I have always felt very privileged to have been invited to participate in the annual “Umsuluzi game count”, and this for many reasons, not the least being the opportunity to make contact again with many old friends.

The 2004 game count was well organized as usual, under the capable direction of Charles Mason, with many volunteer helpers.

I was very grateful to the management at Riverside Lodge for offering me accommodation the night before the game count, and so I decided to travel up early on Friday and see what birding there was to offer at Umsuluzi.

Umsuluzi Game Reserve never disappoints, it has the inevitable  "avian activity", and I was able to identify 70 different species in the 24 hours of my visit, which was satisfying under the circumstances.

These sightings included a “close-up” of Bald Ibis foraging on the recently burnt grasslands, two Cape Vulture gliding low overhead, a single Wahlberg's Eagle, a hovering Blackshouldered Kite, a Fish Eagle swooping down low over Oxford Dam, and a Black Sparrow-Hawk defending her nest in a tall tree on the banks of the Bloukrans River.

I concluded my short visit with the promise to “be back again as soon as possible”....