SOUTH AFRICA
3 Short Trips, October 2006

Guide: David Nkosi

Tour 1: Drakensberg Escarpment and Wakkerstroom (6 days)

Tour 2: Johannesburg: Marievale and Sterkfontein (2 days)

Tour 3: Cape Town, West Coast, Garden Route, and Tanqwa Karoo (7 days)

Introduction

These three trips show a small selection of possible short itineraries for birding in South Africa. We can accommodate tours out of Johannesburg or Cape Town, for birding (our specialty!), natural history, scenery, and culture, and for any desired length of time. This trip report discusses highlights of such itineraries and the incredible diversity of birds and mammals that we can see, from rockjumpers, Blue Cranes, and baboons in the spectacular Cape countryside, to Taita Falcon and herds of game among the breathtaking scenery of the Blyde River Canyon and Drakensberg Escarpment. For a broader selection of possible itineraries, or for help in designing your own, visit us at www.sugarbirdtours.com (soon to be updated) or email us at info@tropicalbirding.com.

Tour 1: Drakensberg Escarpment and Wakkerstroom

02 October 2006: Johannesburg to Long Tom Pass.
We met at OR Tambo International Airport and drove on N12 along the eastern side of Johannesburg to Long Tom Pass in the Misty Mountain, where we spent the night. We had some very good birding along the way, seeing South African Cliff Swallow, Rufous-naped Lark, Little Swift, African Black Swift, Marsh Owl, Streaky-headed Seed-eater, White-throated Swallow, and Long-crested Eagle. We also noted our first mammals—a few herds of Burchell's zebra (see photo below), springbok, blesbok, and red hartebeest. Gurney’s Sugarbirds were seen close to Lydenburg on some flowering sugarbush; the sugarbirds were concentrated in a small patch of habitat because a recent fire had destroyed the rest.


Burchell's Zebra (Sander)

We stopped several times along the way to take in the beautiful scenery, and arrived at the hotel just after lunchtime. We took a nice walk on the hotel’s trails where we saw Barratt’s Warbler, African Pied Wagtail, Olive Bush-Shrike, Black-throated Canary, Red-shouldered Widow, Greater Double-collared Sunbird (see photo below), Cape Batis, Chorister Robin-Chat; we also heard White-starred Robin, Bush Blackcap, and Orange Ground Thrush. An afternoon walk in the Misty Mountains was shelved due to thunder and threatening rain.


Greater Double-collared Sunbird (Sander)

03 October 2006: Long Tom Pass to Graskop.
Early morning birding in drizzle and mist around the hotel added a few species to the list including Amethyst Sunbird, Sombre Greenbul, Common House Martin, and Knysna Turaco. They were a few birds that were only heard, like the Striped Flufftail, Red-chested Cuckoo, and Grey Go-away Bird. African Goshawk was calling in the forest, but we couldn’t see it because of the mist.

After breakfast we drove slowly towards Sabie, birding on the way. The birding was very good, yielding Wailing Cisticola, Lazy Cisticola, Drakensberg Prinia, and Long-billed Pipit. In Sabie we had very good views of male and female Spectacled Weavers nest-building. We also saw Golden Weaver, Bronze Mannikin, and Swee Waxbill. With the mist making birding difficult, we checked into the hotel in Graskop early. After checking in, we drove to another park just on the northern edge of Graskop hoping to see Blue Swallow. We took a long walk in the grassland but due to the mist were not successful. We did come across a troop of velvet monkeys and watched the adults caring for their young. We returned to the hotel for the night.

04 October 2006: Blyde River Canyon, Abel Erasmus and Kaapsehoop.
With a very early breakfast and departure were off to go see the extremely local Taita Falcon, birding on the way. We took the loop to God’s Window, but did not spend much time birding there because of the mist. But before we reached the stunning rock formations at Bourke’s Luck Potholes, we added the endemic Buff-streaked Chat, Jackal Buzzard, Desert Cisticola, and Black-breasted Snake Eagle. From here we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Blyde River Canyon and added Southern Bald Ibis to our growing lists of endemics. After some nice souvenir shopping, we drove to the viewing point for the Three Rondavels, a truly breathtaking vantage, but we still had further to go to see the falcon. Along the way we came across a big troop of chacma baboons eating wildflowers in the open grasslands.

We met Michael, the local Taita Falcon guide, and waited near the nest for a little while the bird was out searching for food. After just a few minutes the male came back bringing food to the female in the nest. She is incubating, but she doesn’t get fed on the nest--she comes off the nest to be fed. It is amazing to see that the birds use the same patch of rock every time, and you can easily tell this by their droppings. We added several other new species in the area as well including the highly sought Cape Vulture, White-bellied Sunbird, Mocking Cliff Chat, Cape Rock Thrush, White-browed Scrub-robin, and White-naped Raven, though a few elusive birds, like Knysna Turaco and Striped Pipit gave us a hard time. We also came across a few blue-headed agamas, a beautiful and appropriately named lizard.

We had a long drive back to Kaapsehoop, where we were to spend the night, across the beautiful scenery of the aptly-named area called Wonder View. After having checked into the hotel we took a walk on one of its famous trails where we saw some lovely views of the Gurney Sugarbirds in the garden, plus Familiar Chat and lots of Long-billed Pipits. We went back to the hotel for the night, having arranged the permit to go see Blue Swallow.

05 October 2006 Kaapsehoop, Barbeton, Ermelo, Amersfoort and Wakkertroom.
Very early we left the hotel hoping to see Blue Swallow. We walked a lot, covering a large area and visiting all the nesting areas, but sadly they had not yet arrived. We did see Wailing Cisticola, Yellow Bishop, Long-billed Pipit, and other common grassland species, along with a spitting cobra, and we heard African Crowned Eagle. We departed in the late morning for the Wakkertroom area, where we were going to finish the tour.

We did not arrive early enough to do the wetlands, but we added some very good birds anyway, including Greater Kestrel, Grey Crowned Crane, Blue Crane, Blue Korhaan, Spike-heeled Lark, Pink-billed Lark, Amur Falcon, and African Openbill. Most interesting was a juvenile Booted Eagle who was busy robbing some Little Swift nests under a bridge. A Red-chested Flufftail was calling along the river close to Badplaas, but as John had already seen this species we pressed on, soon coming across Red-throated Wryneck. It was late when we reached Wakkerstoom, so we checked the telegraph poles along the road hoping to see Spotted Eagle Owl—luck was with us and we got great views of one. We overnighted in Toad Hall.

06 October 2006 Wakkerstroom, Paulpitersburg and Firkland.
We arose very early to go up to the Paulpitersburg Road to look for Yellow-breasted Pipit and other local specialties. It was a great morning, and we saw the pipit plus Wing-snapping Cisticola, Sentinel Rock Thrush, Southern Anteating Chat, and Grey-winged Francolin. We drove back to the town to go and spend some time around the wetlands. We had some nice waterbirds, including Spotted Thick-knees, Ruff, African Snipe, African Black Duck, Yellow-billed Kite, Purple Gallinule, and Wood Sandpiper.

We returned for breakfast, and afterwards we went to search out the areas rare endemic larks on the Amersfoort. We had great success, seeing both Rudd’s and Botha’s Larks. We had some lovely views of the Rudd’s Lark building a nest next to us. This was particularly interesting as it is meant to be very difficult to find their nests, but according to my side it is easy as long as you are searching for them while they are nesting. After finding Botha’s Lark we drove back to Wakkerstroom to look for the bizarre endemic Ground Woodpecker. We had very good looks at Ground Woodpecker, then found a bonus Cape Bunting. We drove back to overnight in Toad Hall again.

07 October 2006 Wakkerstroom ,Derkiesdorp and Zaaihoek.
Very early we headed to Derkiesdorp to look for Barrow’s Korhaan and Denham’s Bustard. We were very lucky with the Barrow’s, finding them almost immediately; the birds were there right next to the spot where we started to search for them and were even calling. The Denham’s Bustard spot was totally misted in, so we decided to come back in the afternoon.

After returning for breakfast, we went to the Zaaihoek Dam, where saw Ground Woodpecker and Cape Bunting again, plus Cape Canary, Cape White Eye, and Malachite Sunbird.

Upon returning to the Denham’s Bustard spot and finding the weather much better, it didn’t take long to obtain lovely view of the single male that was all fluffed-up for its display. What is so interesting about them is that although there are no females around, they will remain in the same spot displaying. That alone is worth the trip!

Tour 2: Johannesburg: Marievale and Sterkfontein

13 October 2006. Marievale and Suikerbosrand.
After picking up the clients from their hotels we drove to Marievale where we were going to start our birding for the trip. We passed through several towns before getting to the huge wetland complex. For Doug, this was his first trip to South Africa, so he was extremely excited about all the lifers he was about to get. He compared his wish list to what we were seeing and was very happy with how well the two lists were aligned!

Birds seen included Goliath Heron, Purple Heron, Intermediate Egret, Squacco Heron, Little Bittern, African Spoonbill, Fulvous Duck, Hottentot Teal, Cape Shoveler, Black-breasted Snake Eagle, African Rail, Black Crake, Red-chested Flufftail, Purple Gallinule, Three-banded Plover, Wood Sandpiper, African Marsh Warbler, Cape Reed Warbler, African Sedge Warbler, Fan-tailed Cisticola, Common Greenshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, African Snipe, Spotted Thick-knee, Whiskered Tern, White Rumped Swift, and Horus Swift.


Marievale Bird Sanctuary (Douglas McWhirter)

We spent the afternoon birding in Suikersbosrand, with its combination of beautiful grassland and acacia landscapes, great birding, and numerous mammals. A variety of mammals were grazing in the very short grassland that had recently burned, so were very easy to see. These included common duiker, springbok, blesbok, eland, black wildebeest, yellow mongoose and slender mongoose.

In terms of birding in Suikerbosrand, we had some fabulous birds, including African Hoopoe, Lesser Honeyguide, Red-throated Wryneck, Eastern Clapper Lark, Spike-heeled Lark, Large-billed Lark, Chestnut-backed Finch-lark, African Red-eyed Bulbul, Cape Rock Thrush, Capped Wheatear, Kalahari Scrub Robin, Long-billed Crombec, Wing-snapping Cisticola, Lazy Cisticola, Tawny-flanked Prinia, Piping Cisticola, Black-chested Prinia, Long-billed Pipit, Cape Longclaw, Brubru, White-bellied Sunbird, Red-collared, Yellow-rumped, Long-tailed, and Red-shouldered Widows, Orange-breasted Waxbill, Yellow Canary, Pied Barbet and Cinnamon-breasted Bunting.

Upon finishing birding we returned to the hotel for the evening.

14 October 2006: Sterkfontein.
We got an early start to head to the cave at Sterkfontein for a cave tour, but right near the parking area we got great views (and photos) of Shelley’s Francolin crossing the road. As we approached the carpark I heard a Coqui Francolin giving its lovely call. We saw a pair very nicely, but this birds can be elusive even in very short grass, and this pair seemed to simply vanish. After a few hours of walking around the center, seeing Mocking Cliff-Chat, Cloud Cisticola and Northern Black Korhaan,. and touring the cave, we returned to Joburg for their onward flights to join Tropical Birding's Madagascar tour.

Tour 3: Cape Town and the Western Cape

16 October 2006: Cape Peninsula, Boulders Beach and Strandfontein.
I met the clients at their hotel in the late morning, with plans to spend the day on and around the beautiful Cape Peninsula. Before we went to the Peninsula I took them to my special spot, where we easily saw a couple Cape endemics before we went to the Peninsula, including wonderful male Cape Sugarbirds with their incredible tails. Fortunately the wind wasn't strong, and we picked up the endemic Orange-breasted Sunbird, Lesser Double-collared Sunbird, Bully Canary, Malachite Sunbird, Cape Francolin and African Dusky Flycatcher.

We headed to the Cape Peninsula because it was already late in a day; just next to the visitor center we stopped to watch the introduced Bontebok pair that was enjoying some grass in the dunes. As we had just arrived on the Peninsula, we decided to do a short walk first before lunch, finding the difficult endemic Cape Siskin, along with Cape Bunting and Rock Kestrel. Before we left the restaurant we had some great Rock Hyrax grazing in the nearby grass..

We took the beautiful drive drove down to the Cape of Good Hope, where we found Sooty Shearwater, Cape Gannet, and Cape and White-breasted Cormorants. We also came across a big troop of the charismatic Chacma Baboons, lounging peacefully among the vegetation.

Cape Peninsula view (Steve Blain)

We drove to Boulders Beach to see the resident African Penguins in one of their largest (and certainly most famous) colonies, with more more than one thousand pair breeding here. We stopped on our way to watch Cape Fur Seals (one of the penguins main predators) lying on the rocks enjoying the lovely sun, many babies amongst them.. We had some amazing views of the African Penguins of every age imaginable; some of them were starting to moult, giving them a strange patchy appearance.

We then went across to Strandfontein to spend the rest of the day with the thousands of waterbirds present. We saw African Black Oystercatcher, Great Crested Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Great White Pelican, African Darter, Black-crowned Night Heron, Greater Flamingo, African Black Duck, Red-billed Teal, African Marsh Harrier, Lesser Swamphen, Pied Avocet, Swift Tern, Cape Grassbird, and Grey-backed Cisticola. We drove back to Cape Town to overnight at the Cinnamon House.

17 October 2006: Darling dirt road, Paternoster, West Coast N.P and Tiene Vastveld.
O our first stop was a pond next to a golf course, where the uncommon South African Shelduck often stays. We got lucky as there was a pair present, as well as some African Pied Starlings. We headed further north on the R27 we stopped for the incredible Black Harrier, a southern African endemic. We had another stop at my famous spot for Cape Clapper Lark, where we watched an amazing displaying male. We then headed for Cape Long-billed Lark, which we also lucked out with and got do watch displaying. Before we went to Veldrift we stopped at a quarry with a staked out Verreaux's Eagle nest. We had a lovely views of both male and female, the female standing on the nest and the male not far away sitting on the cliff face, watching the Rock Hyraxes below. The hyrazes must be used to the eagle--they didn't seem to mind it sitting above them, but they ran away when they saw us!

We the went on to Veldrift, where we found the very localised Chestnut-banded Plover, White-fronted Plover, Grey Plover, Rudy Turnstone, African Spoonbill, and Lesser Flamingo. After enjoying a picnic lunch in West Coast National Park, we added a few species like Yellow Bishop, Karoo Scrub Robin, and African Black Crake. We were very lucky to see three species of snakes (including two highly venomous ones!): Puff Adder, Mole Snake and Cape Cobra, out and active because of the heat.

On our way out of the park we saw a number of stately Elands, the biggest antelope in the whole of Africa. We headed back towards Cape Town via Tiene Vastveld, looking for and finding Cape Longclaw and Cloud Cisticola. On the drive back we had lovely views of a lone Secretarybird hunting in the wheat field by the roadside. In two days out of Cape Town we had already seen baboons, the biggest antelope in Africa, Secratarybird, and a whole host of endemics!

18 October 2006: Sir Lowry’s Pass, De Hoop and Bredasdorp.
After breakfast we left Cape Town for De Hoop, birding along the way. We saw an African Marsh Harrier carrying some twigs for nesting material along the N2 towards the airport, but unfortunately couldn't stop along this busy highway.

We drove to Sir Lowry’s Pass to look for Cape Rockjumper, but it was just too windy (as it frequently is there), so we turned back quickly. We did find some Familiar Chats as we were starting to walk back, and I spotted a pair of spectacular Martial Eagles in flight over the pass. We headed to De Hoop to look for Damara Tern, a breeding summer visitor, and we saw a few bravely fighting the wind. This is also an excellent place to see Southern Right Whales from land, and they didn't disappoint today (see photo below).


Southern Right Whale (Sander)

We drove back out of the park to see the last colony of the Cape Vulture that breed in the Western Cape--this time we got lucky, with many of these huge raptors flying very low, dropping down to the roost. It was so amazing to see and we were able to share the views with another group of birders. We also had the very localised Agulhas Long-billed Lark close to us calling, but the bird of the day was the lonely male Denham’s Bustard, unaware of us as it fluffed its plumage displaying not far away. It was a very fitting end to a great day in the field.

19 October 2006: De Hoop to Grootvadersbos.
Some pre-breakfast birding didn't yield the extremely rare (but hoped for!) Hottentot Buttonquail, but we did have great views of Cape Sugarbird, some excellent looks at displaying Alguhas Clapper Lark, and a nice pair of Spotted Thick-knees.

We went back for breakfast, afterwards departing to Grootvadersbos. Along the drive there were many Blue Cranes (see photo below), including some incubating. In this area farmers are working together with the Crane Working Group, which has proved remarkably successful. Crane numbers have increased dramatically thanks to not being disturbed by farmers and their livestock, and they are now common. Many Agulhas Long-billed Larks were also in the area.


Blue Crane (Sander)

We drove slowly birding up until the Honey Cottage. We added several species in the Honey Cottage's garden--because the owner is the beekeeper there are always lots of flowers, so we ticked Greater Double-collared and Amethyst Sunbirds along with Streaky-headed Seedeater and Greater Honeyguide. We had a lovely views of two calling Red-chested Cuckoos, unaware that we were looking at them. In the Grootvadersbos visitor center we had some nice birding as well, with Olive Bush-shrike, Swee Waxbill, and Grey Cuckooshrike quickly added to our list.

We then headed to the forest, for our first taste of the area's forest-dwelling species, finding some great birds, including Blue-mantled Flycatcher, Paradise Flycatcher, the very difficult Knysna Woodpecker, Olive Woodpecker, Forest Canary, and Forest Buzzard. There was also a big troop of baboons resting silently in the canopy. We didn't even realize they were there until they startled us by dropping down to the forest floor. In the evening we were tantalized by a calling Narina Trogon, which never came out for a view, and in the evening a Bushbuck came to graze around the garden which Fiery-necked Nightjars called.

20 October 2006: Grootvadersbos, Worcester and Tanqwa Karoo.
Pre-breakfast birding around the garden didn't yield anything new, but we had great looks at Greater Double-collared and Amethyst Sunbird, Streaky-headed Seedeater, and Greater Honeyguide. After breakfast we headed our for birding, adding a variety of new birds, including Cape Rock Thrush, Red-collared Widow, Ramereon Pigeon and the highly sought-after Knysna Warbler. We also saw Klass's Cuckoo and Knysna Woodpecker.Its so amazing.

We drove towards Suurbraak where we had great views of an immature Verreaux's Eagle, Long-billed Pipit, and, along the river, a fabulous Giant Kingfisher. We had a beautiful drive along the garden route, through beautiful vineyards and green hills. It is an idyllic Cape landscape, not to be missed by visitors to the area. On our way towards Worcester we added a single Pied Kingfisher at one of the dams, and between vineyards we added few ducks, including White Faced Duck, along with Little Egret and a great Booted Eagle circling around Robertson.

We drove through Worcester on to the beautiful scenery of the Hex River Valley. Much of this area, the Renosterveld, has been converted into vineyards, which now are a major source of local employment. We the drove up to the Karooport, where we got our first taste of Karoo specials, seeing birds like Pale Chanting Goshawk, the localised Rufous-eared Warbler (see photo below), the rare Burchell’s Courser and Dusky Sunbird. We were clearly into an area with very different birdlife, and we excited to see what the next day's birding would have in store.


Rufous-eared Warbler (Sander)

21 October 2006: Tanqwa Karoo.
We did a bit of birding near the hotel before breakfast, where we had some great Cape Clapper Larks among the more common species like Cape Bunting, Familiar Chat and Yellow Canary.

After breakfast we drove slowly birding on our way towards Tanqwa Karoo. We stopped at a bridge over a wetlands where we found African Reed-Warbler and Lesser Swamp-Warbler. We had some great birding at Katbakkies, with some the lovely Fairy Flycatcher, the difficult Cinnamon-breasted Warbler, Pririt Batis, Pied Barbet, and Red -faced Mousebird.

We drove further north along the main road to go and try for the localised Namaqua Warbler, which proved fairly easy to find in an acacia thicket. We then drove into a more arid zone with its distinctive avifauna, finding Tractrac Chat, Karoo Lark and, a bit further on, Spike-heeled Lark.

Back along the main road we progressed slowly, adding some great birds, including Namaqua Sandgrouse, the gorgeous Southern Black Korhaan, Karoo Korhaan (see photo below), White Throated Canary, Black-headed Canary, and the very difficult Karoo Eremomela.

We headed out to go and look for the near-endemic Larklike Bunting, but before we even got there we had the bizarre Ground Woodpecker, Mountain Wheatear, Chestnut Vented Tit-babbler, and Karoo Chat. We quickly found Larklike Buntings, and not far from them was a group of the nomadic Black-eared Sparrowlark, which we had great views of. We drove back to the hotel after an outstanding day of birding, and after a delicious dinner we enojyed the calls of Cape Eagle Owl and Freckled Nightjar coming from the surrounding vegetation.

Karoo Korhaan (Sander)

22 October 2006: Tanqwa Karoo back to Cape Town.
On our last day we had the long drive back to Cape Town, birding along the way to make sure that we don’t miss any new birds. After breakfast we drove slowly back to Cape Town stopping for some good views of the species that we did not have good looks at yet, arriving at the airport in plenty of time for the participants to catch their outbound flights. It was another great trip--excellent birding and wonderful company in a spectacular and friendly region.

Tour Bird List (combined for all trips)
Endemics in bold / Near endemics in italics

MAMMAL LIST
Blesbok
Bontebok
Steenbok
Red hartebeest
Springbok
Mountain Reedbok
Vaal Reedbok
Klipspringer
Common Duiker
Eland
Oribi
Chacma Baboon
Velvet Monkey
Burchell’s Zebra
Cape Grey Mongoose
Slender Mangoose
Yellow Mangoose
Suricate
Southern Right Whale