I have long dreamed of visiting Cape Town, South Africa. From a birding perspective, it offers a rich set of unique birds - a good number of which can be found nowhere else in the world. Couple that with the insane experience of a South African pelagic trip, and you have an amazing birding experience on your hands. While I have been fortunate to have already travelled extensively this year, I was looking for a nice way to cap off the year. I had put in a lot of overtime at the beginning of the year to deliver a project and was able to get an extra week off work in compensation. Somewhere, I ran across a birding tour offered by Birding Ecotours that checked a lot of boxes on my dream trip to Cape Town. Mainly, they offered up chances to see a number of the region's iconic species along with the dream pelagic trip. It was too good to turn down.
The first post covers a lot of the basics about my trip. So, I will just get to the subject of this post. This post covers the pelagic out of Cape Town, the the journey up to Langebaan, and our time in the Karoo. To put things in better perspective, this is where we travelled.
Day two of our trip started with the pelagic. This is all we had planned for the day, and we would be out for about 6 - 8 hours. We were lucky and had fairly calm water. We were still seeing some decent swells, but nothing too extreme. The skies were overcast but dingy. We did not have a lot of light most of the trip. The light was best right as we had to head back. The plan is pretty simple. We would follow the coast down to Cape Point. We would then head pretty much straight south. The continental shelf drops off out there and provides the nutrient-rich upswells of water that attract fish. Apparently a lot of fish. This area is regularly patrolled by massive fishing trawlers. These trawlers drag long nets behind them for hours on end and then haul in their catch. I am not quite sure what happens below the water, but it creates a trail of... stuff (...? I could not tell you what it was - look at the photos and judge for yourself) behind it. This "stuff" attracts seabirds by the hundreds. They stretch out for quite some distance behind the trawler and look for "stuff" to eat. We searched for a trawler, got in the wake of it, and then slowly motored our way through the trail of birds looking for anything different. Of course, at first, it is all different and you are ooh-ing and aah-ing over the hundreds of White-chinned Petrel and the dozens of White-capped (Shy) Albatross that dominate the flock. Eventually, you calm down and start picking out the less common species.
It helped that we had one of the best pelagic guides for the area on the boat, Dr. Dominic Rollison. Super-knowledgeable would be an understatement. Passionate, for sure. He helped pioneer and advocate for a line-weighting system that is in use today by trawlers to help prevent birds from getting caught up in the netting process. So, you can add impactful to that list of descriptions. He was also a nice guy who was extremely patient with ignorant Midwesterners who asked a lot of questions and joked about the pronunciation of Sabine's Gull. Dominic works with Birding Ecotours, and I would highly recommend taking a pelagic with him.
I think here is where I stick in my normal soapbox regarding pelagic trips. Do not take chances. I have no idea if I get seasick. I prep every time. Every trip, I see people who are sick, and they all say the same thing. "I did not know I would get sick." Why risk it? Hydrate. Eat a filling but non-greasy breakfast (think bagels). Take dramamine or something equivalent an hour before you head out. Take some extra bagels on the boat and eat. It makes no sense to pay for the trip and then skimp on prep in the hopes you will not be tossing your cookies and money over the side of the boat the entire trip.
Yes, yes... the birds. As with the previous post, I will use the Clements names and insert the IOC bane in parenthesis. We had a good trip. As with every trip, you get some unexpected birds, and you miss some that you expected. I had joked about wanting to see 8 species of Albatross on the trip. They told me I would see 4. We got 5: White-capped (Shy), Black-browed, Indian Yellow-nosed, Atlantic Yellow-nosed, and the unexpected Norther Royal. I will call that a win. I had expected both species of Giant Petrel, but we only got Northern Giant Petrel. I had not done a lot of research on expected Storm-Petrel, but I was told we could get 3 species; we got Wilson's. Finally, we got one out of left-field. We had a beautiful late-season Southern Fulmar. The pink and blue bill on the bird looks amazing. Other than that, we had a huge amount of White-chinned Petrel, some Pintado (Cape) Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, a few Great Shearwater, Cape Gannet, a single Parasitic Jaeger, and some Brown Skua. How about some pictures?
It was exciting to see so many birds and to sort through them. Working in the wake of the trawler at low speed really caused the boat to bob significantly. I had more than a few frames with no bird in them. Isolating a species was also a bit of a challenge.
As with any trip, being there is only half the story. We went past the new Cape Point Lighthouse along the way. We happened across a couple pods(?) of penguins fishing off the coast. There were Afro-Australian (what a poor name choice for this lump of two formerly separate species) Fur Seal, and there was a colony of Bank Cormorant along the coast. We had three whales of two different species: Bryde's and Humpback. The Bryde's is a small, swift whale.
Unfortunately, I did not get our captain's name or a pic of him. I did, at least, get a shot of the boat.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing and recovering from the pelagic. The next day, we started our trek out of Cape Town.
It took a while to actually get out of Cape Town, proper. We made a lot of small stops at various parks to pick up some specialties. The first stop started just down the road at the Newlands Forest. Each park had its own special species or two. We would stop in and quickly bird for the target species and then move on. We quickly amassed a number of new species this way. Some of the highlights were: Olive Woodpecker, Forest Buzzard, Rufous-breasted and Black Sparrowhawk, Lesser and Greater Honeyguide, and White-backed Mousebird. I found it amazing that we could stop at a location and the locals knew what we were there to see. So many people seemed to know at least something of their local birds.
We stopped by some wetlands and picked up a number of waterfowl and shorebirds; way too many to name. We gradually started moving into more agricultural areas and then the outskirts of West Coast National Park. There, we found one of my most-wanted species of the trip. Personally, I think it is the most beautiful crane species in the world - Blue Crane. Although a small population can be found in northern Namibia, you basically have to go to South Africa to see this bird. Unfortunately, we only got the chance to photograph this one bird. It was a bit distant and moving quickly away from us. I would love to go back and get better photos.
The change in scenery brought a whole new set of birds. As we were driving along, a Black Bustard (Southern Black Koorhan) walked out of the brush right next to the car. It slowly walked away, keeping an eye on us. When it got far enough away, it burst into the air in a display flight. Little Swift and Pearl-breasted Swallow scoured the air above the fields. Capped Wheatear mimicked birds in the distance. Bokmakerie shouted their names from the tops of bushes. We had African Stonechat patrolling the fence line and Black-capped Heron stalking the grasses. It was a beautiful area, and I would have loved to be here anytime other than early afternoon. You could get a decent light angle at times, but there was a lot of heat haze over the grasslands.
If you know me, you know how much I love this type of area. Beautiful grassland and flowers stretched forever.
We finished up the afternoon with some distant looks at nesting Martial Eagle. The parents were currently taking a break several towers down from the nestling. We did not have time to get into the West Coast National Park. We would pick that up in the morning. We pulled into Langebaan, and I was sure we had arrived in central Florida, based on the look of the houses and surrounding golf course. Outside the guest house we were staying at, a small flock of Cape Sparrow were feeding in the garden. Cute little birds. I was so happy to photograph them.
We had dinner at a bar named "Kokomo", and it looked even more like central Florida inside. The area is a retirement community, and I guess the retirement vibe is the same around the world. After dinner, we hit up an area to look for Fiery-necked Nightjar. To say I got a bad photo of one would be an understatement. Let's just call it an ID photo.
The next morning started with a walk around Langebaan Country Estates. There is a lot of open grassland and undeveloped land there, for now. Like everywhere; they are building. I got my best photos of Bokmakerie, here. It is just one of those stand-out birds in the field guide, and I was looking forward to seeing one. It is also the poster child for adding pronunciation guides to field guides. With little to go on other than ignorance and a bad impression on where the syllables break, I came up with bok-mak-erie. I will leave it up to your imagination on how I was pronouncing it. It is actually pronounced bok-ma-kerie (bock-ma; like dogma and kerie where the "er" is pronounced like "ear"). Josh was amused and disgusted with my version. I do not blame him. Live and learn.
So, the birds. We were slowly mopping up on canaries. I think we had potential for 7 species of canary this trip, and we picked up 2 more here - Yellow Canary and White-throated Canary, which is uncharacteristically lacking in yellow. I was sure that was a requirement. Cape Spurfowl and Black Bustard prowled the grasses. We also had a somewhat distant pair of Gray-winged Francolin huddled up near a bush. We got our first tastes of the many lark species to come. Cape Clapper Lark distantly displayed from the bush tops. This species flies up; clapping its wings on the ascent. At the top of their display, they sing a quick song and then head back to a perch. We also had Cape Long-billed Lark, and this has to be one of my favorite display flights, ever. The bird is not showy, and the display flight is not all that showy, either, but the bird puts everything into it. It launches into a steep vertical, parabolic climb - wings folded back and chest pushed deeply forward. The way its legs hang out behind it with its tail trailing like a cape gives it a near-superhero pose. At the top of the arc, it lets out a single loud call and then plummets back down to the ground. The bird just looks spectacular. Large-billed Lark rounded out our new larks for the trip. Steenbok, a small antelope species, was our first large mammal of the trip. They were casually grazing in the grasses. We had several other species of large mammals, but they were all introduced or farm animals.
Not much of a photo, but it gives you an idea of what the area looked like. This is looking back downhill toward the housing developments.
We left and started our tour of West Coast National Park. To Josh's relief, we found Wild Ostrich here pretty quickly. We had passed many farms along the way that were raising ostrich, and we would, jokingly, ask Josh if we could count them. We finally had actual wild Wild Ostrich in the park. A lot of our time in the park consisted of visiting the various blinds setup around the park. The blinds were large wooden structures, often reached by a boardwalk, with narrow slot windows that could be propped open. Most of the birding was done on the way to the blind. Unfortunately, it was really too late in the morning for any serious photography. The heat rising off the moist ground and the high sun just did not make for good photos. A few turned out. I was particularly happy with the Greater Flamingo shots. The photos of Kittlitz's and White-fronted Plover stalking the wet areas leave a lot to be desired. I was especially sad that I could not get decent shots of the Blacksmith Plover. They are beautiful birds. We had a good number of shorebirds at the different blinds. Common ringed Plover, Sanderling, Little Stint, Marsh Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Black-winged Stilt, and Curlew Sandpiper round out shorebirds around the boardwalks. African Marsh Harrier were common over the surrounding fields. On the beach, we had Eurasian Whimbrel, African Oystercatcher, Black-bellied Plover, and Bar-tailed Godwit. A resting flock of terns gave us Caspian Tern, Great Crested Tern, and even a single Little Tern. The parking lots turned up Gray Tit and Cape Penduline Tit. The latter is the bird that builds a false entrance to its nest to help deter predation. I missed photos of the Red-faced Mousebird. I really wanted photos of this species. Some nearby stands of trees gave us Cardinal Woodpecker and Southern Gray-headed Sparrow. Our final blind overlooked a small pond and featured a pair of nesting White-throated Swallows inside. A single Lesser Flamingo and African Spoonbill were resting in the pond. Little grebe and Red-knobbed Coot floated by on the surface. Namaqua Dove chased each other around the boardwalk. In the rushes, Lesser Swamp Warbler skulked about. Black Crake made a brief appearance, but the African Rail only called from cover. It was a very productive day of birding.
Some shots of the boardwalks and blinds. The one from inside shows some of the other participants. Nick, as always, was outside photographing, "iNatting", and generally recording everything as quick as possible. As I mentioned in the first post, his enthusiasm and stamina was admirable. Josh is the one in the hat on the right. In all weather, he could be found wearing a heavy coat with shorts and flip-flops, for which he was continuously harassed by me. He is probably underpaid for these trips.
The day ended with a very long drive out into the Karoo. The drive took three hours to traverse the pass out into the Karoo and reach our lodging for the next two nights. "Karoo" is a word without an exact definition, and it is a bit difficult to describe. It is pretty much a desert, but it is only semi-arid. There is water. In some spots, there is quite a bit. Everywhere else is low, scrubby vegetation. It was hot, and it is only spring. Maybe a bit of a southern California or Arizona vibe? Here are a few pics to kind of sum it up.
We got into our lodge late. There were not enough "chalets" to put us all together. I guess I drew the short straw and got a special one out by myself. I did not realize until later how far out I was. I mentioned that I could walk to the dining hall after getting settled in, and Josh said he would come pick me up. It was about a kilometer to the dining hall area, where everyone else was staying. My chalet was solar powered, but the storage battery was dead. Instead, there were a number of lanterns that had been converted to LED lights hung around the room. It was a bit dark in there.
I will have to blame Carmen and her constant relation of stories she has heard on her true crime podcasts, but it was a bit creepy out here all by myself. I am pretty sure this is how most of her podcasts start. The upside is that I got tired of waiting in the room and took a small walk outside before dinner. Calling distantly was a nightjar. I managed to locate it and watch it fly off. We later figured out it was a Freckled Nightjar; so, it was not totally terrible being out there. Also, I lived - true story.
The next day was our first of two mornings in the Karoo. It was a long, hot day. We would bird in the morning, take a break in the midday heat, and then head back out in the afternoon.
The next morning came early. It bright and a bit cool. A Three-banded Plover was wondering around outside my chalet. Birds were singing, but I could not get eyes on them. It also did not help that many of the birds out here were species I had skipped when studying. Larks and small warblers (which are typically pretty plain; unlike the wood-warblers of the Americas) are birds I typically skip. There is only so much that can be learned at one time, and I focused my efforts elsewhere. All that to say, I felt pretty helpless out here. I do not like just being told what I am looking at. I like to know the birds and what fieldmarks to look at. Josh eventually arrived with the van, and we started birding pretty much right outside my chalet. Karoo Lark and the beautiful little Rufous-eared Warbler were singing nearby.
We moved out to the road and headed up into a riparian area. It seemed a bit odd, but, dispersed across several locations out here are several picnic areas. This was one of them, and the area had a lot of different birds in it. We spent a while here while the guide was trying to get us good looks at a very stubborn Fairy Flycatcher. We also tried a few times for Cinnamon-breasted Warbler. This latter bird proved to be a bit of a nemesis. It is a skulky, wren-like warbler that inhabits steep rocky terrain. We are just past the breeding season, and the bird is not even calling in the areas where it is normally found. We did have a beautiful pair of Pririt Batis. A Long-billed Crombec briefly appeared. Crombec have almost zero tail. Common Reed Warbler called from the reedbeds, and a Rock Kestrel visited its nest in a rocky crag across the way. We moved up the road a bit and tried for the warbler, again. No joy. Instead, we found Dusky Sunbird, Layard's Warbler, and Mountain Wheatear. We eventually wound our way down the road to a depression with water in it. Based on eBird hotspots, it appears this is called Skitterykloof. "Kloof" apparently means gap. Here, various birds were coming in to drink, and we added distant views of Common Waxbill to the trip list.
We left and headed out to the main road. As we were crossing a dry creek bed, it became apparent that it was not currently dry and was attracting a lot of birds. Most impressive was the Namaqua Sandgrouse. These large beautiful birds are shy and stayed fairly distant. These birds are known for how they transport water to their young. They will fluff their breast feathers and then soak them in the water. They will then fly to the nest, where the young can drink the water from their feathers. A Malachite Sunbird was actively catching insects out of the air. A beautiful Lark-like Bunting landed on a nearby fence wire. In the water, tadpoles swam about.
We drove down the road to another picnic area. We passed a convenience store out here in the middle of nowhere that featured free wifi and an alien crash site. Gotta love the desert. The picnic area was actually occupied. A group were camping there and playing loud dance-type music. It was an odd experience, and it made tracking down our target a little difficult. We finally got good looks at Namaqua Warbler. On the way back, we spotted a Lanner Falcon in the harsh light. As we headed back to the lodge, the creek bed was already drying out. Whatever water was coming through had passed or soaked into the bed. We were just there at the right time.
Midday was spent back at the lodge. It was too hot to bird the middle of the day, and the heat haze made photography impossible, anyway. My chalet did not have windows that would open. Instead of trying to hang out there, I picked up my laptop and hung out in the relatively cooler dining area for several hours. We opened all the doors and let the hot air blow through. Josh hung out with me, and I peppered him with questions about birds. He may have regretted his decision. Around 3 PM, we headed back out for a few hours. We birded out along the main road again and found a number of Karoo specialties. I finally got a good look at Karoo Chat; a rather plain bird, overall. We also had Tractrac Chat. I have no idea how it got its name. While working on finding Karoo Eremomela, a Red-capped Lark came in with some food for its young. Driving along the road, our guide spotted a Black-eared Sparrow-Lark flying. We pulled over but could not get decent views. This was unfortunate, because it is a beautiful species. We would later get better looks at a female, but it was a poor consolation. We also found Spike-heeled Lark at the same spot. We were heading to one more location up the road when I spotted a bustard up on the ridge. This turned out to be the target Josh was driving us toward. A family of Karoo Bustard (Korhaan) was walking along a ridge line. We walked up and were eventually able to track down the pair. They had a tiny young one with them. We watched as they reunited and then moved down into a ravine.
We headed back toward the lodge but diverted to Skitterykloof. We were making another attempt at the Cinnamon-breasted Warbler. Again, no joy. Pale-winged Starling flew over along the cliff face. Atop the cliff, Rock Kestrel kept an eye on us. We got good looks at Layard's Warbler. Our guide was hoping to find Black-headed Canary coming in for some water. We were watching the small pond when I saw a bird pop up in a dry bush next to it. I called out Cape Sparrow and immediately knew I had messed up. Josh rapidly jerked his binocs in the direction I was looking, and everything fell into slow motion. I had time to think - I have just botched a call. It was Black-headed Canary. They are not really all that similar to Cape Sparrow. Josh knew we were in the wrong place for it and had figured out what it would be before even getting eyes on it. At least I helped? We drove back to the lodge, and I doubled-down on my incorrect IDs. A black bird with pale wing patches flew up into some grasses. I called out the bird and then tried to write it off as a Pale-winged Starling. Josh got binocs on it and was able to provide the right ID. It was a Ant-eating Chat. I should have known better.
We had dinner and then started the rounds to drop people at their chalets. Nick was heading out to look for frogs and bugs. After getting everyone else dropped off, we ran across a nightjar. We doubled back to pick up Nick and then headed back over to locate it. No luck. It had disappeared. While spotlighting the area, a bat swooped through the beam of our light; freaking us out a bit. Looking around, we noticed a nearby abandoned building and could see bats flying around inside of it. Looking in, there was one hanging from the ceiling. Back outside, Josh started scanning the cliff face and got some eyeshine. Two eyes. Nick and I could not see anything, because you have to be in line with the beam to see the shine. Getting around behind Josh, we could see, quite distantly, the eyes of an animal. What Josh did next was a bit crazy, but it worked. I held the flashlight. Josh got his scope out, and found the animal in the scope. It was a Cape Genet just waking up for the night. Nick suggested a photo. Somehow, Josh was able to get photos through the scope. Granted, the quality is not great, but it works for an ID. You just have to picture this. It is pitch dark; the only light is from the moon, which seems so bright out here. The genet is about 100 yards away up a cliff face, and it is lit with a flashlight. Josh is taking scope shots of it on our phones.
The genet moved off to hunt for the night, and we headed down to my chalet to look for the nightjar I had seen. No joy, but there was a pond behind my place with calling frogs. Nick could not resist. We walked around in the dark and listened to the chorus of frogs and the occasional cries of Little Grebe in the dark. Pretty cool.
The next morning, we gathered at 6 AM and headed back out for a final morning in the Karoo. We started by just birding the gap there at the lodge. Karoo Chat, Familiar Chat, and Mountain Wheatear were busy foraging among the rocks. Josh heard a Nicholson's Pipit and tracked it down for us. While birding here, Josh finally heard a Cinnamon-breasted Warbler calling from around the bend. We went to look for it and got good scope views of a pair of them preening next to a rock. After preening, they ran off, mouse-like, into the brush.
Nemesis defeated, we loaded up and headed way up into the rocky hills. I had been teasing Josh about the itinerary. It featured a number of birds (in bold lettering) in it that we could see on the trip, but it also had pictures of select species. I had told him the day before that we were still missing one of the featured "picture" birds. This would be Protea Canary. All in all, it is a bit of a drab bird; especially for a canary. It is also a bit of a specialist. It likes drier climates and favors a particular kind of protea. We were on our way to check a stand of these protea for the bird. We found one at a second stand of protea. Photos were not great, but it was nice to track down our last canary - 7 species: Cape, Forest, Brimstone, Yellow, White-throated, Black-headed, and Protea. Not bad.
On the way back, we stopped one last time at the picnic area from the first morning. We had seen a Black Harrier circling in the area. Here, we found a mated pair of Black Harrier. It was beautiful to watch them circle overhead and call to each other.
We collected luggage and headed down the road and back toward civilization. We were not quite done with the Karoo, though. We had a Pale Chanting Goshawk sitting on a fence wire. Remarkably, it let us take a few photos. We hit up a large pond just down the road. There, we loaded up on some missing waterfowl. African Shelduck, White-faced Whistling-Duck, Red-billed Teal, and Eared (Black-necked) Grebe were all new for the trip. As a parting gift from the Karoo, we also got our last chat of the trip. Sickle-winged Chat was calling from the scrub. This was our forth and final chat for the trip: Sickle-winged, Tractrac, Karoo, and Familiar. Another group of birds we cleaned up on.
We headed into Cape Town and finished up the day with some target birding and a trip to Strandfontein. That is all covered in the previous post, though. This was, by many standards, a short trip. 220 species in 7 days is pretty good. I added 2 species on my days on my own. Of the 222 species, 131 were lifers. It was an amazing trip, and I very much look forward to going back. I would love to hit up all the locations and be able to just photograph there at the right times of day. You would easily have to double the length of this trip to do that. I am just thankful that I am able to travel and fortunate enough to have the means to do it. This is my 24th country (for some reason I said 30 during the trip - I must have been dreaming), and I look forward to continuing to travel. I have no immediate plans, and it is a big world. I look forward to seeing more of it someday, soon.
Thanks for reading,
Mike