Vince, the bird guide demonstrated a lot of flexibility (and not in the yoga sense) by coming up with a birding agenda that would get us a few interesting birds that were further north than the tour normally goes, but still not miss any expected birds -- it was probably one of my favorite days -- lots of car and near car birding, so not a ton of walking. My feet truly appreciated that. We had a to-go breakfast packed by the guest house and they were wonderful about adjusting it for my Keto requirements. Still it was a lot of food and because they waste nothing in South Africa (wish we were like that here) Vince dropped it off somewhere he knows on his way home that night.
We departed @5:30am to try to pick up a White-backed Duck at the first stop. This was the route.
Lucky to see one White-backed Duck. Hard to see the White back, but trust me...
Also Welsh Dave spotted this first of trip Purple Heron nearby
Black Kite (Yellow-billed) was at our next stop on the R27 along with several Lanner Falcons and our first Martial Eagle on a nest -- to far and backlit for good photos -- believe me I tried.
The next stop was on the way to Jacob's Bay to see the Antarctic Tern, had the bonus of a few new plovers and a new Mousebird. No good photos of the Tern, which we did see.
White-fronted Plover
Kittlitz Plover
White-backed Mousebird
There was great Lark & Chat habitat between the Bay and the main road -- these photos are from that area. Very happy to see the Sickle-winged Chat because 1) I found it and 2) Vince was really happy to get it.
Capped Wheatear
Cape Weaver on Agave plant
Cape Wagtail
Sickle-winged Chat
Rock Kestral
Orange-throated Longclaw
Karoo Scrub-robin
Karoo Prinia
Black-headed Heron
Cape Crow
Cape Sparrow
Southern Masked-weaver
Cape Lark
I've mentioned Karoo a lot in this post -- so I thought I would share a more complete definition from Wikipedia on what it is --
The area is devoid of surface water, and its name is derived from the Khoisan word meaning “land of thirst.” Its subregions include the intermontane vales of Little Karoo and Great Karoo in the lesser-elevated areas of Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces and the main Karoo (or Upper Karoo) spanning the vast ...
Although a number of these birds are named Karoo -- that does not necessarily mean they are only in Karoo habitat. We had lots of birds named Karoo, but were rarely in actual Karoo Habitat.
Our next spot was the Berg River Estuary or course until we got there, I thought it was Bird River Estuary (makes some sense, there is a Bird Island near there). In order to access the estuary by van we had to ask the Farm/Estuary owner (Jan) for permission. When we drove into the farm Vince asked Jan, and he asked if we wanted to see a Barn Owl -- someone said no (not me) and Vince said "wrong answer). We de-vanned and walked around the corner to see this beauty in a palm tree. Huh a Barn Owl in a Palm Tree -- who knew?
Barn Owl
The we noticed several Little Egrets flying around - I have a lot more photos, but you get the idea. This was a life bird for me, so I was delighted to have 10 minutes to have many moments with them.
Little Egret - note the plume off the back of the head
This one had some kind of injury to its neck -- I asked the farmer but he had no idea what it was. It seemed pretty ok, was active and not obviously in pain, it just looked bad.
Jan gave us permission to bird in the estuary and off we went. I was a few miles further north and what a fertile bird habitat. Lots of shore birds I have never seen before (and on that I had) all fairly close & cooperative. I wish I'd had more time to spend there getting to know the Little Stint which comes to Rhode Island occasionally. The Chestnut-banded Plover was the reason for the trip so far north.
Chestnut-banded Plover
Little Stint & Chestnut-banded Plover
Black-winged Stilt
Banded Martin
Common Ringed Plover
Curlew Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
It was almost precisely now that my 600mm zoom lens got stuck at 185mm. I tried and tried to get it to move. When I solicited advice on Facebook the most practical was Compressed Air. Vince has a buddy who runs a camera repair place, so he contacted him for me. I was even willing to consider buying a new lens -- but when I researched that it turned out it is 3x as expensive in South Africa than in the states. This night I had another long FOMO talk with myself, after all it is what it is. We had a nice dinner at a Seafood place, but it was there I found out that Grilled on the Cape does not mean what it means here. The dip the meat/fish in flour before they grill it. I had some good fish, but couldn't eat 1/2 of it because of the coating.
Another food thing worth mentioning is that EVERYWHERE we ate in South Africa they had the same two hot "vegetables" Creamed Spinach (This was good but it got old eating it day after day) and Mashed Pumpkin (this is a fruit NOT a veggie, and has way too many carbs for me even if I liked it). I would often get a salad at lunch when we were in a major city and even expanded that to a resort, but my travel Dr. advised against eating anything uncooked -- so the veggie options were really limited.
One night on safari I ordered a specific dish because the menu said it came with steamed broccoli -- what a treat! Nope it came with Creamed Spinach and Pumpkin. I gave up.
This afternoon Vince also had to break the news that the next day's tentative pelagic trip had been cancelled due to High seas & of course Winds. The group was bummed, but Vince outlined an interesting itinerary for the next day which I will describe in the next post.
Whoops -- I missed our last stop -- Seeberg Bird Hide in West Coast National Park. I walked down to the water but the lower level was locked and I did not want to do another 15 stairs up and down, so I took a slow walk back -- still some lovely treasures along the way.
Red-headed Cisticola
My old friend the Whimbrel
Pearl-breasted Swallow
And that is really it for the day...
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