Glencairn, Cape Town, South Africa

We have just come back after a week just outside Cape Town. It wasn't a holiday but at the the last minute we took our bins and camera just in case we saw anything. Luckily we did get a couple of hours here and there to get out for a walk and see what was around;
Speckled Pigeon

Lesser Striped Swallow

Red-winged Starling

Steppe (Common) Buzzard

Orange Breasted Sunbird

Cape Sugarbird

Malachite Sunbird (eclipse)

Reed Cormorant

Cape Turtle Dove (Ring-necked Dove)

Southern Double Collared Sunbird

Cape Wagtail

Cape Weaver

Common Waxbill

Cape White-eye

Cape Sparrow

Southern Boubou

Common Starling

Fiscal Flycatcher

Cape Bulbul

Other seen:
Hartlaub's Gull, Kelp Gull, Cape Cormorant, House Sparrow, Grey Heron, Hadada Ibis, Cattle Egret, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Pied Crow and African Hawk  Harrier

A Trip to South Africa - Part 2 Amakhala Day 1

So he we are at Amakhala after a superb meal last night, we were woken at 6am, just time for a quick freshen up, get dressed, cup of tea and in the Land Rover for 6:30, bit like being on the Apprentice!

Unfortunately the weather wasn't great this morning very overcast and some heavy rain about. You would think not ideal for seeing wildlife, but you never know.........

We set off from the lodges and out across the plain. There were lots of Antelope, Zebra and Wildebeest about to start off our day:
Hartebeest:

 Zebra, Impala & Wildebeest:

These were followed by our first bird out in the wilds, don't get too excited.....
African Stonechat:

Not to dissimilar from the UK version, but a nice start to the birds, none the less. We then came across our first Black-backed Jackal, more of these later.

After this we managed to get closer to a 'herd' of Zebra:

Followed by our first Kudu, who seemed very interested in us:

And now our next bird who posed nicely for us,
Southern Boubou:

Our next antelope looking quite magnificent,
Male Impala:

Then a young Yellow-fronted Canary:

But nothing could prepare us for what came next, in the pouring rain we watched this Cheetah with a fresh kill (Wildebeest), amazing.....

You can see the Cheetah looking around as this Jackal turned up and started calling for his mates!

So after all the excitement we left the Cheetah to it's lunch and headed away to find this chappie nearby,
Cape Rock-thrush:

See time for a coffee break and a snack to keep us going, before heading further afield. The rain had now stopped but it was still quite dull, making photography difficult, but you can't have everything!

We came across our first Elephant at this point although he was a bit camera shy:

We had seen a few Cape Glossy Starlings during the morning but this is the first I managed to get a closer shot of:

followed by this Cape Weaver:

We now saw our first Vervet Monkeys:

We then came across a rarity that got our Ranger and Guide Jason quite excited,
Burchell's Coucal:

Locally known as the rain bird, as we were told that you only usually see it when it rains! So we were lucky with the weather (I think!!)
After this we headed back to the lodges for breakfast, we were just amazed by what we had seen in the first 3 hours! So breakfast done we had down time until 2 when lunch was served, then off again at 3:30 for our second game drive.

As this post is already quite long, I will leave it here and pick up again later.

A Trip to South Africa - Part 1

Well it's been a while since I posted, but that's because we have been away in South Africa. We flew down to Joburg from Manchester via Dubai then caught the Premier Class train to Cape Town, which was brilliant.  A 26 hour journey through some great countryside, not to mention the wildlife seen from the train and also the fabulous food (too much!!). We were really looked after. One thing I did discover is that trying to photograph birds from a moving train doesn't result in great photographs, so I will miss those out!

We did see a good number of birds from the train and a few Antelope (Bok) so that started our trip off nicely. We were picked up from the station by Tina's brother Mike, who lives in Glencairn just south of Cape Town and we headed home with him to spend the next couple of nights. We didn't do any birding whilst there, but of course being in a different country the garden birds are going to be different.
Cape Weaver:

 Common Fiscal (Shrike):

 Cape White-eye:

The Common Fiscal (Or Southern Fiscal) was probably one of the most common birds around along with the White Eye. The Cape Weaver isn't so much a garden bird, but Mike has a colony near by, so as it was spring, they were always foraging for nesting material to do this:

This is the Weaver site just 10 minutes walk from Mike's house.
Just a few minutes walking further from here an you are on the coast where the local birds are mostly Hartlaub's Gull, Kelp Gull and Cape Cormorant.
Hartlaub's Gull:

I'll add some Kelp Gull and Cape Cormorant pics in later posts.
Whilst touring around locally we came across this Karoo Prinia, near Simon's Town,

whilst looking at the view:

So after a couple of days with Mike, we 'stole' his car and headed off towards Port Elizabeth, where we were going to spend 4 nights at the Amakhala Game Reserve a mere 950Km away the route we were taking. Our first real stop was for a late lunch at the old dutch colonial town of Matjiesfontein. As usual I don't go anywhere without the camera so was lucky with a couple of birds whilst we ate:
White-backed Mousebird:

 Cape Robin-chat:

 Olive Thrush:

The town itself was very interesting and a throw back in time:

Our next scheduled stop was Prince Albert, where we were staying the night, not before picking up a few more birds (I ought to be careful how I phrase that!) en route, whilst we stopped for coffee, yes the flasks came with us!
Cape Sparrow:

 Cape Canary:

 Pied Crow:

 Ostrich:

I have to say that in Prince Albert, I had probably the best Seafood Pizza I have ever had, it was awesome! (this was in the pub opposite our B&B!). So after a hearty breakfast and a few more snaps whilst eating on the patio;
White-backed Mousebird:

 Laughing Dove:

 Cape Wagtail:

We set off through the Swartberg Pass and headed south, the scenery and road were amazing, of course this added a fair bit of time onto our journey, but it was well worth it!

We eventually arrived at Amakhala just before dark, sadly that means we missed our first game drive, but we had another 7 to look forward to!

The next post will just be our time at Amakhala, so loads of Birds and loads of our Four Legged Friends too!