Matobo National Park: Birding the Boulders
- Ruven Schoeman
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
While planning our Zimbabwe trip, I browsed through potential sites to stay en route to Hwange National Park. The intriguing landscape of the Matopos mountain range on Google Maps caught my eye. This was an ideal stopover for us as it is the classic site to find the sought-after Zimbabwean special, Boulder Chat. The Matobo National Park protects 420 square kilometres of the Matopos: an area of highly concentrated boulder outcrops; some, scenically precarious; covered in woodland. The park is also known for its vast amounts of rock art scattered throughout the park and thus is also a World Heritage site.
After a rainy trip towards the park, we had much difficulty finding our campsite. With no signage along the roads, we stopped at a strolling group of men along the route, which we assumed was an anti-poaching patrol unit. As our travels started in Zimbabwe, we soon realised that the people were exceedingly kind and helpful. Thanks to the group, we now know that Maleme Dam is the best campsite in the park, and the directions to get there. Not minding the rain, a juvenile Augur Buzzard perched atop a boulder gazing over its rocky empire. At the tourist office,
an Eastern Miombo Sunbird sat quietly in a tree, a bird we later discovered to be numerous in the park. At last, we approached Maleme Dam after a tiring day of driving and set up camp. Although the park is only a short drive from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, we rarely saw any people there. This made our experience even better because we felt almost completely separated from civilisation in this ancient-looking landscape.
The following day, I was up at sunrise, taking in the ancient boulder landscape surrounding the Maleme Dam. As I strolled down a road, a Boulder Chat made sweet, rounding notes somewhere high up a ridge, too far for me to get views. At about seven, the area teemed with birds, and I couldn’t keep track! The first bird was a Bearded Scrub Robin hopping on foliage followed by a calling Striped Pipit nearby. Seed eaters favoured the long grass bordering the dam, including Blue Waxbill, Jameson’s Firefinch, Common Waxbill, Bronze Mannikins and Yellow-crowned Bishops. Bird parties moving through woodland included Tropical Boubou, Yellow-fronted Tinkerbird, White-browed Robin-Chat, Retz’s Helmetshrike, Chinspot Batis, Lesser Honeyguide, Ashy- and Grey-tit Flycatchers, among others. On my way back, I ‘bumped’ into a Striped Pipit on the road (the same bird heard earlier). Startled, it fluttered off back into the rocky woodland. I waited patiently for about 5 minutes and played the call of the bird. Suddenly, it appeared atop a boulder. It stayed on the rock for quite a while, rarely moving, but when it did it crept low on the rock as if a flufftail.
Our campsite served as a vantage point from which to scan for soaring raptors, and we managed to get a variety of species. Raptors included yet another Augur Buzzard, Verreuax’s Eagle, Gabar Goshawk, Little Sparrowhawk, African Fish Eagle, Lizard Buzzard, Ovambo Sparrowhawk and Brown Snake Eagle. Eastern Miombo Sunbirds fed off flowering trees while White-crested Helmetshrikes were patrolling camp lawns. Other than the excellent raptor watching from our campsite, it also had views over an area of the dam and a river leading from it. Here we added a few waterbirds to our list, which included Wattled Lapwing, African Jacana, Green-backed Heron, African Black Duck, and a Hamerkop, among others.
Afternoon birding was quiet, but we occasionally came across woodland bird parties, adding a few new birds to our list. As we ticked Black-crowned Tchagra, Black Cuckooshrike, Black-headed Oriole, Red-headed Weaver, Golden-tailed Woodpecker and Southern Black Tit, our list grew steadily. Grassland corridors along the dirt roads hosted, Yellow-crowned Bishop, Tawny-flanked Prinia and Croaking Cisticola. The Boulder Chat has been elusive despite our persistent efforts, and shockingly, we have not had any sightings or heard its call since this morning. As the sun approached the horizon, the boulders lit up in a beautiful golden colour. Numerous birds came out of their wooded sanctuaries to enjoy the last heat of the day before the coldness erupted as the night grew taller.
The next morning, we packed up our camp and briefly stopped at Amalinda Lodge, a four-star hotel three kilometres from the park's border. We have heard that there is a chance that we might see Boulder Chat here, so we tried our luck. The lodge is nestled between the typical boulder outcrops we have seen the previous 2 days. The bird bath at the reception attracted a variety of bird species, including Lesser Honeyguide, Eastern Miombo Sunbird, and Cape Batis. Cape Batisses here form part of an isolated population, restricted to the Matopos. The kind staff had a thorough knowledge of the bird species in the area. One of the staff stated that she had not seen the Boulder Chat since October. The movements of the chat are not thoroughly known, but I assume that the birds move around exploring different territories in the non-breeding season, as many other birds do. So it occurred that we never managed to find the Boulder Chat in the park, although the continuous search for the species led us to thoroughly explore the park's birdlife.
Leaving the Matopos was a saddening experience. The park made me feel like I had travelled back in time to a pre-civilization era. The peacefulness of the vast boulder-filled landscapes separated me from the man-made world. The Matopos stood as an isolated island in a bustling world untouched by the passage of time, with traces of a rich history that echoed through its boulders, earning it the nickname "Heart of Africa."
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