South Africa Day 4 - Penguins!

We left DeHoop after a quick morning Campground bird & Breakfast. What I should mention about De Hoop is that this is where I first experienced "Load Shedding" which is where they just turn the electricity off for @2 hours. Of course it happened just after I returned from dinner on the first night and it was DARK. Thank goodness for the iPhone flashlight and the inflatable solar lamp a friend recommended for just this situation. It happened both nights I was there. Here is the lamp - very clever.

Uninflated

Inflated

Here were shots from my morning walk and the one bird we stopped for on the way out of the reserve.

Cape Spurfowl who heard my room was unlocked was waiting outside my door this morning

Cape Robin-chat

Bontebok

Ostrich

Egyptian Goose -- not a new bird for me, they are all over Florida AND South Africa -- we saw at least one of them every day.

View of the pool and the wetlands area the resort overlooks

Namaqua Sandgrouse - Vince said we weren't going to stop between the Resort & the next stop -- but he stopped for these, so we knew they were special -- this was our only encounter with them.

From De Hoop we moved to Rooi-els searching for one bird the Cape Rockjumper -- Although I did not make the hike up the hill, we spent a good 4 hours there looking. It is a nice spot with a good view of the ocean (Atlantic this time) and I enjoyed the birds I was able to spot from my perch in the van.

Here is the route back to Cape Town

The view from my perch:

There were other creatures besides birds

Angulate Tortoise just strolled by the vanI B3LI

I believe this is a Painted Lady on an Aster (very open to feedback)

and of course there were birds

Red-winged Starling

Southern Fiscal

Cape Sugarbird

Karoo Prinia

Familiar Chat

Cape Griffon (Vulture)

Cape Bunting

Cape Bulbul

They have some serious eye-rings in South Africa

That was the last shot at seeing the Cape Rockjumper during the trip & they missed it. On to Betty's Bay my favorite site on this day, because it was mostly about Penguins, but there were other creatures too. It is the least touristy African Penguin Colony on the Cape.

African Penguin

African Penguins in action!

The other creatures...

African Oystercatcher

Hartlieb's Gull & African Oystercatcher

Rock Hyrax

We also had our only encounter with Crowned and Bank Cormorants, but they were scoped and too far away for photos. After this we were back to Cape Town, takeout dinner and bird call then sleep. Oh yeah and it is still WINDY!