Fairest Cape to Kruger 11th – 27th September, 2015 Barrier of Spears extension 27th September – 3rd October, 2015 Set Departure tour Tour leader: Charley Hesse Report by Charley Hesse. Photos by Charley Hesse & Andrew Spencer With stiff competition, Buff-spotted Flufftail was voted bird of the trip (Andrew Spencer) There many different ways to birdwatch in South Africa, and with a small group of serious birdwatchers, we had a fast pace tour and accumulated a very large number of species. With a trip list of 494 species of birds, 67 species of mammals, plus many reptiles, amphibians and butterflies, it was one of our most successful tours to date. It was especially impressive considering that this didn’t even include a pelagic (which was sadly cancelled due to weather conditions). In addition to the huge species haul, our list included most of the available endemics (including both rockjumpers and sugarbirds) plus many other seldom seen birds. As well as the obvious star birds like African Penguin and Blue Crane, we did particularly well with certain groups, with 9 species of bustard, 14 species of larks (including the very rare Rudd’s), 32 species of hawks and eagles (including Crowned Hawk-Eagle & Fasciated Snake-Eagle) and 9 species of owls (including African Grass-Owl, Cape Eagle-Owl and the Holy Grail of African birding, Pel’s Fishing Owl). Mammals feature heavily on this tour and highlights from our list included Cheetah, White & Black Rhinos, Porcupine, Meercat & Southern Rights Whales. Of course the world class reserves, stunning scenery, high-quality lodging and food plus very friendly people didn’t go unnoticed either. All in all, it was an unforgettable trip. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 1 11th September – Arrival in Cape Town After settling in to our comfortable guest house, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the world famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Located at the foot of Table Mountain, we followed the gentle slopes up through the beautifully planted flower beds filled with Cape & Forest Canaries and Southern Double- collared Sunbirds. Families and couples were dotted on the extensive lawns and they were interspersed with Egyptian Geese and Helmeted Guineafowl. We made our way up to the Dell area in search of the resident Spotted Eagle-Owls. A guy nearby beckoned us over and pointed one out so we had managed to find them in record time, along with our first Dusky-brown Flycatcher. We walked up to the Protea garden in search of Cape Sugarbirds but didn’t find any. We did find Cape Francolin, Sombre Greenbul, Cape Bulbul, Cape Robin-Chat, Olive Thrush and Red-winged Starlings. We had a good afternoon for raptors and found an African Harrier-Hawk, pairs of African Goshawks and Steppe Buzzards, the latter being mobbed by the recently split Rock Kestrel. On the way back down we had a nice Black Sawwing and a gorgeous male Malachite Sunbird which we all got pretty excited about. We eventually found the new snaking canopy boardwalk called the Boomslang. From here we saw a flowering Coral Tree filled with Cape White-eyes and we also had a Rameron Pigeon fly over. Our last memorable sighting of the day were some Cape Batises which were displaying for us on the way out. Orange-breasted Sunbird is surely one of the best looking endemics (Andrew Spencer) 12th September – Cape Peninsular We started our day at Boulders Beach penguin colony where we had great views of many Jackass Penguins. It was nice and early so we had the place to ourselves. We also saw our first Great & Cape Cormorants, African Oystercatcher and many Hartlaub's Gulls. On the way the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, we found an extensive patch of flowering Proteas where we saw impressive Cape Sugarbird and emerald green Malachite Sunbird. Once in the reserve, we found the gorgeous endemic Orange-breasted Sunbird and the not so gorgeous Karoo Prinia. We stopped at a great view over the sea and scanned the distant waves, picking up Black-browed Albatross, White-chinned Petrel, Sooty Shearwater and Cape Gannet. A welcome consolation after the pelagic had been cancelled. At the Cape Point parking lot we saw Cape Bunting and Red-winged Starling, and on the walk up to the lighthouse, Cape Bulbul and Cape Robin-Chat. Our main target here was Cape Siskin, and despite the strong winds we managed to locate a small family group. Also spotted from the cliffs were a Rock Kestrel and a Peregrine Falcon. The views from the top we superb and we enjoyed watching Cape Comorants braving the strong winds and landing on the cliffs. With our targets under our belt, we continued on to Kommetjie where we were in search of cormorants. Along with the common Great & Cape Cormorants we managed to find a couple of the rare Bank & Crowned Cormorants too. We saw many water birds including African Oystercatcher, Blacksmith Lapwing and even a Pied Kingfisher. Gulls were common place and we saw Hartlaub's & Kelp Gulls plus Common, Great Crested & Sandwich Terns. After a well-deserved lunch we left this delightful place and on the way out of town we spotted a pair of Spotted Thick-knees. Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 2 We spent the afternoon at the wonderful Strandfontein Water Treatment Plant where we saw an incredible number of birds. The extensive ponds were especially good for ducks and geese and we saw Spur-winged Goose, Yellow-billed, Red-billed & Maccoa Ducks, Cape Shoveler, Cape Teal & Southern Pochard. We even had a Yellow-billed Duck - Mallard hybrid. Other water birds seen included Little, Great Crested & Eared Grebes, hundreds of Greater Flamingo, Great & Long-tailed Cormorants, Gray, Black-headed Heron and Glossy, Sacred & Hadada Ibises. On some of the first reed-fringed lagoons, we saw Lesser Swamp-& Little Rush-Warblers, Levaillant's Cisticola, African Swamphen and even an African Jacana, which is actually a twitchable bird in Cape Town. Over the pans we had several hirundine species, including Plain Martin, White-throated & Pearl-breasted Swallows, and in the open habitat surrounding the ponds, Cape Francolin, Black-shouldered Kite, White-necked Raven, African Pipit, Cape Canary, Yellow Bishop and Common Waxbill. On the final pan we found several shorebird species, with Black- winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Common Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Ruff and Little Stint. Our first full day had been incredibly productive and we returned to our guest house to freshen before dinner. The iconic endemic Cape Rockjumper (Charley Hesse) 13th September – Cape Peninsular Because of the pelagic cancellation, we had an extra day of birding in the Cape area. We started early and headed straight for the Overberg area, searching for the rare endemic Hottentot Buttonquail. It is a very tricky bird that requires a lot of time and searching large areas in the hope of flushing it up. As we walked the habitat, Cloud Cisticola showed well and we even had a Denham’s Bustard and several Bontebok, but no sign of the buttonquail. Next we tried the Kleinmond area for Striped Flufftail. What can I say? Flufftails are amongst the most difficult African birds to see. We tried a known sight and had just one short response of a bird in dense vegetation, but nothing more. We did have nice views of Cape Sugarbirds on pin-cushion Proteas and took some photos of of these interesting endemics before heading to Hermanus for lunch. We sat at some outside tables overlooking the sea and we enjoyed the sight of Southern Right Whales bobbing in and out of the water close offshore. From here we went on to Betty’s Bay and Stoney Point penguin colony. We enjoyed the antics of the hundreds of Jackass Penguins, including chicks begging for food. We also had many Cape, several Bank and a single Crowned Cormorant. The comical Dassies or Cape Rock Hyraxes, the unlikely cousins of the elephant, lazed around on the rocks in between the penguin nests. We added Cape Girdled Lizard to our reptile lists before moving on to Rooi Els. One of the most important endemics on the tour is Cape Rock Jumper. I warned the clients that they can be difficult to see and of course they popped straight out and started calling on top of some rocks. We also saw more Orange-breasted Sunbirds, Familiar Chat and our first Cape Rock-Thrush as well as a Jackal Buzzard flying against the cliff faces, before heading back to Cape Town Tropical Birding www.tropicalbirding.com 3 14th September – West Coast Today was our long day of birding up the west coast. Again we left early to beat traffic and just north of Cape Town, stopped to see our first African Fish-Eagle on a small roadside lake. Further north when we were finally past human habitation and into some nice fynbos habitat, we tried for Cape Clapper Lark. There was no sign of their vocalizations or distinctive ‘clapping’ flight displays, but we did see our first Bokmakirie, Red-headed Cisticola, Chestnut-vented Tit-Babbler and Karoo Scrub-Robin. We moved on and entered the Darling Wildflower route where we searched for Southern Black Korhaan. We heard several individuals but none showed themselves so we continued birding up the hill. We had a surprise Cape Clapper Lark doing its flight displays then we had a false alarm of a Spur-winged Goose flying by. We back-tracked and eventually saw a male Southern Black Korhaan along a track. Further along the route we had our first Blue Cranes and picked up many other nice birds including breeding-plumaged Southern Red Bishops, 3 species of mousebirds, Banded Martin, some European Bee-eaters that probably just arrived, Bar-throated Apalis, Fiscal Flycatcher, African Pied Staling and Steaky-headed Seedeater.