As some of you know I went on a 10 day bird hunting safari with a couple friends of mine (Greg and Todd) with Likhulu Safaris in the Free State of South Africa. Below is our account of our 10 day hunt.
We arrived a day early and stayed at the Afton Guest House in Johannesburg for the first day to rest up and get acclimated to the time change. Here is Greg deciding at the airport what he would drink on his trip.
The following morning we were picked up by Matt our PH and one of our bird boys (Willy). We were transported to the hunting lodge which is nicely situated well away from any towns. We were greeted by the staff upon arrival and got settled in
After settling in we went for a drive around the area to view some of the local game.
The above photos were some of the better ones we took. There were many more different species we saw but they were hard to get good photos of due to they were very skittish.
After viewing some of the wildlife we went for a short hunt for Orange River partridge but did not find any. The dog became birdy a few times but lost scent each time. To end the afternoon we did a short duck hunt. We were all successful in bagging a few ducks (Yellow-bills) and I whiffed big time on a pair of Egyptian Geese. I did redeem myself and got a double on them later in the trip.
The following morning our hunt really started. We chose to hunt mainly upland birds so we met up with the dog handler Peter and his two GSPs and headed to a large ranch about 15 miles from where we stayed. Our quarry for that region was Swainson's Francolin (Spur Fowl) and Orange River Partridge. The morning started out great. We ran into many Francolin which tended to stay in singles or doubles while the partridge were in coveys of 6-15 birds. The dog work was fantastic and they worked the birds well to make them sit tight. Most of our shooting was within 15yds as the birds held real tight once the dogs got them to sit.
A Swainson's male
This is why they are also called Spur Fowl
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An Orange River Partridge
That morning I saw something that will stick in my mind forever. As we crested a hill we flushed a pair of Ostriches out of the tall grass. Nothing will make you crap your pants more than an 8ft tall bird crashing out of the grass. It was an amazing sight that will stay in my memory forever. We were unaware that there were ostriches in the region. We were allowed to hunt the ranch twice and we saw them both times.
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I took this picture at a later time. Nothing IMO is stranger than seeing a dog work birds in front of you with even larger birds running around you. That morning we each shot a few birds of each species and had a great time viewing the various animals and plants we came across while hunting.
Our first morning.
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Todd lucked out and bagged a Guinea that evening.
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Todd with a few more birds from that first afternoon.
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Peter and his two girls Coco and[img]
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The following couple days we focused on Guinea hunting.
Ditch Chickens African style
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Here we are starting out on our Guinea/Grey-wing Partridge hunt.
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Good Guinea country to trap them in.
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Guinea make any of our birds excluding fall turkey look like gentlemen Bobs. In fact they are very similar in action to fall turkeys that have grouped up into large numbers. They feed in open country and can run extremely fast when they think they are threatened. They also roost in trees or any tall objects like these agave plants next to Greg.
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We tried several drives as well as run and gun type of hunting. Our most successful hunts on Guinea were when we drove them up into the high buttes like pictured below and then hunted them in the rocks on the cliff faces.
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The dog by a stone fence post just like you would see in KS
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Peter and our other bird boy Abel
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The dogs surveying the country
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Greg walking in on point
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Todd and Abel with a Guinea working the rocks
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Me with my 1st Guinea
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Greg with a pile of Guineas
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The nemesis
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Greg walking along a stone wall on a hillside
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The S&W with some Guineas
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Matt and Bebo taking a rest on the back of his truck
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A Grey-wing Partridge
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Some live ones
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Walking in line and crossing fence
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Todd on a covey rise of Grey-wings one evening.
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Success
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An Ostrich egg
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I don't want to hear anymore complaints about porcupine quills. Try this on for size.
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We almost had a dog tangle with one. The porky was about 3ft tall and when he flared his quills he was over 4ft.
A few shots from the next following few days
Working a field edge
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Todd with a Common Quail
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closeup of the Common Quail
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Ostrich plume in the barbed wire
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Me walking in on point
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Success
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Me and Bebo with a Francolin
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Greg lining up on a Francolin
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Success
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Todd and I resting on a ranch
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Todd and Greg
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The S&W with a few birds
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Me with a few Francolins and Orange River
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Some more country
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A few other types of birds
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The crew on break
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Heading back to the trucks
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The butte that the last truly wild lion in the Free State was killed on.
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That concludes our upland hunt. The following series of pictures are from our waterfowl hunt.
Our lodge where we hunted waterfowl
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Setting up the blind
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Waiting for the ducks
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Yellow-billed duck
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Red-billed Teal
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An Egyptian Goose
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A few Yellow-bills in the air
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A few on the ground
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Waiting for a goose
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Me with a Spur-winged Goose that Greg and I doubled on
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Buddy making the retrieve
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A view of a Spur-winged Goose
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The spur
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Able thinking we were crazy hunting birds and not big game
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Bebo retrieving a Yellow-bill
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The old CZ and a Yellow-bill
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A coot on the water
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Well that concludes our hunt. We had a great time and saw some beautiful country and met some great people. Matt and his staff were excellent. They went well out of their way to make our trip successful and fun.
