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Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
De Hoop, Swellendam, Bontebok + a VERY nice surprise

Our next stop was De Hoop. Jacana spent a fair bit of time here, and this site is covered well in his trip report on BF. Entry is free with a wildcard, but camping is expensive at more than 25 quid a pitch per night, though the kitchen has a cooker and freezer (no fridge). The tent next door was trashed by a known troublesome baboon during our stay, but luckily he left ours alone and just went through our bin. The only 'bother' we had was from a particularly feisty Cape Francolin with her trainee brood of 'hottentot buttonquails' in tow. She waltzed right up to us when we were sitting in the mouth of our tent eating breakfast, jumped onto my knee, and pecked a great big bite out of my hand-held mouth-bound butty.

I discovered while checking in, that all you need to do to see Southern Tchagra here is go back to your car to get your forgotten passport, leaving bins at reception, walk back through the gap in the compound wall, and a Southern Tchagra will fly directly at you, swerving round your belly, and land in the first little bush on the right next to the wall. It will then stay there while you walk right up to the bush and peer in at it. No tape, no patience, and no bins needed. Easy, presumably every time. I had two more encounters with the species, including 2 together, out in the low fynbos (Which surprised me) along the track that leads out towards the sea, well before the Die Mond/Koppe Alleen fork.

On the first evening, a highlight came a few hundred metres in the Die Mond direction past the fork mentioned above. Jacana kindly posted details of his Brimstone Canary sighting at De Hoop, and I nearly wrote jokingly in an earlier post 'thanks Jacana, I'll go and check if it's still there'. This is where we finally saw a lone Brimstone Canary, and I'm guessing it's not too far from Jacana's spot? So Jacana, it's still there! It was great to finally see one, and a relief that it was pretty distinctive, though definitely confusable with a certain plumage type of Yellow Canary (described earlier) if the latter is not seen very well. We went on to see 2 Denham's Bustards on our way back to the 'village'

One drawback of how De Hoop is set up, is that the area I most wanted to bird the next morning was outside the exit gate, which is closed until 7am. I spent the earlier part of the day birding the low fynbos on the track to the fork, hoping for larks, but had no luck. I spent a fair bit of time over the next couple of days unsuccessfully looking for Cape Clapper Lark in this area. The area did produce a covey of 15 Grey-winged Francolins, 3 Namaqua Sandgrouse, Jackal Buzzard, and Cape Grassbird. The track out to Koppe Alleen produced a Black Harrier.

Once out of the gate on day 2, we headed towards the Portberg section of the park, but turned left towards Malgas at the fork. We were on a mission to look for larks. 2km past the junction and we were hearing Agulhas Long-billed Larks, which proved to be pretty common by voice in the area. It wasn't long before great views were had of this striking species. Plenty of Red-capped and Large-billed Larks around too, but no sign of any clappers. We returned to the junction and found the long-bills to be in evidence here too, as we headed towards the Portberg parking area.

The parking spot by the buildings at the base of the Portberg has scrub, eucalypt plantation, and a dry stream bed next to it. This site can produce Knysna Woodpecker, Greater and Brown-backed Honeyguides and Black Sparrowhawk, The rest of the morning was spent concentrating on looking unsuccessfully for these. The best value was provided by following up tapping noises that led to a Cardinal Woodpecker (much darker and more densely marked than the ones we'd been seeing further north), and a pair of Olive Woodpeckers. Additional value was provided by 2 Lesser Honeyguides. The whole area was swarming with busy Cape Sugarbirds and sunbirds, including both spp of double-collared.

As the day heated up, 17 Cape Griffons hit the air, shortly followed by a Martial Eagle. The griffons have a colony on the Portberg, and a trail runs up the southern slope of that mountain. Striped Flufftail occurs there, but I realised that it would be pointless for a numpty like me to go looking for it. Any half-decent birder though, would presumably find them an absolute doddle without a tape, with a little patience, but maybe ought to make sure they have enough provisions, and permission to remain in the country for long enough, just to be on the safe side.

Back at the vlei area of De Hoop there were lots of birds. Big numbers of waterbirds, especially Crested Coots and an impressive density of Great Crested Grebes on egg-filled nests. Others included Cape Shoveler and Southern Pochard, along with Great White Pelican and various herons and waders including 3 Water Dikkop. The campsite itself can produce Knysna Woodpecker, though not for us.

Other birds seen at De Hoop included Pearl-breasted Swallow, Red-faced and Speckled Mousebirds, Cape Weaver, Cape Bunting, Bar-throated Apalis, African Pipit, and Horus and White-rumped Swifts. There were particularly big numbers of Capped Wheatear, Bokmakierie, Fiscal Shrike and Fiscal Flycatcher.

Thanks to Chowchilla's helpfulful contribution here, we decided to visit Swellendam. We liked the look of the backpackers, and ended up staying for 2 nights there, hoping mostly to see Chowie's Black Sparrowhawk. The town has plenty of plantation around it, and the backpacker's is at the edge of town, a short walk from some remnant indigenous forest with trails to a waterfall etc. About a year ago a big fire destroyed lots of the plantation, but it still looked good raptor country.

The sound of a Tambourine Dove late in the dawn chorus got me out of the tent pretty sharpish. I had no luck spotting this bird during our stay, which was often calling from the plantation over the stream at the bottom of the garden, but I did jam a female flying through the garden at one point. The area was in fact great for pigeons in general, with Namaqua, Cape Turtle, Red-eyed and Laughing Doves, Olive, and Speckled Pigeons all being seen around the backpacker's. There were Brown-hooded and Malachite Kingfishers, Swee and Common Waxbills, Lesser Honeyguide, Greater Double-collared and Amethyst Sunbirds, Neddicky, copious Black Saw-wings, and even a Cape Siskin, all in or within 1km the garden. The indigenous forest additionally produced Cape Batis and Bar-throated Apalis.

It was, however, eyes to the skies. There were plenty of Steppe Buzzards here, these and Yellow-billed Kites never being far from being in view. Great views of a Honey Buzzard fairly low over the garden was presumably the rarest find, and there was also a good match for a Forest buzzard over the indigenous patch, and a couple of Jackal Buzzards. A Rufous-chested Sparrowhawk was twice seen circling from the garden late afternoon. Looking up at the sky also produced circling White Storks and a pair of White-necked Ravens. Finally, while in the garden fairly early on the last morning, a sharp alarm note made me turn in time to catch a Black Sparrowhawk fly upstream well below the height of the canopy, clutching prey. Cheers Tony :t:.

On the 20th we moved just down the road to Bontebok NP. The main draw for me here was Cape Clapper Lark, and pretty much the whole park looks like heaven for it I should imagine. There are huge flat expanses of low fynbos mixed with grass, and the same habitat on slopes and slightly higher plateaux too. Looking for this bird is starting to remind me of looking for the evil Ground Parrot, but I'm having even more trouble with this annoying little skulker. In fact seeing the words 'Clapper Lark' and 'common' in the same sentence over and over in The Book is becoming less than funny.

Passing through the entrance gate involves driving under telegraph wires which extend into the distance. There were medium sized birds on the wires, lots of them, that did not compute. I wasn't really looking at them, and I think I filed them under 'pigeon', but in the end something wasn't right and I had to focus on them and look at them properly. Imagine my surprise when I had to face the fact that they were Amur Falcons. Ok, not all of them were Amur Falcons. 5 of them were Lesser Kestrels, but I did count one hundred and ninety seven Amur Falcons. According to the range map in my field guide they shouldn't be any nearer than a long way east of here, so this added to this gobsmacking surprise. (It's not THE very nice surprise though).

We stayed 2 nights at the lovely riverside camping area, giving me two dawns and plenty of extra less likely time to try and find the lark. I set to it right away, but after a couple of hours of trying to flush one out of the fynbos I was politely informed by one of the park officers that wandering about off the roads or walking trails wasn't allowed at Bontebok. Fair enough, but unfortunately I figured that this would reduce my chances of seeing the lark from very small to approaching zero. Getting up before the lark to walk the roads had it's rewards, including views of Spotted Eagle Owl and Fiery-necked Nightjar, but on returning for breakfast after my second early start, unclappered, I was ready to admit that it was time to move on. This was a shame, because a more patient individual would presumably be rewarded by the spectacle of a displaying bird, perhaps near the start of the next austral spring.

The camping area produced fabulous views of a group of 3 Brimstone Canaries, which we watched feeding low at the grassy fringes, and which Nicky photographed. Karoo Scrub-Robin, Cape Robin-Chat, Southern Masked and Cape Weavers, a very large tortoise, and little stripy mice were all ludicrously tame around the tent. At one point, while sitting cross-legged against the side of the car, I felt something pushing its way into the rear of my arm pit, and discovered that it was a mouse. A Malachite Kingfisher even landed on the barbecue. The river was great for swimming, and also had African Black Ducks and overhead African Fish-Eagles. 2 Tambourine Doves, and African Reed Warbler were seen by the riverside.

Out on the open fynbos, Cloud Cisticola was fairly common, with Grey-backed and Levaillant's also present. At least one Quail Finch was seen there a few times, but only in flight. Black Harriers were regularly quartering the landscape, African Stonechats added colour to the bush tops, and there was the occasional flushed Cape Longclaw to get the heart racing.

And now the surprise:

After that final breakfast I was hoping to go on a slow drive before it got too hot around some more low fynbos on our way out, but Nicky had other ideas, suggesting that the short walk up the Aloe Hill trail behind the riverside camping area would be a nice thing to do. 'Are you insane?' I thought. 'There's far too much vegetation up there for clapper larks. That is why we're alive isn't it? To look for larks?'

Once on the walk I started to come to terms with it all being rather pleasant, with a nice view over the river. We did the walk anti-clockwise, and I was surprised to discover that the trail came out of the tall scrub into low vegetation at the top of the little hill. I started thinking,' hmmm, larks' again, and much to my surprise, near the top of the hill, a small bird took to the air from under my feet that was certainly looking pretty good for a lark on first impression. I started to raise my bins, but even before I had the bird in them, the cogs started to creak and whirr, and there was something very wrong going on here, and the bird was clearly not a lark. In the split seconds that followed, things started to crystallize, but it wasn't until I had it in the bins that it clicked that this was a familiar sight in many ways, from other similar encounters with this bird's kind. The bird was still in the bins when the euphoria hit me like a serious phat one, as it hit home that I was looking at a Hottentot Buttonquail! The bird dropped into cover not that far away, and I turned to Nicky and said 'Do you know what that was?' She just smiled and said 'Buttonquail'. As it turned out she'd gone through the similar thought process of initially taking it for a lark too. Now, if you're reading this and about to go to this part of SA, this hill top might be well worth a bash for this bird, as if it's sticking to this hill, it's a comparatively small area in looking-for-these-things terms, and I guess it might not be alone either. Good luck.

On our way out of Bontebok yesterday we saw that the Amur Falcons had all gone, with the same lone Fiscal Shrike on the wire which could be forgiven for thinking 'did that really happen?' I'm typing this the day after the buttonquail, and still on one hell of a high, but as it turned out, there was even more jam to come before yesterday was over.

572 BRIMSTONE CANARY
573 AGULHAS LONG-BILLED LARK
574 TAMBOURINE DOVE
575 Honey Buzzard
576 BLACK SPARROWHAWK
577 HOTTENTOT BUTTONQUAIL B :)B :):king:

some of Nicky's pics: 1. and 2. Brimstone Canary, 3. Yellow Canary in it's most obvious form for comparison.
 

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Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
a few more pics from De Hoop and Bontebok NP:

1. Cape Grassbird, 2. Cape Robin-Chat, 3. Bontebok taken from in the tent, 4. The river at Bontebok NP.
 

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Jos Stratford

Beast from the East
But saying Cinnamon-breasted Warbler is easy with patience may only be true at some times of year, eg I spent hours and hours in their habitat, over days, knowing what they sound like, just looking and listening for them, and not a peep. I guess if patience means give it a few days with an ever less patient non-birding partner in the heat, then I haven't quite got that level of patience, as is the case with many others I'm sure.

I guess I have been lucky - summer, winter, never taken me more than a couple of hours ;)

PS if the heat in their habitat is killing the non-birder, tell her to look on the bright side - if she were doing in winter, she'd be freezing her toes off :-O My last Cinnamon-breasted Warbler was on a day when the temperature was a few degrees below freezing and a nasty dampness really cut into your bones!
 

Jacana

Will Jones
Hungary
On the first evening, a highlight came a few hundred metres in the Die Mond direction past the fork mentioned above. Jacana kindly posted details of his Brimstone Canary sighting at De Hoop, and I nearly wrote jokingly in an earlier post 'thanks Jacana, I'll go and check if it's still there'. This is where we finally saw a lone Brimstone Canary, and I'm guessing it's not too far from Jacana's spot? So Jacana, it's still there!

Haha, well done! If it was by a little pull-in to look over the vlei, then it was the same spot!

I can echo what you say about Southern Tchagra here. I saw them most days and also in the low fynbos.

You didn't happen to see a bunch of students from Exeter at de Hoop at all? They've just come back from the same trip I did.
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Thanks Jos, I guess being Brits we're destined to complain whether it's too hot or too cold.

Jacana, the Brimmer was between the junction and the pull-in you mention. We pulled in to the pull in, and celebrated finally seeing one. Didn't see a crew of students at De Hoop, but we left there nearly a week ago. Pretty sure I'd have noticed if I'd been out in the fynbos and been struck by a hurled square quadrat ;)
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Grootvadersbosch

We weren't sure what we were going to do for the 2 remaining nights before we had to be in Cape Town, but decided at the last minute that Grootvadersbosch looked like an interesting place to head for, especially as we fancied a bit of forest after all the larky malarky. I hadn't read any reports about this place, outside the write up in The Book, and I figure that it might not get that much attention from birders compared to other sites in the area. Note that the directions in The Book are misleading, and you have to turn off the R324 onto the road to Heidelberg before reaching the 'junction 26km from the N2' in The Book's directions.

Upon arrival at Grootsvadersbosch we were disappointed to find that the camp site in the reserve has been closed for some time, and will be for the foreseeable future. This meant that we had to check out accommodation 2km back down the road at Honeywood Farm, and weren't allowed in the park outside it's opening times, which typically excluded the hours when you'd want to be there, especially if you were hoping to see Red-necked Francolins on the trails at dawn and dusk. As it turned out though, our luck on this day (Jan 22nd) didn't end with flushing the buttonquail.

At Honeywood Farm we negotiated staying in a cottage which by our standards was the lap of luxury, for less than 30 quid a night, and discovered that Greater Honeyguides were easily seen around the hives and nearby eucalypts at the back of the farm. Bonus! I guess the clue was in the name. There were at least 2 males present, and this was apparently normal.

An afternoon walk in the reserve was quiet at first, but from mid afternoon we started hearing Knysna Warblers singing, and we were to discover that they were fairly numerous in the area, especially in the gulley between the redwoods trail and the trail that leads past the bird hide. For those who don't know, Knysna Warbler is a notorious skulker which spends most of it's time on the ground in dense undergrowth, eg bracken, in dark gulleys in forest. They were singing sparingly for most of the day, and I discovered that it is possible to get a brief decent view of one by pishing, but I wouldn't dream of calling them easy! It is also possible to have them singing ear-splittingly close to you and not even see the tiniest movement in the vegetation. Their amazing 'gear changing' song can start up and you think the bird is on the other side of a stream, and by the end of the tune, 5 seconds later, you realise that the bird is actually less than 2 metres from your feet, and you still can't see it.

Returning from the forest, I scanned for raptors from Honeywood before dinner, picking up a Booted Eagle and a few Steppe Buzzards. As I was sitting there musing over what an incredible day it had been, a deadly Black Sparrowhawk broke out into the open from the plantation a couple of hundred metres or so away and below. From that point it could have gone off at any bearing, but it powered in a straight line pretty much straight at me, passing me to one side so closely that it's face was pretty frightening in the bins. It continued past me and shot through the line of trees by the bee hives. Wow. That was at 6.30pm, and there was still an hour and a half of birdable light, but that was enough for me for one day. Time for a glass of wine.

Yesterday's undoubtable highlight, after failing to find them in the actual reserve, was a pair of Knysna Woodpeckers back in the garden of Honeywood Farm. What a place! Other birds around Honeywood farm included a Forest Buzzard, Brimstone (1) and Forest (4) Canaries, Yellow Bishop, Neddicky, Malachite, Greater Double-collared and Amethyst Sunbirds, Olive Thrush, African Hoopoe, Fiscal and African Dusky Flycatchers etc.

The reserve also produced another Greater Honeyguide around HQ, Blue-mantled Crested Flycatcher, Olive Woodpecker, Terrestrial Brownbul, Cape Batis, Red-chested Cuckoo, Bar-throated apalis etc. Other possibilities in the area include African Crowned Eagle, Buff-spotteded Flufftail and Brown-backed Honeyguide.

Today we left Honeywood and headed back to Cape Town. A late morning stop at the large lilly pond alongside the R324 just north of the N2 failed to produce the hoped for African Rail, but did have a lovely Little Bittern, a couple of Black Crakes, Yellow-billed Ducks and plenty of Spur-winged Geese.

We're now staying in a backpacker's in the Observatory part of Cape Town. Blueberry's been through the car wash, and awaits rehoming tomorrow. We're pretty impressed with how s/he handled what we threw at him/her over the last 2 months. All those stones and just one flat tyre.

Hereby endeth phase 2 of our 3 phase trip, with phase 3 a bit up in the air because of our visa limbo situation. We can't, for example, do the Sani Pass trip into Lesotho until we get a stamp in our passports, so it's down to the Home Affairs office again tomorrow to see if we can find out what's actually going on.

..oh...just in case we end up having time....anyone know of any sites where Cape Clapper Lark is common where you're allowed to walk around and try and flush them (they appear to be not singing right now) or have any idea how we can see one before we leave their range behind for good?

578 KNYSNA WARBLER
579 GREATER HONEYGUIDE
580 KNYSNA WOODPECKER
581 Little Bittern
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
RFI pipit noises

Thinking ahead a bit, we could really do with some links to calls/songs of African Rock Pipit (A. crenatus) and Mountain Pipit (A. hoeschi) for when we hopefully hit the Drakensberg, or I doubt we'll be able to identify them. Any help there would be great, as we can't find them on Xenocanto. Or any useful id tips anyone might have come across for these birds, that aren't in our rather basic field guide.
 

birdboybowley

Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
Supporter
England
Just do what we did mate - hire Stuart and he'll show you them ;) Don't like using guides normally but having to have a 4WD to get up the Sani is nearly as much to hire and Stu knows exactly where to go for every endemic you need
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Just do what we did mate - hire Stuart and he'll show you them ;) Don't like using guides normally but having to have a 4WD to get up the Sani is nearly as much to hire and Stu knows exactly where to go for every endemic you need

...but we can't Ads. As from jan 29 our current visa runs out, and all we have is a receipt that we've paid for an extension. The Cape Town office is a nightmare. We went there again yesrerday and tried to get to talk to someone at the 'information' desk, who's job appeared to be making sure he imparted as little information as possible. He wouldn't answer any questions directly, but put another stamp on our receipt piece of paper, which just says 'pending', and said 'you can travel with this'. We have no idea what we're expected to do next to get a stamp in our passports, but Stuart won't do cross-border tours unless you have full visa documentation. We're looking into 2WD accessible, less visited sites in SA, to try and find the Sani Pass species ourselves, so could do with any extra gen on that. We'll possibly end up just going to the guards on the border and asking them whether we can cross with what we've got, but at the mo we can't book a tour.
 

Jos Stratford

Beast from the East
You'd be well to visit the Cape Peninsula if you're still within striking distance (which for this bird means anywhere in South Africa) - Rockhopper Penguin on the beach at Kommetjie. Moulting bird, so I'd guess likely to stick.
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
You'd be well to visit the Cape Peninsula if you're still within striking distance (which for this bird means anywhere in South Africa) - Rockhopper Penguin on the beach at Kommetjie. Moulting bird, so I'd guess likely to stick.

thanks for the head's up Jos :t: Obviously we're contemplating back-tracking for it!
 

Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Wilderness And Beyond

So did we go for the penguin? Well first there's this. :-O

On Jan 26th we headed east out of Cape Town in our new car, Snowflake, which is a tiny Hyundai, even smaller and far less good on hills, and with less clearance than the Nissan Micras we've had til now.

Our first stopover was Struisbaai Backpackers again, to have another look for African Grass Owl along the track to Elim. This time we headed out a little later, and only picked up 2 Spotted Eagle Owls, but saw more Tytos. We also had Spotted Dikkops, Crowned Lapwings and 3 unidentified nightjars on the track.

One Tyto was a flushed non-starter, 4 were definitely Barn Owls, and one may well have been an African Grass Owl, but even though I looked at images on the net before we set out, I was still unable to clinch it. Basically it was on a post in the headlights with back towards us, then it flew directly away making it impossible to determine it's foot projection. When it turned to us while perched, it's facial disk was clean whitish, and very rounded (all the barn owls we'd seen here had dusky-washed heart-shaped disks, but I guess that could vary). The upperparts were so dark it was hard to imagine them darker, but then the Barn Owls we'd seen here were all capable of looking shockingly dark above when perched in the headlights, with the subtle buff and grey tones only just visible on some tracts as the bird shifts and changes angle. Looking at pics afterwards has been a real eye-opener, especially with reference to how the shape of the facial disk on both species alters with posture. Much more of a problem ID than I expected, and presumably easier if you hear them calling, or see them in the daylight, or if you see the long legs. Anyone got any tips on good features for these things?

Moving on to Wilderness NP, we stayed for 3 nights at the idyllic Ebb and Flow North camp ground. We pitched our tent on the bank of the Touw River, which has to be one of the best bets around for Half-collared Kingfisher. In contrast to Birdboy bowling up and having one fly by before even seeing a Malachite, we had to wrestle with it a bit. It wasn't until after more than a dozen Malachite Kingfisher sightings that we eventually had great views of a Half-collared flying downstream past us, c300m upstream of the self-haul pontoon ferry on the well-named Half-collared Kingfisher trail. On the last morning of course, one came to visit us, and we watched it from our tent,as it fished from perches on the opposite bank that were frequently used by the pair of Malachites nesting nearby. We even saw a juvenile Little Bittern from the tent that last morning, which was freaking out the Malachites by stalking along a horizontal branch near their nest. The bittern not the tent.

Another new one for us at Wilderness was Black-bellied Starling. There was a flock of 6 with Olive Pigeons in a tall dead tree early one morning near the pontoon crossing, and a mobile flock of a dozen or so, in wooded gardens at the forest edge on the way to Rondevlei.

The hide in the northwest corner of Rondevlei lake was Lisle's hot tip for African Rail, so when we got there I was pleased to see that water levels looked good for an eyeball of this species, which we only heard at West Coast NP. The edge of the lake was a few metres beyond the outlying reeds, leaving damp mud extending towards the hide over some of the semi-open 'gap' between the dense reeds flanking the hide. We sat it out from 5pm, and by 6pm we'd already seen, among other things, 2 Baillon's Crakes, 4 African Snipe, a Black Crake and a couple of Moorhens strut out into the gap. Surely we had the rail in a birder's half nelson? It was a great relief when the first African Rail strolled into view at 6 o'clockish, and then another a few minutes later. Three-banded and Blacksmith Plovers, Cape Wagtails, Levaillant's Cisticola, and a Glossy Ibis also entertained us while we were waiting.

Other birds around the camp ground included copious Knysna Turacos, 2 Olive Bush-Shrikes, Olive Thrush, a Fork-tailed Drongo which landed on my back when I bent over to pull out a tent peg, and last but not least 'Hopalong' the amazing one-legged Helmeted Guineafowl, who somehow kept up with the pack by pogoing as they ran round the site. At night we heard Spotted Eagle Owl and Fiery-necked Nightjar.

The 3km Half-collared Kingfisher trail was good for Lemon Doves, 3 Narina Trogons, Chorister Robin-Chats including one feeding a big fat Red-chested Cuckoo, Terrestrial Brownbuls, Sombre Greenbuls, Yellow-throated Woodland Warbler, Cape Batis, Bar-throated Apalis, Jackal Buzzard etc.

We twice drove up to the 'Big Tree', which further produced a flock of c10 Forest Canaries, 3 Forest Buzzards in the air together, Olive Woodpecker, and Green-backed Camaroptera.

On our way out of the Wilderness area mid morning, we took the road to the beach that runs along the western edge of Swartvlei, in order to check out a rock formation in the sea called the sphinx. On our way back to the N2 on this track, we stopped to look at a flock of 8 Brimstone Canaries where the road runs alongside the golf course. Shortly after slowly pulling away Nicky spotted 3 francolins, a mother with 2 quite big young'uns at the edge of the road. Slam on the brakes, and YES! Red-necked Francolins.

Our next stop was Natures Valley NP, where we camped for 2 nights. It's a lovely spot, but unfortunately has a pretty full-on baboon problem. We had our tent ripped by them, even though it had no food in it, and they tried to get into our car, bending the rear number plate, and scratching the paintwork trying to claw the doors open. They broke into the camp kitchen through a closed window and totally trashed everything in the fridge too. And that was the day that we had a message from Paul Derbyshire saying there was a Northern Rockhopper Penguin near Cape Town, where we'd been gradually escaping from for nearly a week. Aaaaaargh! It seemed silly to double back at that stage, especially as we might have to go back anyway to get our visa extension stamps in our passport if we want to try and enter Lesotho or Swaziland. We reasoned that we'd forget the stupid penguin, and that it probably looked like a piece of s#it as it was moulting, and that we'd maybe do an antarctic trip one day, and that it wasn't like we were short of birds to look at. That was the reasoning at the time anyway.

We did a couple of walking trails at Nature's Valley, but didn't see much of note. There were some rather tame White-necked Ravens joining in the baboonic free-for-all, Cape Gannets at sea, a Chorister Robin-chat that joined us on our bench while we had dinner, 3 Streaky-headed Canaries, 11 African Black Oystercatchers, and a couple of Cape Sugarbirds in the fynbos up the hill. Our next door neighbour did however see a female Finfoot from the campsite jetty.

582. HALF-COLLARED KINGFISHER
583. BLACK-BELLIED STARLING
African Rail (now seen)
584. RED-NECKED FRANCOLIN

Some pics: 1, Red-chested Cuckoo and Chorister Robin-Chat, 2. Narina Trogon, 3. African Snipe, 4. Red-necked Francolin
 

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Larry Sweetland

Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Of Korhaans and Penguins

On Feb 1st we hit the N2 again and headed...er.......east. The plan was to spend a night in the surfer's town of Jeffrey's Bay, or 'J Bay', and use it as a base to have a bit of a go at White-bellied Korhaan. This species has a reputation for being the most difficult southern african bustard to see, especially at this time of year, to the extent that I had considered not bothering to try for them. After setting up camp at the Ubuntu Backpackers, we headed out into the grasslands for an evening reccie, and much to our surprise ended up seeing a total of 5 White-bellied Korhaans. We put up a group of 2 males and a female which were near enough to the side of the track to hit the air as we drove by, and they landed near enough for decent scope views. Typically they were in long grass, so it was mostly just heads and necks, but they did occasionally reveal more of themselves. On our return drive we came across another pair afew km from the first lot, and this time they were close enough for Nicky to get some pics. Someone kindly gave me the site details for where we saw these birds, but has requested that I pass them on privately only. Other species seen in this area included Cloud Cisticola, Amur Falcon, Blue Crane, Red-capped Lark, African Stonechat, and Cape Longclaw.

Back at the backpackers there was some korhaan-induced celebrating to do, and the more I celebrated, the more going for the penguin seemed like a reasonable idea. I mean, even the most exemplary of cured outpatients from twitcher rehab can surely be excused for breaking out in spasms and fits of queasiness over this one. It was now 700km away, and I honestly can't recall ever driving that far in one day just for one individual bird, but this.... Then there was the egging on by Jos and Birdboybowley. Finally there was the realisation that if the split sticks (and IOC have accepted it), then Northern Rockhopper isn't even the rockhopper I'm likely to see if I ever do a 'standard' Antarctc trip, as it's only on Tristan Da Cuhna, St Paul Is, and Amsterdam I, making it an absoloute monster of a bird to have the chance of seeing for less than 100 quid.

Next morning we set off back towards Cape Town at about 7.30am, and boy was I buzzing. Most recent gen we had was that it was there the morning before, so when we stopped at 9am to give Trevor Hardaker a call, it was a huge relief to hear that it was still there. But that didn't stop the alternating waves of panic and excitement. Neither of us like long drives, and we found the 700km to Cape Town pretty gruelling, and had we known that the gate to the beach resort shut for day visitors at 4.30pm, while we were stuck in slow traffic getting across Cape Town at 4pm, I think it would have finished me off. As it turned out we pulled up at the gate as it was being drawn closed at 4.29pm yesterday, and they let us in.

From there it was only a couple more km to where there were a few cars by the roadside, and a birder returning to his car was there to answer my question as I leapt out of the car while it was pretty much still moving. It was still there.

And what an absolutely adorable little bird it was, and hopefully still is as I write. I'm only saying that, because towards the evening it was getting more and more attention from gulls, and at one point a Kelp Gull had a bit of a go at it, which was totally horrifying to watch. Hopefully it won't get too weak to defend itself as these next few foodless moulting days pass.

We camped in the camp site at Kommetjie, and this morning went back for another look in better light. The penguin's looking fit enough, though pretty scruffy, and fascinating to watch and scrutinise. It frequently reveals the underside of it's flippers, and it's the first bird I've attempted to draw (terrible I know) for far too long. Incredible bird, incredible experience, and certainly one of the joint-equal best ever twitches for me. Well worth the backtrack, but I dread to think how I'd be feeling if it had all been for nothing. I don't know how some people cope with the stress of long-drive twitches like that regularly, it would destroy me for sure.

A massive thankyou to the finder, to Trevor Hardaker for getting the news out so effectively, to Peedee for further spoiling an already Babbooned-up day ;), Jos and BBB for 'making' me go, and Nicky for being up for it.

585. WHITE-BELLIED KORHAAN
586. NORTHERN ROCKHOPPER PENGUIN B :)B :)B :)
 

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birdboybowley

Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
Supporter
England
You dirty filthy twitcher......what a sell-out ;) lucky lucky s.o.b
Kudos for going though dudes - better than jetting to Shetland for a grosbeak anyway....and about 5x cheaper too!!
Next trip you do I'm gonna follow your footsteps afterwards so that I can be the one clearing up on all the bits you missed!! Make it Argentina/Chile as would like to go there ;)
 
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