Tropical Birding Trip Report South Africa: October 2015 A Tropical Birding CUSTOM tour SOUTH AFRICA: FAIREST CAPE TO KRUGER 4-20 October 2015 TOUR LEADER: JOSH ENGEL Photos by Josh Engel Seeing Knysna Turaco up close is always a highlight of this tour. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-0514 [email protected] Page 1 Tropical Birding Trip Report South Africa: October 2015 INTRODUCTION South Africa is without question one of the world’s great birding and natural history destinations. With its long list of endemic birds, animal-filled national parks, and world class infrastructure, it’s a must-do for traveling birders. This itinerary followed a sort of “highlights” route, hitting some of the top birding spots, most scenic landscapes, and best national park the country has to offer. We started in the Cape, the most endemic-rich part of the country, and we found most of them. This included great looks at Cape Rockjumper, Protea Canary, and Black Harrier. We started in Cape Town itself, before heading east to the lush Garden Route and arid Karoo. From there we flew across to the east, where we birded the beautiful high-altitude grasslands of Wakkerstroom and ended the trip with three days in Kruger National Park, with its unparalleled density of large animals. In Wakkerstroom we had incredible looks at the endangered endemics that it is famous for: Rudd’s and Botha’s Lark, Blue Korhaan, and Yellow-breasted Pipit. Kruger was better than I’ve ever seen it, and for the first time on a trip I guided we found the “super seven”: Elephant, Rhino, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Cheetah, and Wild Dog. The birding is outstanding there as well, and we found many of the key Kruger birds, species like Brown-headed Parrot, Southern Ground-Hornbill, all of the vultures, Saddle-billed Stork, and more. All this while staying in wonderful hotels, eating delicious food, and generally having a great experience. A leopard, the second that we saw, about to jump down twenty feet out of the tree. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-0514 [email protected] Page 2 Tropical Birding Trip Report South Africa: October 2015 TOUR REPORT Everyone arrived smoothly in Cape Town. After dropping our bags at the guest house and eating lunch at a lovely local café, we made a trip to the nearby Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, surely one of the world’s most beautiful botanical gardens. Birds are easy to see here and we quickly picked up the first birds for the trip, starting with a Spotted Eagle-owl watching over the entrance gate and later adding Cape Sugarbird, Cape Robin-chat, Cape White-eye, and many Southern Double-collared Sunbirds. For our first full day of birding the following day, we headed north from Cape Town up the Atlantic coast. We spent much of the morning in West Coast National Park, where highlights included Malachite Sunbird, many Karoo Scrub- Robins, a very cooperative Karoo Lark, and a showy pair of Gray-winged Francolins. Many shorebirds, waders, and terns were at one of the park’s excellent hides, including Greater and Lesser Flamingo, Bar-tailed Godwit, and Black Oystercatcher. For lunch we had the company of many Cape Weavers and Yellow Bishops. After lunch, we visited salt pans near Veldriff, where we quickly found our target Chestnut-banded Plover. We also had outstanding scope views of a perfectly lit European Bee-eater. Starting our second full day in the Cape, we took a long walk through the botanical gardens. It was a beautiful morning. We had wonderful looks at the endemic Swee Waxbill and Forest Canary, and had prolonged views of several Cape Sugarbirds feeding on a flowering protea. As it always the case there, we had excellent looks at Olive Thrush, Cape www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-0514 [email protected] Page 3 Tropical Birding Trip Report South Africa: October 2015 Robin-chat, Cape Francolin, and other typical garden birds. After lunch we went into the city to visit the District Six Museum, which tells the story of forced removals of people from the area in the 1970s, much of it from the perspective of those who were forced to move. We still had plenty of time left in the day, so we ended our day at Strandfontein, Cape Town’s famous (among birders, at least) sewage ponds. They were full of birds. Greater Flamingoes were everywhere, and we quickly found Southern Pochard, Maccoa Duck, African Swamphen, and Little Rush- and Lesser Swamp-Warblers. For our last day from Cape Town, we started on the Atlantic side of the Cape Penninsula at Kommetjie. We quickly found the cormorants we were searching after, the endangered Bank, Crowned, and Cape. A few Cape Gannets flew past offshore and we had a good time comparing the various terns that were perched on the rocks. We continued down to Cape Point, enjoying the stunning scenery along the way, as well as a few Orange-breasted Sunbirds. After a walk at the point, we headed back north to the famous penguin colony of Simonstown. We enjoyed the antics of the many African Penguins, afterwards commencing our eastward journey. We spent the afternoon along the rocky coast near Rooi Els. Very quickly we found what we were looking for, a beautiful Cape Rockjumper doing just as its name says—jumping among the rocks. We also quickly found another beautiful rock-loving South African endemic, Cape Rock Thrush. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-0514 [email protected] Page 4 Tropical Birding Trip Report South Africa: October 2015 The next morning we started back at Rooi Els, where the rockjumpers put on an even better show than the previous afternoon. After a nice walk there, we continued eastward, stopping in at Hermanus, where we found two distant Southern Right Whales, but none close to shore, unfortunately. After stopping for lunch at a nice café, we birded our way through the wheat fields and renosterveld of the Agulhas Plain. We had great views of the locally endemic Agulhas Long-billed Lark along with many other goodies, including the endangered Cape Griffon, Cloud Cisticola, flocks of Blue Cranes, and a family of Karoo Korhaans. We had spectacular looks at Malachite Sunbird and saw a few Yellow Mongoose scurrying across the fields. We finished the day at our hotel on a farmstead near Swellendam. Our hotel was adjacent to Bontebok National Park, where we started our next morning. We quickly found displaying Cape (Agulhas) Clapper Larks, clapping their wings together in flight display as they do. A Rameron Pigeon sat up cooperatively for us, where we could see its yellow bill, eyering, and legs. Best of all was a pair of Black Harriers; as we watched the male flying towards us carrying a rodent in his talons, the female flew up from the ground, the prey was exchanged mid-air, and the female landed on the road to eat it. It was stunning behavior to see, from a beautiful, declining, endemic species. From there, we headed to the Garden Route, picking up lunch to eat on the balcony of our next B&B, its gardens full of birds. It didn’t take long to have Knysna Turacos just feet from our faces, along with Chorister Robin-chat and many others. After taking in the feeder birds, we visited some nearby wetlands. White-backed www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-0514 [email protected] Page 5 Tropical Birding Trip Report South Africa: October 2015 Ducks were plentiful as were Southern Pochard, an African Darter sat for us at close range in perfect light, and we watched a Pied Kingfisher smash a fish on a branch many times before swallowing it whole. We also tried calling out a Red-chested Flufftail, but despite calling back it wouldn’t come out of the reeds. We ended the day in a national park campground, where a pair of African (Blue-mantled) Crested Flycatchers put on a nice show. Our next day was spent in the environs of Wilderness National Park. We started before breakfast with stunning views of a singing Olive Bush-shrike, but despite having a Knysna Warbler singing its head off just feet away, we couldn’t lay eyes on the little skulker. Breakfast back at the B&B was for the birds: the feeders just off the balcony where we ate were full of Swee Waxbill, Forest Canary, Southern Boubou, Knysna Turaco, and many others. After breakfast we took a walk in the forest, first enjoying one of South Africa’s largest remaining yellowwood trees, then enjoying the Green Woodhoopoes, Cape Batis, Olive Woodpecker, and other forest birds. After a nice rest and more feeder-watching, we returned to the forest for the afternoon, but the wind was strong and birds were hard to come by. It was time to bid goodbye to the garden o’ birds after one final breakfast with the turacos. From there we headed north through the Little Karoo and over the beautiful Swartberg Pass. A very responsive Protea Canary greeted us as we began our ascent up the pass, this rare bird showing itself perfectly, but despite several singing back to us, Victorin’s Warblers wouldn’t come out. We did find a beautiful male Sentinal Rock Thrush and a Cape Rockjumper greeted us at the pass www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-0514 [email protected] Page 6 Tropical Birding Trip Report South Africa: October 2015 itself. We descended into the Great Karoo, stopping for an afternoon snack at a local café en route. Arriving at Karoo National Park, we took a drive through the plains.