Yesterday was the 1st of January. The first day of my Gauteng Province Big Year. I decided to kick it off with a bang and commence the birding as soon as the clock struck one second past midnight!

I arrived at Mongena Private Game Reserve around 23:00 on the evening of the 31st. I started getting all my gear and equipment ready. There wasn’t much to do but wait for midnight to come and go. My excitement was high and I had a route planned out for the evening. The goal was to find nocturnal birds, specifically Southern White-faced Owls, coursers and nightjars. I’m not too worried about other owl species, as I have the entire year to track these down. I decided on Mongena as my first birding site for the year, as I could arrange access at this ungodly hour and smash some night-time birding.

After getting all my gear sorted, I left the main lodge and started exploring the darkness. 30-minutes left until midnight. All I wanted to do was log the birds that I could hear calling all around me, Western Barn Owl in the distance, a Rufous-cheeked Nightjar in some jeep track somewhere and Spotted Thick-Knees in a clearing not too far from me. But all I could do was wait! All these birds mean nothing to me until the date on my phone indicates “01 January 2025″!

Finally, my time has arrived! There is less than a minute left and I can barely wait any longer! I unlock my phone and for a second pause, as I hear some overly zealous people starting their New Year’s countdown in the distance! My finger hovers over my listing app! The party crew’s countdown comes and goes, music blares and I can almost hear beer bottles clinking! Then finally, midnight strikes! I celebrate for a millisecond and immediately start a new bird list! But… crickets…

Red-crested Korhaan

Fireworks shoot off in the distance. Groups of people cheer and laugh as the low thud of their music echoes through the bush! But me, I hear nothing! Not a single bird chirping into the New Year! Slightly disappointed, I start up Bruce (which is what I call my trusty Suzuki Jimny) and head into the darkness!

I drove around for nearly half an hour before recording my first species for the year: a Ringe-necked (Cape Turtle) Dove calling at 1:30 a.m.! Not long after that, I got Crowned-, Blacksmith- & African Wattled Lapwings, Spotted Thick-Knee and Egyptian Goose, of all things! Birding was slow going and I got about a third of what I thought I would as the early morning hours progressed. And to top it all off, the weather wasn’t on my side either! Intermittent showers of rain would put a pause on the birding, as I drive around and wait for it to clear up.

Shortly after a downpour, I heard a familiar call in the distance! It was one of my main targets! Southern White-faced Owl! Yes! Tick! Elated with the fact that I got a pretty tough target for the Guateng Province, I decided to push my luck and see if I could get my bins on this guy, he’s calling in an area where there might be a road close to him. There is no way I’m walking towards the owl in the pitch-black darkness with all these Paws, Claws & Jaws roaming around. Suddenly I stop in my tracks, the calling is coming from a Silver Cluster Leaf to my right. It almost sounds as if it’s overhead! Finally! Eyes on the Owl!

Finding the Owl, and getting some good footage of it while it was calling, acted as a real “pick-me-up”! At this stage, I’ve been driving around for hours and haven’t logged much in terms of nocturnal birdlife. The excitement was short-lived though, as a huge storm rolled in and wiped out any visibility for the next 30 minutes. The rest of the evening was slow going, only managing Rufous-cheeked Nightjar, Water Thick-Knee and a second nocturnal goose record, Spur-winged Goose, before daybreak.

Southern White-faced Owl

One of my closest friends, and arguably one of the best birders in the country, was set to join me just before the dawn chorus kicked in! I moseyed on back to the lodge, where he would jump into Bruce and we would tackle the rest of the day together. I enjoy birding by myself just as much as the next person, but after 6 hours of solitude and quite little excitement, I was very happy to see Jason’s friendly face and enthusiasm towards the day and my Big Year! Sunrise was in about 30 minutes, so we made a cup of coffee, jumped into Bruce and started pickling towards Mongena Dam, where we would stop and take in the first dawn chorus of 2025, as we sipped up some caffeine.

Red-billed Oxpecker

Just before the sun crested over the horizon, the light revealed a grey and gloomy sky. So much for a sunny start to the new year. But nevertheless, the birds were starting to make their presence known… White-browed Scrub Robin, Swainson’s Spurfowl, Red-crested Korhaan and Dark-capped Bulbuls were the first to call. Western Cattle Egrets, Reed Cormorants and African Darters are our first records in flight. From there, as one would expect, for a brief period the birding exploded! One after the other we started racking up the species. Intermittent rain kept delaying play, but whenever we could, we were logging new birds! At some point, we had a low-flying European Honey Buzzard and some decent views of Common Whitethroat. Some other highlights included Southern White-crowned Shrike, Barred Wren-Warbler, Southern Pied Babbler, Crimson-breasted Shrike, Violet-eared Waxbill, Red-breasted Swallow, Cape Penduline-tit, Namaqua Dove, Marsh Warbler, Marico Sunbird and Red-backed Shrike.

By about 10:00, I was starting to get quite tired and the weather was making the birding pretty tough. But when all was said and done we ended the day on 134 species, giving me a great kickstart to my Big Year!

I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year (other than my first son being born) has in store! But for now, remember to get out and go birding!