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Fairest Cape to Kruger 10Th – 25Th January, 2014

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Fairest Cape to Kruger 10Th – 25Th January, 2014 Fairest Cape to Kruger 10th – 25th January, 2014 Set Departure tour Tour leader: Charley Hesse Report & photos by Charley Hesse Additional photos by Karen Harris. Blyde River Canyon is one of the scenic wonders of South Africa (Charley Hesse) January is a fascinating time to visit South Africa and our tour was full of surprises. The weather can be a bit hit and miss although luckily we didn’t lose any time to the rain. Even though we may have missed a couple of endemics due to the breeding season already having passed, other late breeders like Melodious and Dusky Larks would not be seen on a September/October tour. With the beautifully colored bishops & weavers plus the long-tailed whydahs & widowbirds, the sheer volume and diversity of attractive migrants makes the timing of this tour an enticing proposition. The long summer days allow those with the energy to bird to the max and in Kruger we were clocking up 16 hour birding days. The heat in the middle of the day, does however make a good excuse for siestas. We did a good number of night drives and night excursions and were rewarded with some wonderful prizes, like Aardwolf, African Wild Cat, genets and porcupine along with all the Big 5 in Kruger. In fact our total mammal list numbered a whopping 57 species. Birdwise we clocked up over 440sp, remarkable considering there was no pelagic or extension. This total included an impressive 17 larks species, 13 swallows, 12 eagles, 11 cisticolas, 8 bustards, 8 cuckoos and 4 nightjars. The high quality of accommodations and food on the tour was also commented on by all participents and the sheer variety of habitat types, from misty montane forests to fynbos and from the semi-desert of the Karoo to the typically African savannas of Kruger, are mind- blowing. A Tropical Birding trip to South Africa is not one you forget in a hurry. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 1 10th January – Kirstenbosh Botanical Gardens Today was the official arrival day which would have given everyone a good day of birding if it hadn’t have been for record breaking low temperatures and blizzards delaying 2 Canadian clients until tomorrow. We started off with the remaining clients and a bit of relaxed birding in the world famous Kirstenbosh Botanical gardens. These gardens have a stunning location at the base of Table Mountain with wonderful vistas of the plain below. We walked the gentle slope up through the gardens and enjoyed the warm sunshine of the Cape Town summer. We found many common birds easily, with Helmeted Guineafowl and Cape Francolins strutting the lawns, Cape White-eye, Southern Double-collared & the beautiful endemic Orange-breasted Sunbirds feeding on the nectar from a large variety of colourful flowers, and Red- winged Starlings flying overhead. We slowly added to our list with Cape Bulbul with its distinctive white eye-ring, the very vocal Karoo Prinia, both Cape & Forest Canaries and a pair of delightful Swee Waxbills nibbling grass seeds next to the path, just a few feet away. We went through the IDs of LBJs like Levaillant's Cisticola, Spotted & African Dusky Flycatchers and stalked for skulkers including Sombre Greenbul, Cape Robin-Chat and Cape Batis. We then walked back to the bottom of the gardens spotting a large African Harrier-Hawk soaring overhead. After a late lunch we decided to go and look at some waterbirds at a reserve not far away. We found these delightful, miniature endemic Swee Waxbills most confiding (Charley Hesse) In the northern suburbs of Cape Town, on the site of a formerly more extensive wetland lies a huge shopping mall and a small wetland reserve called Intaka island. It made a nice introduction to some common wetland birds on our first day. After making our way through a maze of apartment buildings and car parks, we finally found the reserve, and after paying our entrance fees started walking around the reed-fringed ponds. On the open water we saw a few Cape Shovelers, Eurasian Moorhen and many Red-knobbed Coots, and around the edges a few Long-tailed Cormorants, Purple Heron, Little Egret, Sacred Ibis and Blacksmith Plover. We also found a single Gray-hooded Gull amongst the locally common Hartlaub's Gulls. The reed beds were alive with brightly covered Red Bishops and the songs of the skulking Lesser Swamp-Warbler. We saw our first Cape Sparrows and Cape Weavers and from a blind we spotted a few Common Waxbills and a male Pin-tailed Whydah. On the way out we found a family of White-throated Swallows perched in the reeds. It had been a nice introduction day of birding and tomorrow we were keen to start our packed birding itinerary. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 2 11th January – Simonstown, Cape of Good Hope, Kommetjie & Strandfontein We started off our whistle-stop tour of the Cape Peninsular by dropping in to see the African Penguin colony at Boulder’s Beach, just outside Simonstown. It was the weekend, but thanks to our early start, we had this normally crowded tourist destination all to ourselves. The penguins performed well and did all the things you would expect penguins to, like waddling around, jumping in the water, tripping over, all in their usual comical style. No matter how many times you see them, they always manage to entertain. From here, we drove along the scenic coast road to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Again, we were among the earliest visitors and could enjoy the scenic wonder in peace. As we began our drive through the reserve, we picked up several common birds, including Rock Kestrel, Southern Fiscal, Steppe Buzzard and Rock Martin as well as our first mammal, the Cape Grey Mongoose. We reached the visitors centre which was still closed, but in the Fynbos habitat nearby, we saw the endemic Cape Grassbird, Grey-backed Cisticola and a stunning male Orange-breasted Sunbird. The centre itself seemed to be overrun with a troop of Chacma Baboons which the staff chased off when they arrived. Further on we spotted a herd of Eland (the world’s largest antelope) and our first Cape Sugarbird. We reached the parking lot at Cape Point where we saw several Ostrich, some Red-winged Starlings and more Eland. We walked up the path towards the lighthouse and on the way had a tiny Four-Striped Grass Mouse run across the path and the very localized Black Girdled Lizard. At the top we located our main avian target, the tricky endemic Cape Siskin. We also scoped the cliff faces to see our first Cape Cormorants on a nest, some White-necked Ravens flying by, some distant Cape Gannets and a couple of Cape Fur Seals playing in the beautiful clear water at the base of the cliffs. Coming down we added Cape Bunting. We exited the reserve and drove up the west side of the peninsular to the small seaside village of Kommetjie, where we took a walk in search of rare cormorants. First off we saw Sacred & Hadada Ibises, Hartlaub's & Kelp Gulls and many Great Crested Terns with just a few Sandwich & Common Terns mixed in. We reached the cormorant roost at the tip of a small peninsular, where we found many more Cape Cormorants along with lower numbers of White- breasted Cormorant and just a single individual each of Crowned & Bank Cormorants. Another welcome find was the near-endemic and very distinctive African Oystercatcher which is jet black with a bright red bill. African Penguins are always a crowd pleaser (Charley Hesse) Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 3 Our missing participants were due to arrive around midday but were again delayed so we met them in the early afternoon after what must have been a very frustrating couple of days. They were chomping at the bit to get out birding and our now full complement drove to the amazing Strandfontein sewage works to get stuck into some birding. Strandfontein is one of the best sites in South Africa for water birds and we quickly ticked off Spur-winged Goose, Cape Shoveler, Yellow-billed Duck, Red-billed, Hottentot & Cape Teal, Southern Pochard and Maccoa Duck on the first few ponds, along with Little & Eared Grebes, large numbers of Greater Flamingos & Great White Pelicans. Many of the smaller ponds were fringed with reeds and held Purple Swamphen, Eurasian Moorhen, Red-knobbed Coot and Glossy Ibis along with reed-dwellers like Little Rush-Warbler, Levaillant's Cisticola, Common Waxbill and even African Marsh-Harrier. Over the water were feeding Little & White-rumped Swifts, countless Barn, White-throated & Greater Striped-Swallows and Brown-throated Martins. Another of the ponds had a lot of mud and was especially good for shorebirds, with Kittlitz's & Common Ringed Plovers, Common Greenshank, Wood & Curlew Sandpipers, Ruff and Little Stint. Along the gravel roads and grassy edges we saw a large number of common, open-country birds, like Cape Francolin, Black- headed Heron, Black-shouldered Kite, Cape Wagtail, African Pipit, Cape Longclaw, Cape Sparrow and Cape Weaver. The last pond was shallow with Black-winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Bar-tailed Godwit and a decent sized tern roost where we added Caspian Tern. It had been a birding blitz and we were ready to head back for a tasty dinner in one of many fine restaurants near our comfortable guest house. Southern Black Korhaan’s noisy flight display is a sight to behold (Charley Hesse) 12th January – West Coast Today was our west coast day which is another fast paced birding extravaganza with often a large day list.
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