| Birding trip report Western South Africa & Namibia 23 Oct. - 15 Nov. 2003 John van der Woude, http://johnbirding.wolweb.nl |
| Photos part 1. Western South-Africa
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| False Bay near Cape Town. African Penguin colony at
Boulders.
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| Same. Also good for gulls and cormorants, and some
nice passerines (like Cape Robin-Chat) along the trail
down to the colony.
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| Back side of Harold Porter Botanical garden. Fynbos
vegetation, and some afromontane forest in gorge. In HPBG
we had our only Swee Waxbill.
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| Rooi Els track for Cape Rockjumper in fynbos
vegetation. We also had our only Ground Woodpecker here.
Rooi Els is on the East side of False Bay.
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| Ocean surf and low dunes at South end of Kommetjie.
Many Cape Gannet and several White-chinned Petrel, and
scrub birds in the dunes.
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| Puff Adder road kill (by trafic, not by Nollie's boot...)
on road to Olifantsbos in Cape of Good Hope national park.
Five minutes later we also had a life one crossing the
same road.
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| Fynbos vegetation along Olifantsroad in Cape of Good
Hope national park. Birds are scarce here, but the
vegetation is very nice.
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| Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. Not many flowers left
now, and (hence?) less sunbirds than we had expected.
Cape Siskin in upper part of the park.
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| Southern Black Korhaan at start of Darling road loop.
Blue Crane a bit further on.
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| Tinie Versveld grassland reserve. Cloud Cisticola at
this spot with somewhat higher grasses.
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| Strandveld vegetation in West Coast National Park. At
c. 200 m low dunes bordering the lagoon. Black Harrier (one
of our absolute wish-list species), Grey-winged Francolin.
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| Path to hide at South end of lagoon in West Coast NP.
Cape Reed Warbler and Levaillant's Cisticola in reeds.
About 15 Marsh Sandpiper from hide.
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| West Coast NP, at South end (Geelbek) of lagoon.
Several small plovers, and a nice lunch in the restaurant
in the typical old farm house.
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| Cape Francolin at Geelbek restaurant of West Coast NP
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| Bank Cormorant stake-out of IJzerfontein town South
of West Coast NP. The other three marine cormorants were
also here.
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| Kransvlei Poort near Clanwilliam, rocky fynbos with
Protea Canary and Cape Rock-Thrush.
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| Looking back on the Kners plain from near
Nieuwoudtville, on our way into Bushmanland. This plain
holds "stone plants" (pebble-size succulents)
but we forgot to search for them.
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| Aloe trees near Kennhardt in Bushmanland.
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| Scaly Weaver nests near Kennhardt (same spot as photo
of Aloe's)
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| Open Karoo vegetation in Bushmanland, a few km West
of Pofadder. Sclater's Lark, Karoo Long-billed Lark,
Rufous-eared Warbler.
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| Red sand dunes South of Aggeneys (West of Pofadder).
Red Lark (the really red one)! Scale: the clumps of
vegetation are just less than knee-high.
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| Goegap National Park in Namaqualand, near Springbok.
A great area with numerous Capped Wheatear, and we were
lucky with a flying Ludwig's Bustard very nearby.
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| Goegap NP. On the grassy slopes were mixed groups of Oryx (Gemsbok), Springbok and Ostrich. |
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