens to be extremely afraid of heights, was more than happy not visiting the highest skybridge in the world!

We spent a week in Zimbabwe and by the end absolutely loved the country. Sure, they have some political and economic issues but the people we met were extremely friendly and the scenery spectacular. Zim legitimately might be one of my new favorite countries!! Now we were off to Mozambique!