Solo birding trip to St Lucia - Ep 3: Birding Umlalazi and Ngoye forest with Junior Gabela

Hi guys So I finally made a trip down to St Lucia in Northern KZN after making initial enquiries in June last year. I had one goal in mind - get the last Kingfisher I needed to complete the Southern African Kingfisher list, the Mangrove Kingfisher. After the first full day in St Lucia (Friday) being a mixture of car troubles and some great species birding, Saturday dawned beautifully on the promise of a full day birding with Junior Gabela. And Junior delivered. The day started with getting the Mangrove Kingfisher at Umlalazi Game reserve in Umtunzini. Once the last Kingfisher on my list was ticked off, the rest of the day was purely bonus birding. And what an awesome morning of bonus birding it turned out to be! New species included the Palm-nut Vulture, Southern Banded Snake Eagle, Pygmy Goose and Plain-backed Pitpit. After returning to St Lucia I also confirmed the Olive Sunbird and got one last new bird for the trip in the Southern Brown Throated Weaver which brought my list to 487. I have not counted the Green Barbet but am still wrestling with whether I should or shouldn't it. Vlog of the whole St Lucia Trip:    • My solo birding trip down to St Lucia...   Car troubles:    • Car troubles and early morning birdin...   Episode 2 - Igwalawala Trail:    • Solo Birding trip to St Lucia - Episo...  

• #travel_events
• #st_lucia
• #hippo_lodge
• #kwazulu_natal
• #northern_kzn
• #birding
• #umlalazi
• #mtunzini_birding
• #umlalazi_reserve
• #ngoye_forest
• #ngoye