Crecopsis egregia

I will never forget the day that I saw my first african crake. On arrival back from our December break in early January 2012, I heard via the Simply Birding website that both baillon’s and african crake had been seen at Marievale Bird Sanctuary. I decided not to delay my plans for the weekend and headed to the sanctuary before work on Thursday. This ended up to be a great call as I saw african crake, baillon’s crake, greater painted-snipe and orange breasted waxbill within the first hour of my arrival. What an awesome morning! 

My best experience with this intra-African migrant took place with Skye Hartog in March 2012. On the spur of the moment, we decided to drive to the Kruger National Park in search of a golden pipit that had been photographed near Byamithi Bush Camp a few days earlier. Although we did not see the pipit, the rest of the trip made up for any dissapointment we may have felt. One big reason for this was spotting a family of african crakes attempting to cross the road in front of us. The interaction between mom, dad and the little ones will be etched in my memory for many years to come.