21 April 2013 – dolphins rule…

A boatload of eager birders left Simon’s Town harbour this morning on another day of brilliant conditions for a Zest for Birds pelagic trip. (Trevor was co-guiding with John Graham, Alvin Cope, Rob Leslie and Peter Ryan). False Bay was typically quiet with just a few Cape Gannets and a handful of White-chinned Petrels keeping us awake, but as we rounded Cape Point, we soon started picking up more species. The first ones to be added to our list included Sooty and Cory’s Shearwaters and then eventually, our first Shy Albatross of the day.

Sooty Shearwater

Cory’s Shearwater

At around 12 miles offshore, we picked up some activity in the water and could see that it appeared to be a big pod of dolphins. We headed over in their direction and, pretty soon, our boat was surrounded by a pod of 500+ Dusky Dolphins. The dolphins stayed with us for close on 30 minutes bow-riding with the boat and jumping clear out of the water on many occasions and, for that short period, all the passengers forgot that they were actually on a birding trip and were just totally engrossed with the dolphins. It was a simply incredible experience!

Dusky Dolphin

Eventually pulling ourselves away from the dolphins, we headed further out into the deep picking up our first Subantarctic Skuas and Great Shearwaters along the way as well as a brief Manx Shearwater. We eventually picked up a longliner on the radar (apparently, the only fishing vessel that was working in the entire area) and headed off in her direction.

Great Shearwater

Approaching the vessel, we could see that there were a few birds in her wake, but not the huge numbers that we are normally used. However, once we arrived at the vessel, we found lots of birds just sitting on the water around the boat. With the lack of wind, they were obviously not wanting to expend too much energy, so were not moving around. We spent the next few hours in the area carefully working through all the birds there and enjoyed the likes of Northern Giant Petrel, Wilson’s and European Storm Petrels and Black-browed and Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses.

Approaching the longliner

Northern Giant Petrel

Wilson’s Storm Petrel

Despite intensive scanning, we were unable to find anything out of the ordinary, but it was still a happy bunch of birders that eventually turned and headed for home. The trip back was pretty uneventful providing more views of all the same species and just a single distant Pomarine Skua being the only new addition to the list. Very unfriendly Long-beaked Common Dolphins in False Bay and a fleeting Bryde’s Whale just outside the Simon’s Town harbour ended another great day at sea off.

Shy Albatross

20 April 2013 – more socialising than birding…

Since it seemed to be a clear morning, we decided to visit Intaka to take advantage of the good light and do some photography. We arrived fairly early and went straight to the hide where we spent the next few hours.

Unfortunately, activity was very low and there were not too many confiding subjects to practice our techniques on. We managed to get some reasonable shots of Malachite Kingfishers and also, a fairly friendly Lesser Swamp Warbler but, other than that, there really wasn’t too much to photograph at all. Fortunately, there were quite a few other people in the hide, so it turned into more of a social event than anything else as we all kept ourselves entertained with long chats in between the infrequent bird sightings…:)

By 10h00, the light was starting to get a little harsh, so we packed up and headed off for breakfast down at Blouberg beach, a rather relaxed morning with very little returns.

Malachite Kingfisher

Lesser Swamp Warbler

14 April 2013 – kirstenbosch beckons…

We decided to take a walk around Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens this morning and see what we could find. We arrived there fairly early and headed up into the top area of the gardens. Bird activity was surprisingly quiet apart from the regular buzzing around of many Southern Double-collared Sunbirds. Surprisingly, only a couple of Malachite and Orange-breasted Sunbirds were seen (none posed for photos!) as well as a single Amethyst Sunbird whilst there was no sign of any Cape Sugarbirds. We thought this to be a little unusual given the good numbers of Southern Double-collared Sunbirds, especially since they were all nectar feeders.

Southern Double-collared Sunbird

Raptors were also decidedly quiet. A couple of African Goshawks and a single Rufous-chested Sparrowhawk were the only raptors passing overhead during the course of a few hours spent wandering around and they were all so high that it was impossible to photograph them. The usual suspects in the gardens were still around though. Numbers of Egyptian Geese (some with goslings) wandered around on the lawns, Cape Spurfowls and Helmeted Guineafowls scratched around in the many flowerbeds and the larger trees echoed with the calls of Sombre Greenbuls and Southern Boubous.

Egyptian Goose

Cape Spurfowl

There were also many African Dusky Flycatchers and Cape Batises around whilst, at one stage, we heard a Brown-backed Honeybird calling, but were unable to actually locate the bird. We searched for the resident Spotted Eagle Owls and Lemon Doves, but were unable to find either of them – perhaps as a result of the many Capetonians out to enjoy the glorious autumn morning in the gardens.

There were also quite a few butterflies around and, although we don’t know all that much about them, we were able to identify several common species.

Eventually, we headed down to the restaurant to grab a late brunch, not before enjoying a small group of Swee Waxbills, a fitting end to an enjoyable morning out.

Swee Waxbill

13 April 2013 – a quiet day at the sewage works…

This morning I decided to go and work Strandfontein Sewage Works. It is a particularly good time of the year for possible reverse migrants, so secretly, I was hoping to find some mega to report on. There had also been a Franklin’s Gull reported from there recently which we still needed for our challenge list, so that was another determining factor for the visit.

Arriving reasonably early, the light was good, so I spent some time photographing, but there wasn’t really anything that was posing particularly well for me. I had also started a pentad list for the atlas project, so I worked through the area carefully adding a number of common species to the list. The first part of the morning was spent looking for suitable habitat for waders, but there wasn’t a whole lot of it around. Other than the usual Blacksmith Lapwings, Three-banded Plovers, Pied Avocets and Black-winged Stilts, one small group of Curlew Sandpipers was all that was seen!

Blacksmith Lapwing

Pied Avocet

I also scanned through the flocks of waterfowl in the hope of finding something out of the ordinary, but it was not too be. There were lots of ducks around, but only the regular species. In amongst the many Little Grebes, I also picked out a handful of Black-necked Grebes, but that was about it.

Cape Teal

Cape Shoveler

Black-necked Grebe

Little Grebe

As it turns out, careful working of the area over the course of a few hours turned up nothing unusual. It has been decidedly quiet recently in terms of rarities, so one can only hope that it is the “quiet before the storm”. Nevertheless, it was nice to be out in the field and I suppose at least I had put the effort in. If I had just stayed at home, I would have stood even less chance of finding something special…:)

African Pipit

Levaillant’s Cisticola

Great White Pelican

29 March – the karoo gets rain…

With the Easter long weekend upon us, we decided not to let it go to waste and put together plans to visit the Murraysburg region in the north-eastern corner of the Western Cape again to work on our challenge list and to try, once again, to see Black-footed Cat. We joined up with friends Cliff and Suretha Dorse and Keir and Alouise Lynch and their son, Cian, for the weekend and based ourselves on the farm, Vierfontein, owned by the family of other friends of ours, Stefan and Madelein Theron.

After a really early start, we travelled with Cliff and Suretha on the fairly long drive through. Shortly after passing through Beaufort West, we turned off the N1 towards Nelspoort and then the long gravel road to Murraysburg. A young Long-billed Pipit just outside Nelspoort had us going for a little while, but eventually we worked out what it was. Over the course of the next couple of hours, we drove slowly along this road stopping regularly to look for birds, mammals, reptiles, etc. It was great to finally catch up with a single Kori Bustard for our challenge list and to eventually get photos (albeit poor ones!) of Vervet Monkeys for the challenge as well. Birdwise, it was fairly quiet with just many Lark-like Buntings and a few Sabota Larks along the way, but it was fun seeing Common Ground Squirrels in the province again as well.

Long-billed Pipit

Sabota Lark

Kori Bustard

Common Ground Squirrel

As we got closer to Murraysburg, the heavens opened up and we were caught in a seriously impressive thunder storm which we had to travel through for the last 30 minutes or so to get to the farm. We have not seen THAT much rain fall in such a short period in the Karoo for a very long time!! Already, some of the small rivers were starting to flood over the road and we foresaw a few potential problems ahead of us.

Water, water everywhere…!

Water, water everywhere…!

We eventually made it to the farm in one piece and greeted our friends. At this stage, the Lynches hadn’t arrived yet, so once the rain let up a bit, we just wondered around the farm for a bit seeing what we could find. There were lots of Cape River Frogs out and about and we looked carefully at every one of them to see if we could find a Common River Frog amongst them, but it was not to be. There were several Boettger’s Cacos calling as well, but we weren’t able to find any. Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was finding a couple of Reddish-grey Musk Shrews which we managed to get some photos of, the first time we had managed to photograph this species during the challenge.

Reddish-grey Musk Shrew

Mid afternoon (the Lynches had still not arrived yet) and we decided to go and have a couple of hours sleep in preparation for the long night drive ahead of us. Waking up again at just after 5pm, we realized that the Lynches were still not there and, since there was no cell phone reception in the area, we were now starting to get worried and started planning where to go and look for them. We were still discussing the options when suddenly Keir walked into the farmyard soaked up to his waist…! Now it wasn’t raining, so how did he get so wet…?! As it turned out, they had arrived at one of the river crossings about 1km from the farm at 2pm, but it had come down in force and it was literally impossible to cross with the vehicle. They had also had to wait for it to subside a little before Keir could actually wade through and cross it without the possibility of being washed away. Long story short, we eventually left their car there for the night, trekked their bags over a hill to another road where we took the other vehicles to and then drove them back to the farm.

Later that night, we headed out on a night drive. Lots of Scrub and Cape Hares and Steenbok, a few Greater Kudus, one Mountain Reedbuck, a single distant Caracal and a Rufous-cheeked Nightjar were all we had seen by about midnight and some of the party were now getting a little tired. We decided to drop them all off back at the farm house and Cliff, Stefan and I decided to carry on for a little while longer. After all, with the predicted rain, we weren’t sure if we would get another chance! Slowly driving along at just after 1:15am and a Scrub Hare runs into the road and stops right in front of us. We are still busy looking at it when, out of nowhere, something else darts out of the grass alongside the road and attacks the Hare! It takes a few seconds for it to register and suddenly Cliff bellows out “BLACK-FOOTED CAT!! BLACK-FOOTED CAT!!”. Unfortunately, the hunt is unsuccessful and the cat charges off back into the grass. We follow it with the spot light and it stops to look back at us. Perfect views through the binoculars but, unfortunately, a little too far for photos! We are on a total high when we get back to the farmhouse – we have finally nailed the cat after years of trying!!

After breakfast the next morning, the sun is out for a little while, so we take a walk on the farm. Some nice Karoo birds are seen with good numbers of Black-throated Canaries around, lots of Layard’s Tit-babblers and we also manage to get our first photos of Village Indigobird for the challenge, a really tough bird to find in the province. Overhead, there are lots of aerial feeders enjoying the break in the rain and, in amongst the more common Little Swifts and Greater Striped and Barn Swallows, we also find a single Horus Swift and a couple of Common House Martins.

Layard’s Tit-babbler

Common House Martin

Village Indigobird

There are also a few butterflies around and, since this is still a pretty new pastime for us, there are even a couple of lifers in the form of Dull Copper and Tinktinkie Blue. A Southern Pygmy Toad was also a nice find on the walk and, again, a tough species to find in the province.

Dull Copper

Tinktinkie Blue

Southern Pygmy Toad

Photographing the toad

The afternoon sees us drive to another part of the fairly large farm where we spend quite a bit of time turning over rocks. The results are pretty poor considering the amount of effort put in with just a handful of scorpions, a few Variegated Skinks and a Common Sand Lizard that gets away, but Cliff eventually gets lucky and finds a Karoo Flat Gecko, a lifer for some of the group. According to the records we can see in the reptile atlas, this is possibly only the second ever record for the Western Cape after we found one around a Murraysburg a few years ago as well. We also stopped off at a small wetland where there were lots of Boettger’s Cacos calling and eventually, Alouise managed to find one.

Karoo Flat Gecko

Boettger’s Caco

That night, the heavens opened and it bucketed down, so there was no chance of a night drive. We agreed to hit the sack early and wake up at 3am to check the weather to possibly try then. Naturally, once we had crawled out of bed at that unearthly hour, it was still bucketing down, so we climbed back into bed for a few hours…:)

The early part of the day continued to rain hard, but we had set some Sherman traps the night before and at least had a couple of Namaqua Rock Mice to photograph for the efforts, another new species for our challenge list. Naturally, my traps had caught nothing at all and both mice were in Cliff’s traps! He has that kind of luck.

Namaqua Rock Mouse

Eventually, the rain backed off just a little and we decided to head out on a bit of a drive. Stefan took us to a number of sites during the course of the rest of the day and we found ourselves turning over lots of rocks and “sinkplaat” looking for what we could find. The afternoon produced some nice animals after a fair amount of effort including a Spotted Gecko, another new species for our challenge list. Other finds included another Reddish-grey Musk Shrew, Western Rock Skinks, Bibron’s Geckos, a Burchell’s Sand Lizard and a baby Karoo Sand Snake. Birdingwise, it was pretty quiet and the weather was terrible for photography, so we never even aimed our cameras at a bird.

Spotted Gecko

Bibron’s Gecko

Burchell’s Sand Lizard

Karoo Sand Snake

Trevor showing Cian the snake

Our final morning was a fairly relaxed one and, after packing up and saying our good-byes, we started the long drive back home with just a few stops along the way. A Cinnamon-breasted Bunting was finally photographed for the challenge (although the photo is nothing short of terrible as the bird kept its head turned away from the camera the whole time!) and a Black Stork over one of the rivers was a fitting end to what had been a fantastic long weekend.

Black Stork

23 – 24 March 2013 – wanderings on the west coast…

We had received news of a Red-necked Phalarope that had been seen at the beginning of the month in Velddrif and, since we still needed this one for our challenge list, we decided to spend the weekend up on the west coast to see if we could find it. We were joined by Keir and Alouise Lynch and their son, Cian, and we booked ourselves a cottage at Kuifkopvisvanger Guest Farm on the southern bank of the Berg River for Saturday night.

Since the Lynches had slept over at our place on Friday evening, we were able to get away fairly early on Saturday morning and, after a quick breakfast stop along the way, we found ourselves hitting the farm roads between Vredenburg and Stompneusbaai at what, in theory, should have been a good time for birding. We were hoping to track down Cape Long-billed Lark, a species that the Lynches had yet to see, but the only problem was that the weather was not on our side. We were faced with totally overcast conditions and strong winds which made birding and photography quite tough. We also spent longer than we should have working the area and, although we located many Large-billed and Red-capped Larks, there was no sign of our target species, not even a single call! At least there were some reasonable distractions like an obliging Rock Kestrel, many Capped Wheatears and a few Grey Tits and Sickle-winged Chats and a surprise group of Namaqua Sandgrouse, not a common species in this part of the world.

Grey Tit

Sickle-winged Chat

Capped Wheatear

Rock Kestrel

Eventually, we decided to give it up as a bad job and continued north to Velddrif. After picking up some lunch in town and heading down to the river mouth for a little while, we eventually headed over to the farm and booked into our accommodation. It was clean and neat and, apart from the small design flaw of one room leading off the other (which doesn’t work all that well when there are separate families involved…!), it was pretty comfortable too.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the salt pans on the farm where the phalarope had been seen, but conditions were tough for wader watching and we were unable to relocate the bird. Most of the common species were present and, even although conditions were not great, we still took a few photos.

Ruff

Common Ringed Plover

Kittlitz’s Plover

We timed the tides to be back at our chalet to start the braai fire and spend time scanning the opening mudflats from the comfort of our stoep. There were still plenty of migratory waders around and, although we spent quite a bit of time scanning through them, it was just the usual suspects and nothing out of the ordinary. The best species was probably a Eurasian Curlew and several Bar-tailed Godwits, not exactly rarities, but still nice to see from the comfort of your stoep…:)

Trevor scanning through the waders

Early on Sunday morning, we headed back into the salt pans and spent the next few hours working carefully through them. At least we had lost the overcast skies today, but the wind was still there. Most of the same species as yesterday were seen and, with the good light, we took some time to concentrate on photographing some of them. Still no phalarope though – it was destined to be another challenge dip for now.

Chestnut-banded Plover

Little Stint

Caspian Tern

By 10:30am or so, we were checking out and proceeded back to the farmlands to look for the lark again. The wind was not helping but, eventually, we managed to locate a single bird that, although distant, provided reasonable views. Great, finally the Lynches can tick this one! A single Ant-eating Chat in this area was also an uncommon bird for this part of the west coast.

We then headed into Langebaan, picked up a take away lunch and then moved on to Seeberg in the West Coast National Park. We were hoping to find Little Tern, another species that the Lynches still needed. Fortunately, this one was a little easier to locate and we had a single individual battling in the wind in front of the hide for quite some time although it never once landed to get a view of it on the ground. Still, the views were more than good enough for a tick…:) A final stop at Abrahamskraal had us frustrated as we had African Rails (another species that they wanted) calling from the reeds in front of us but that just would not show itself. By now, the wind was really howling, so I suppose it was to be expected that the bird would not emerge from cover…! Although we never managed to find all of our targets for the weekend (mostly due to the horrible weather conditions), it was still great to get out and spend some time on the west coast looking at waders. You just never know what you might find if you just put in the time…:)

Ant-eating Chat

21 March 2013 – another day, another dip…

News had been spread of a breeding male Shaft-tailed Whydah that had been seen near the town of Op-die-berg in the Koue Bokkeveld yesterday. This is an incredibly rare bird in the Western Cape with only a handful of records and, since we still needed this one for our provincial lists, we joined up with Cliff and Suretha Dorse for a little chase. It was about a 2 hour drive from home and, after a fairly lazy start, we arrived at the site at around 9am.

The area consisted of a mosaic of open farmlands and protea stands with a few small copses of alien trees as well. Over the course of the next few hours, we scoured the area quite methodically enjoying the many sugarbirds and sunbirds in the protea stands as well as a number of other common species. We also located a number of other common seedeater flocks and carefully scanned through those in the hope of finding the whydah, but it was not to be.

Southern Double-collared Sunbird

Malachite Sunbird

Cape Sugarbird

After many hours of searching, we eventually resigned ourselves to the fact that the bird could literally be anywhere. There was so much suitable habitat in the area and, if it was feeding on seeds on the ground in one of the many farmland fields around us, it was going to be so easy to miss it. Unless the bird flew up or perched on an obvious place, we had little chance of connecting with it. However, it was still good to work through an area that we generally have not spent too much time in and we still got to see a few nice birds anyway. The drive home was broken with a stop on Bain’s Kloof to, once again, look for and dip on Cape Ghost Frog for our challenge list. Not the most memorable of days out in the field but, then again, even a bad day in the field beats spending a day in the office…:)

Grey-backed Cisticola

Common Waxbill

Klaas’s Cuckoo