Cape Town / south africa (1 Viewer)

[Owene]

I'm at the very early stages of planning a trip (probably easter or august 2027, more likely august if it's SA) . SA is looking like an option. Would probably be flights to cape town with a hire car and some organised stuff with local firms, as it looks like it might bring some nice african birds that are a bit different from what I saw in Uganda.

Cape Town is appealing a lot because of the possibility of penguin, without totally writing off the possible trips of the rest of my life it does seem like the easiest way to see a penguin. Is august (or late march early april) ok time wise? Also what sort of stuff would be possible from day boat trips (whale watching or one day pelagics not something major) in august as opposed to easter.

Would basing in cape town (with maybe a fairly nearby second accomodation) have any good possibility of Ostrich and Secretary Bird. Adding a second centre isn't out of the realms of possibility but it would probably mean doing just this trip instead of this and somewhere else in medium term. lions and elephants etc would be quite cool (already seen leopard, hippo, zebra, giraffe and quite a few antelope) but its iconic bird/bird families that are the real appeal. Local guide firms seem to do rockjumper trips from cape town

Not done anything on this scale solo before and want to keep travel distances down if possible and am a little put off by security

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

You should be fine time wise for African Penguin. They're present year round.

Cape Town is pretty easy to do and is safe if you're sensible about where you go and what you do. There's a fair amount to see but going a bit further afield would bring in other birds/ mammals into play. Will you be hiring a car?

 

[THE_FERN]

There's a good chance of secretary bird if you travel around. On a mid- to end- Sept trip I saw at least 3. Our pelagic was "slightly disappointing", but only if you've already seen lots of shearwaters etc. Guaranteed are large nos of black-browed and white-capped albatross, sooty shearwater, white-chinned petrel. In 2022 (and still in 2024) there was a southern elephant seal which is quite impressive. You should see at least humpbacks and common dolphins, probably southern right whales.

 

[Peter.home]

I had a trip to the area, October 2024.
It was very enjoyable, although I had an interest in the Fynbos flowers which was a significant part of the experience.

The safety aspect had me quite nervous, government travel advice is likely to put you off completely, but as mentioned above, you can be careful, and dilligent, and reduce the risk. I felt safe everywhere I went.

The pelagics are hit and miss, a lot of them get cancelled. I had 4 days and they were all cancelled! I did see many of the expected sea birds from land.

My trip is here: Western Cape

A nice circular route, felt a bit rushed around the Stanford /Hermanus/ DeHoop area, but not sure where I could have borrowed an extra day from in the itinerary. Everywhere was pretty good.

One of those places that I really enjoyed, and wouldn't go back simply because I saw the vast majority of what was on offer.

 

[Owene]

I envisaged hiring a car but didn’t want the majority of time to be driving. It’s one of a few places I’m considering for 2027 and the penguin is the real draw but the other stuff looks good too

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

You may be interested in my Ebird trip report, although it's from a different time of the year.

https://ebird.org/tripreport/196284

In your position, I would be tempted to head east to bird the forest areas around George/ Wilderness. The birds there will be fairly different to Cape Town and it's a lovely area. You should pick up various other things enroute.

 

[Merlin]

I envisaged hiring a car but didn’t want the majority of time to be driving. It’s one of a few places I’m considering for 2027 and the penguin is the real draw but the other stuff looks good too

Hi Owene:

The penguins were easy and amazing but I understand that numbers are dwindling throughout their range in SA, we hired a local guide for two days and saw some great birds including Blue Crane all within a short distance from Cape Town itself.
On our own, the Botanical Gardens are a must with many great species seen very well, a visit to the V&A shopping centre is interesting with Hartlaubs Gull wandering around your feet plus seals go there. The wind was at gale force so the pelagics did not look too inviting but we did see a few seabirds from the Cape itself plus a few out of place Ostritch. One word of advice at the Cape, if you buy a meal and take it outside, a Baboon will almost certainly take it from you!

regards
Merlin
ps watch out for Black Oystercatchers

 

[Owene]

Thank you. You’re making it sound great. Yes local guides for day trips seems like a very good way to go.

 

[DMW]

Get a copy of the Southern Africa Birdfinder guide if you can, it's superb.

To repeat the point made above, the Cape Town pelagics are very prone to cancellation due to sea state (at least 50%), but are fantastic. Best to book and consider it a bonus if your's operates.

Not to trivialise the risk of crime, outside Joburg I think the risk of becoming a victim is quite remote so long as you exercise basic common sense.

I would definitely recommend staying as long as you can and doing it as a road trip rather than basing yourself in Cape Town. In particular, the karoo and Bushmanland areas to the northwest are great if you like larks.

 

[Owene]

Oh I know that a longer trip would be even better and that might be what I go with in the end. But I think if my budget calculations are right it’s either a shortish stick to Cape Town trip and another similar trip elsewhere or just a longer South African trip with diminishing returns then saving for next trip

I have some ring fenced Tutoring income for wildlife trips but it’s finite and I don’t want to disrupt main family trips

 

[Steve Babbs]

Personally on my first trip I'd being doing Kruger and such rather than the Cape Town area but then I'm more into mammals these days than birds. On the budget front SA is very cheap. Do you have a gmail account? If you do and you send it me by PM, I should be able to share a back-up of my old website page for a three week trip I did to the west coast in 2008. We had an amazing pelagic. I have had one from Durban cancelled due to weather in the past.

From my notes:

black-browded albatross – 1000+

northern royal albatross– 2

grey-headed albatross

wandering albatross – 3

Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross– 3

Indian yellow-nosed albatross – 1

southern giant petrel – c.5 identified ones. Northern was seen but I didn’t feel I clinched the identification features and many were unidentified

pintado petrel – c.1500

great-winged petrel – 1

soft-plumaged petrel – 2 seen but UTVs

Antarctic prion - c.500

white-chinned petrel – c.1000

sooty shearwater – c. 750

Wilson’s petrel – c.150

sub-antarctic skua – c.50

crested tern – c.20

arctic tern – 15

African penguin – some seen swimming, near Boulders Beach

Cape fur seal – c.20

 

[Owene]

That sounds amazing. And yes so does Kruger.

My in-laws have been to Kruger 3 times in recent years and keep pushing me to do it. The plus side of Cape Town is just logistics and price.

My wildlife trips are basically paid for by 2 hours a week tutoring so I knew long ago that there would always be better but more expensive alternatives and im ok with that. The targets for SA for me are penguin. Ostrich and secretarybird and maybe some cool seabirds subject to weather

If ostrich and secretarybird realistically require more travelling around SA then I’ll probably do so but my only other subsaharan trip brought home just how much time is spent in a car going between sites and that’s something I want to minimise

 

[StuartReeves]

I did a Cape Town pelagic in early August 2017 and it was a fantastic wildlife experience as Steve outlines, albeit with a different species mix to him. Ostrich is straightforward to see at Cape Point and as others have said, penguins are easy to find at Boulders Beach. We saw Secretary Bird at De Hoop, a little eastt of Cape Town, which is a really nice spot with plenty of other wildlife attractions including Southern Right Whales just offshore at that time of year.

 

[Peter.home]

I did a Cape Town pelagic in early August 2017 and it was a fantastic wildlife experience as Steve outlines, albeit with a different species mix to him. Ostrich is straightforward to see at Cape Point and as others have said, penguins are easy to find at Boulders Beach. We saw Secretary Bird at De Hoop, a little west of Cape Town, which is a really nice spot with plenty of other wildlife attractions including Southern Right Whales just offshore at that time of year.

East, I think! Yes, East

 

[Steve Babbs]

I believe the ostriches in the west are introduced and out of the natural range, but I may be wrong and/or it might not bother you.

 

[StuartReeves]

East, I think! Yes, East

Doh! yes, De Hoop is east of Cape Town, not west. Now corrected in my previous post.

 

[Steve Babbs]

Secretary birds are superb. I have seen them quite a few places in South Africa, and Namibia, but I don't think I've seen any near Cape Town.

 

[DMW]

Oh I know that a longer trip would be even better and that might be what I go with in the end. But I think if my budget calculations are right it’s either a shortish stick to Cape Town trip and another similar trip elsewhere or just a longer South African trip with diminishing returns then saving for next trip

I have some ring fenced Tutoring income for wildlife trips but it’s finite and I don’t want to disrupt main family trips

Obviously only you can decide your priorities, but flights to SA are quite expensive and it's a long way, so to me it makes sense to spend as long there as you can. Car rental is pretty inexpensive (you only need a saloon car for the main birding sites) and if you are willing to camp, you wont spend much on accommodation. I take your point about diminishing returns, but if you head up to Kruger and the Drakensberg, you will get quite a decent hit of new birds compared to the Cape.

 

[Merlin]

I believe the ostriches in the west are introduced and out of the natural range, but I may be wrong and/or it might not bother you.

Steve,
That's true I believe, the guide that we had was of that opinion.

I have seen them in other parts of Africa but it was still good to see, even if one individual was trying to relieve a tourist of her handbag as she was sat on a bench overlooking the Cape.

regards
Merlin

 

[nartreb]

Penguins are dead easy near cape town. At Boulder Beach they will waddle over your feet if you're quiet. (You'll see lots of dassies there too, which are cute.) Ostrich is also fairly easy if you wander around the "deep south" - the Cape peninsula, which consists largely of a nature reserve. A guide might be helpful if you have limited time. Don't just hang out on the coast. The fynbos is botanically amazing and you will get some birds visiting the flowers. Try taking the tram up Table Mountain - it's quick and easy and memorable. If you can manage a trip north into the karoo you will get some additional species.

Some of my birdy notes from Cape Town and nearby are here: A very casual world list, part III . Additional photos on my WordPress blog starting with Cape Town part 1.