Fairest Cape to Kruger 7th – 22nd January, 2011 Set Departure tour Tour leader: Charley Hesse Report & photos by Charley Hesse. Burchell’s Zebra’s grazing beneath a rainbow in Kruger National Park (Charley Hesse) This January set departure tour, while keeping the same itinerary as the September/October one differed in several ways. Although some of the Cape endemics were a little more difficult to find, this was more than made up for by the amazing spectacle of large numbers of late summer migrants from Europe, like Southern Carmine Bee-eaters and European Rollers. Other late breeders like the spectacular whydahs and widowbirds were in full breeding plumage at this time. The Karoo and Kruger were well into the rainy season and many places which were dry and birdless 3 months earlier were alive with activity and seemed to have a bird singing from the top of every bush. In fact there were so many birds it was difficult to make any headway. Some highlights of our trip included: watching albatrosses and other seabirds at close range on the pelagic, coming face to face with the adorable African Penguins at Simon’s Town, finding Cape Rockjumper at Sir Lowry’s Pass, crossing the spectacular Swartberg Pass and finding many rarities on the way, looking at the awesome scenery of the Karoo from our chalet balconies, picking up mega-rare birds around the birding mecca of Wakkerstroom and getting to know Kruger with its seemingly endless supply of new birds and its impressive large mammals. It was a trip none of us would forget in a hurry. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 1 7th January – Arrival day Today was the official arrival day but most of the clients had arrived on previous days, keen to shake off jet lag and get down to birding as early as possible. Our hotel was wonderfully situated on the edge of a nice lake full of birds. We had a good selection of water birds and ducks were well represented with Yellow- billed Duck, Cape & Red-billed Teal, Cape Shoveler and even the uncommon White-backed Duck. Other highlights were Yellow-billed Egret, Glossy Ibis, Purple Gallinule and Kitlitz’s Plover. Once everyone had arrived and had some lunch, we headed to the nearby Koeberg Nature Reserve. Centred around a nuclear power plant, this reserve has some of the closest quality Fynbos habitat north of Cape Town. We walked for a couple of hours picking up our first Fynbos birds with some great ones, like Black Harrier, Bar-throated Apalis, Cape Bulbul and Chestnut-vented Tit-Babbler. We also saw a few northern migrants like Steppe Buzzard and European Bee-eater. On the way back we stopped at the edge of the Rietvlei reserve to check out the Great White Pelicans, African Darters, Spur-winged Goose and distant Greater Flamingos. Despite it only being a half day of birding we had accumulated an impressive 78 species. Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses contending for scraps (Christian Boix) 8th January - Pelagic Most of the group decided to sign up for the world famous pelagic trip. The seas can be rough off Cape Town but we heard that it was going ahead, so we took an early drive down to Simonstown where I left the participants in my colleague Christian’s capable hands. I drove the other 2 clients to Rooi Els to start our search for endemics. On the way we spotted a small Long-beaked Pilot Whale close to shore and several Cape Fur Seals playing in the waves. We checked a couple of spots on the way and found Neddicky and a stunning male Orange-breasted Sunbird. Close to Rooi Els we spotted our first Cape Sugarbird with its very long tail feeding on flowering Proteas. We started our walk and immediately spotted Bottle-nosed Dolphins in a bay very close to shore. I heard a Victorin’s Warbler and we tracked it down to some thick vegetation but despite my best efforts, we only have fleeting views. We drove back through the heavy holiday traffic and finally made it to pick up the others. They told us all about their amazing pelagic experience, getting Shy, Black-browed, Atlantic Yellow-nosed & Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses, White-chinned Petrel, Cory's, Great & Sooty Shearwaters, European & Wilson's Storm-Petrels along with many tern and cormorant species. We all went together to see the African Penguins at Boulders Beach before heading to Strandfontein to witness amazing concentrations of Pied Avocets, Greater Flamingos, ducks and other water birds. New birds for our trip were Maccoa Duck and Southern Pochard. It had been a long day and we finished it by sampling some of Cape Towns fine cuisine. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 2 9th January – Cape Peninsular After another early breakfast, we drove to Kirstenbosh Botanical Garden. As soon as we entered we were picking up new birds for the people who went on the pelagic and had great views of Cape Sugarbird and Orange-breasted Sunbird. We got our first Forest & Cape Canaries and even had scope views of an impressive African Goshawk. From Kirstenbosch we took the scenic Chapman’s Peak Drive but unfortunately it was misty. At Kommetjie we searched for cormorants and despite the holiday crowds and patchy mist, we found the full complement of Crowned, Cape, White-breasted & Bank Cormorants. We also saw a lot of terns and gulls including Arctic Tern. Next we drove to Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. First stop was the visitors centre where we took a look at the exhibits including some huge Southern Right Whale bones and we spotted a chubby Cape Skink hiding in a crevice in the wall. There was lots of mist at Cape Point and we ate lunch outside where were joined by a Striped Mouse, Red- winged Starlings, Cape Buntings and others. The mist lifted a little and we were finally treated to some nice views. Some people rode up the funicular railway while the rest enjoyed the walk up to the lighthouse. It was starting to warm up and Black Girdled Lizards were coming out on rocks to sun themselves. Our main target was the Cape Siskin and we spent quite a while looking for it along the trail to the old lighthouse but had no luck. The non pelagic people did manage to add Cape Gannet to their lists and we were all enchanted by the very cute Rock Hyraxes which were common along there. After a long drive back to the hotel, we went for a nice dinner of sea food. The Fynbos endemic Orange-breasted Sunbird (Charley Hesse) 10th January – West Coast We started our day looking for Cape Clapper Lark just north of Cape Town. It was a little late in the season and unfortunately they were not doing their distinctive flight display so we didn’t get them. We did start to see some other nice birds such as the delightful Bokmakirie, some comical White-backed Mousebirds, Pearl-breasted Swallows and Grey-backed Cisticola. We moved on to the Darling Wildflower Route. The wildflower season had fini shed but it was still great birding and the start of the loop we found Southern Black Korhaan, Blue Crane, South African Shelduck and Capped Wheatear. At a marsh further on, we picked up Lesser Swamp-Warbler and Levaillant's Cisticola, and at the wildflower reserve Namaqua Dove, Jackal Buzzard and a stunning male Cape Longclaw. Next stop was the West Coast National Park where we immediately had our first tickable Common Ostriches and great views of an adult Black Harrier. We visited the Abraamskraal Bird Hide where we had nice views of African Spoonbill & African Sacred Ibis and amazing flybys of African Marsh Harrier. On to the Geelbek Hide where it seemed to be high tide. We waited a while and the water started dropping to expose some mud. The shorebirds flocked in and we had large numbers of Marsh & Curlew Sandpipers, Little Stint, Common Greenshank along with Pied Avocet, Greater Flamingo and South Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 3 African Shelduck. We took a walk in the Fynbos nearby and came across a small flock of Cape Penduline-Tits and had several huge Alpine Swifts flying overhead. At the Restaurant we had Cape Francolins running round our feet and a short stroll in the gardens after lunch gave us a beautiful African Hoopoe and a pair of diminutive Cardinal Woodpeckers. In the north of the park, we visited the Zeeberg viewpoint to take some scenery shots of the breath-taking lagoon. It was very windy but that didn’t seem to bother a Lanner Falcon that still managed to fly around in it. We had more great views of Southern Black Korhaans, females this time. We dropped in briefly to the Zeeberg bird hide where we added Bar-tailed Godwit, several terns including Sandwich Tern and a nice White-fronted Plover. We exited the park through the north entrance and headed to the Vredenberg area to look for Cape Long- billed Lark. It was very windy here too and we were having trouble staying on our feet never mind finding any birds. We found a slightly more sheltered spot where we picked up Southern Ant-eating Chat before we gave in and headed to Veldriff, the last birding spot of the day. Here we saw a few more shore birds, many flamingos, including Lesser Flamingo and some nice non-breeding plumaged White-winged Terns before we started our long drive back to Cape Town. It had been a long day but we had done well and seen well over 100 species.