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The Best of South Africa Birding Safari

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The Best of South Africa Birding Safari www.redhillbirding.com THE BEST OF SOUTH AFRICA OCT 10-26, 2021 THE BEST OF SOUTH AFRICA BIRDING SAFARI Beautiful Birds, Bountiful Beasts October 10 - 26, 2021 $5550* per person based on double occupancy Guides: Josh Engel and 2nd guide $680* single supplement Maximum 10 participants Maximum 10 participants **Updated itinerary for 2021, including an extra night on safari in Kruger National Park where we are now using open-sided safari vehicles!!** CONTACT US WITH QUESTIONS: [email protected] TO REGISTER, GO TO: REDHILLBIRDING.COM/BOOKINGFORM *Please note that the U.S. Dollar tour price is based on an exchange rate of about 13.5 Rand to $1. We may have to alter the final U.S. Dollar price if the exchange rate changes. See more in the “Price” section below. 224.213.2280 [email protected] 1 www.redhillbirding.com THE BEST OF SOUTH AFRICA OCT 10-26, 2021 Thanks to its stability, safety, natural beauty, friendly people, and incredible wildlife, South Africa has become the continent’s top tourist destination. The Western Cape, where the trip begins, is known for its gorgeous coastline, rugged mountains, delicious food and wine, and its endemic birds. From there, the trip heads to the high-altitude grasslands of the eastern part of the country. The rolling hills are home to several endangered species of grassland birds that are found nowhere else in the world. Off the beaten tourist path, this beautiful region has incredible birdlife in a traditional rural environment. We finish the trip with a bang, in South Africa’s flagship national park, Kruger. Kruger is home to some of Africa’s healthiest populations of elephants, lions, leopards, wild dogs, rhinoceros, and other large animals. It is also home to an extraordinarily diverse birdlife, including many large birds that are rarely found outside of protected areas, including five species of vultures and an incredible array of hawks, eagles, bustards, storks, and hornbills. South Africa has world class infrastructure, with excellent roads, wonderful hotels, and delicious food, not to mention some of the world’s best birding and animal-viewing. **We have updated our itinerary for this tour to include one additional night in Kruger (four nights now!) and doing the whole Kruger part of the trip in open sided safari vehicles to make sure we have the best safari experience possible. We also updated the itinerary to reduce the amount of driving time, including now flying back to Johannesburg from Kruger instead of the 7 hour drive.** Birds: 350-400 species Mammals: 40-45 species Photographic opportunities: Excellent Physical difficulty: Easy Pace: Moderate Accommodations: Good to excellent. Kruger National Park has simple accommodations, but with hot water, en suite bathrooms, and air conditioning. Bird highlights: Cape endemics such as Cape Sugarbird, Orange-breasted Sunbird, and Cape Rockjumper; Karoo endemics such as Karoo Korhaan, Rufous-eared Warbler, and Karoo Eremomela; Benguela current endemics such as three cormorants and African Penguin; South African forest endemics such as Swee Waxbill, Knysna Turaco, and Knysna Warbler; High-elevation grassland endemics such as Botha’s and Rudd’s Larks and Blue Korhaan; Kruger specialties such as five species of endangered vultures, Brown-headed Parrot, and Southern Ground Hornbill. Mammal highlights: An excellent chance at the Big Five: Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhinoceros, and Cape Buffalo; Southern African endemics such as Meerkat, Cape Gray Mongoose, and Bontebok; small mammals like Dwarf and Banded Mongoose and Klipspringer; Hippo, giraffe, a wide variety of antelope, and endless possibilities, including Cheetah and Wild Dog, in Kruger and other national parks. About your guide: Josh Engel has been leading birding trips and safaris in Africa since 2006, including when he lived in South Africa from 2006-2010. He is the owner and founder of Red Hill Birding. A second guide will be added if the group is 6 or more participants (maximum group size is 10). 224.213.2280 [email protected] 2 www.redhillbirding.com THE BEST OF SOUTH AFRICA OCT 10-26, 2021 DAILY ITINERARY Day 1: Arrival Your guide will meet you at Cape Town International Airport and transfer you to the hotel, where we will be based for a three-night stay. We will bird around the hotel grounds or at nearby sites as time permits. Day 2-3: Cape Town One of our full days in Cape Town will be devoted to a pelagic trip onto the Atlantic Ocean (the trip is optional). The nutrient-rich waters of the Benguela Current bring a wonderful diversity of seabirds with it, including several species of albatross (Yellow-nosed, Shy, and Black-browed are seen on most trips), as well as shearwaters, petrels, and storm-petrels. It’s possible to see marine mammals as well, including Southern Right Whale. When the boat returns to land in the afternoon, we will visit the nearby African Penguin colony, one of three mainland colonies on the continent, located, amazingly, in the Cape Town suburbs. Please note that because not everybody chooses to go on the pelagic trip, the cost is not included in the tour price. We will let you know the cost if you choose to sign up for it. For those who choose not to go on the pelagic trip, we will spend the day birding on the Cape Peninsula, visiting the gorgeous Cape Point as well as the Kommetjie Lighthouse. We will be looking for the three species of cormorants (Bank, Cape, and Crowned) that are endemic to the west coast of Southern Africa, as well as local endemic songbirds like Cape Sugarbird, Cape Grassbird, and Orange-breasted Sunbird. Our other full day in the Western Cape will be spent visiting West Coast National Park and nearby spots, north of Cape Town. This region of coastal scrub known as renosterveld is home to many unique birds, including Black Harrier, Southern Black Korhaan, and Blue Crane. Songbirds are common, too, including Southern Double-collared and Malachite Sunbirds, Karoo Scrub-Robin, and Bokmakierie. The wetlands contained in West Coast National Park offer us out best chance of the trip to see shorebirds. A few will be familiar to North American observers—Sanderling and Ruddy Turnstone, for example—but many will be very different, including African Oystercatcher, Chestnut-banded Plover, and Little Stint. There’s a strong possibility to find flocks of both Lesser and Greater Flamingoes among the 100+ species that we will likely see today. Day 4: Cape Town to Betty’s Bay We will leave our hotel in the morning and start our eastward journey along the coast. It is just a short drive, but the birding is tremendous. We will start at the world-famous Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, where the protea flowers in the shadow of Table Mountain are full of Cape Sugarbirds, several species of sunbirds, and where Cape Francolins scurry about the lawns. 224.213.2280 [email protected] 3 www.redhillbirding.com THE BEST OF SOUTH AFRICA OCT 10-26, 2021 We will then make our way along the coast, with a stop at the Strandfontein Wetlands, one of South Africa’s premier waterbird hangouts. Here we will scan through the abundant Yellow- billed Ducks, Cape Teal, and Cape Shoveler for Maccoa Duck and Southern Pochard. We will search the reed edges for African Swamphen and the reedbeds themselves for Levaillant’s Cisticola, Little Rush-Warbler, African Reed-Warbler, and Lesser Swamp-Warbler. We will continue east along one of the world’s great scenic drives, before ending up at our lovely hotel in a small coastal town. Day 5: Betty’s Bay to Bontebok National Park via the Agulhas Plain Our morning will begin with a search of the nearby coastal mountains at Rooi Els for Cape Rockjumper, one of the Cape’s most charismatic and sought-after endemic birds. We should also find Cape Rock Thrush here, along with Karoo Prinia, Gray-backed Cisticola, and possibly Cape Siskin. We will then continue east, slowly birding our way across the wheat fields of the Agulhas Plain. Birds have adapted well to the agricultural landscape here, and we should find flocks of Blue Cranes, pairs of Karoo Korhaans and other bustards, Jackal Buzzard, several species of larks, and Cape Longclaw. Ponds in the landscape attract ducks, geese, and herons and egrets, while raptors stalk the fields, including Cape Vulture (whose only remaining colony in the province is nearby). Day 6: Bontebok National Park to Wilderness Near our hotel lies Bontebok National Park, where its namesake animal was saved from extinction. Now common here, we should see Bontebok and several other species of antelope. We are also likely to see two locally endemic larks, Agulhas Long-billed Lark and the Agulhas subspecies of Cape Clapper Lark, which is likely to be split in the future. We may come across the huge Denham’s Bustard and the beautiful, endangered Black Harrier. While looking up for harriers we could see the flight display of the well-named Cloud Cisticola. After a morning in the park, we will continue east to another great national park that shares its name with the adjacent town, Wilderness. In Wilderness we will be situated in the subtropical coastal forest, with its huge trees and rainforest birds. Among the highlights here is the verdant Knysna Turaco, whose raucous calls fill the forest. We will enjoy an afternoon and a full day around the forests and wetlands of Garden Route National Park (formerly called Wilderness National Park). Day 7: Garden Route National Park You don’t have to go far here to be in the forest. Typical of forest, the birding isn’t necessarily easy, but the birds themselves are wonderful.
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