Burkea Park

 We arrived back late afternoon on 14th February. It had been a long haul, but quite nice to do the driving over three days & not two. Lots to unpack & then we sat having a drink in the garden listening to Fiery necked Nightjar, Barn & African Scops Owls.

On 16th February in the evening we drove to Pretoria & met up with friends for dinner & drinks. A good time was had by all!

Male

Common Duiker

A daily visitor to the garden.

Karoo Thrush

This species is on the edge of it's range here.

Black throated Canary

A regular visitor to the garden.

Small flocks come & drink every day.

Arrowmarked Babbler

Regular visitors to the bird table.

Southern Grey-headed Sparrow

Enjoyed plenty of local birding around the garden & walking around the entire estate. It really is an excellent spot for birding, with some great bushveld birding right on our doorstep.

African Harrier Hawk

Uncommon here & always nice to see.

Common House Martin

84 birds were massed on the wires, early morning.

The adults were in particularly fine plumage.

European Swallow

Purple Indigobird

This male has taken residence in the garden.

He continuously sings, mimicking the song of it's host species:

Jameson's Firefinch.

This is an uncommon species here.

Roodeplaat Dam Nature Reserve

 To be continued.

The long drive north!

 We left Pearly Beach around mid-day on 12th February. It had been hard work packing all the gear in the truck, but finally with the two cats on board we were off! 

Happy cat!

It always amazes me how good the cats are

 in the car.

We drove to Beaufort West via the very scenic R62. We encountered several thunderstorms & hard rain falling, making driving a lot less easier than normal. We arrived at our stop over for the night & very nice it was to. However, we had no time to explore the interesting gardens, as we were up early in the morning & away!

Lesser Kestrel

Great to see such numbers of these

 fantastic little falcons.

Adult male Amur Falcon.

We drove through a very green Karoo landscape on the morning of 13th February along the scenic R12 road. By nine o'clock were arrived in Victoria West & were surrounded by 2005 or so Lesser Kestrels! One flock over gardens in the town held 1,050 birds & a quick stop revealed at least three Amur Falcons with them. We believe this is quite a rare species here but the light was terrible & my photographs were poor.

The Boer War Memorial.

We arrived to a very hot Jakobsdaal just after noon. The reason we were here was to attend Karen & Christo's wedding. Karen is Delana's niece. I went for a look around the cemetery & was surprised to see how many Boer War graves & memorials there were. The death toll on both sides was in the hundreds. A European Marsh Warbler was giving its sub-song deep from a thicket, but eventually coming out to give good views but I didn't have my camera with me!

The mad trio!

The bride being given away

 by her father Eric.

Done deal!

The wedding party.

Later in the evening!

Eventually everyone arrived & the ceremony began. It was a lovely intimate ceremony in the garden. We all then enjoyed a very late night! 

But I have data!

Angie with her brand new son,

Bradley!

Up in the morning & driving north again. North of Bloomfontein we stopped at a roadside Padstal which was very nice. There were plenty of South African Cliff Swallows flying around. This is a species which I don't see very often & when I do I am usually driving so don't get good views.  This is when we heard the good news that my friend Angie & husband Ryan had just had their first born. Everyone doing just fine!

The West Coast National Park.

 This was a new destination for me. I had long wanted to visit, but somehow had never managed it, often driving straight by on the way to somewhere else! Delana had of course been there many times before! We suddenly had a few days free, as our UK freight was delayed yet again! So early on 7th February we set off for the three hour drive to the West Coast National Park. 

The lovely manor house at Geelbek.

Rock Martin, sheltering from the wind.

Kittlitz's Plover

Large tracks of saltmarsh & reedbeds.

Geelbek Hide

Greater Flamingo

311 birds were present today.

It was high tide so nearly all the waders had left.

The hide affords fantastic close up views.

Abrabhamskraal Hide

This is the only area of freshwater in the park.

Adult Little Grebe feeding chick.

African Sacred Ibis & African Spoonbill

Yellow billed Duck

Cape Shoveler

Purple Gallinule

Orange throated Longclaw.

White backed Mousebird

Jo-Anne's Cottage

The view!

A closer look reveal superb beaches.

The view from inside the cottage.

Cape Francolin, very common here.

Speckled Pigeon

Three striped Mouse

Rock Kestrel

Cape Robin Chat

Karoo Robin

White backed Mousebird

Bokmakerie

Eating snails

White throated Canary

Atlantic Viewpoint

A very scenic spot on the map.

Up early on 8th February & visited the Atlantic Viewpoint on the west side of the park. It is a scenic area, but we missed our main target species which was Karoo Lark. 

Yellow billed Kite

Black winged Kite

Rock Kestrel

Hunting over the dunes.

Karoo Scrub Robin

Geelbeck Hide

The view from the hide.

One can get really close to the birds 

as the tide rises.

The tide was rising, so we quickly moved on to the Geelbek Hide. It was an excellent couple of hours, as our timing was spot on.

Greater Flamingo

Grey Plover

Some individuals already showing

 signs of summer plumage.

Marsh Sandpiper

Common Ringed Plover

Sanderling

Little Stint

Curlew Sandpiper

Birds:

Greater Flamingo 300+; Black winged Stilt 95; Pied Avocet 99; Grey Plover 47; Common Ringed Plover 78; Whimbrel 147; Eurasian Curlew 7; Ruddy Turnstone 4; Ruff 1; Curlew Sandpiper 1800; Sanderling 82; Little Stint 580; Greenshank 21; Marsh Sandpiper 2; Osprey 1; African Fish Eagle 2.

Seeberg Viewpoint

At the viewpoint.

Our last day in the park was on 9th February & we started at the Seeberg Viewpoint. It is a very scenic spot & straight away we started seeing good birds starting with Southern Black Korhaan in the distance. It was a fine male calling, but just too far away for any meaningful photographs. We saw two more males later in the morning. 

Large billed Lark

Karoo Lark

Difficult to approach & photograph.

It is a very Pipit like lark species.

This is a widespread species within its range, 

but often difficult to find.

We were very pleased to see this species.

We then saw a couple of Large billed Larks & then hit the jackpot with at least three Karoo Larks. The Karoo Larks were quite flighty & not easy to observe.

Black Harrier

Quite common within the park.

Grey-backed Cisticola

Southern Grey Tit

Thinly distributed within its range.

We saw a group of three birds, 

which eventually came close.

Southern Penduline Tit

A very smart little endemic!

Kelp Gull

With huge sand eel prey!

Our final stop within the national park was at the Seeberg Hide, which was disappointing because the tide was still too far away. 

Pasternoster, a charming little Cape coast village.

Cape Columbine, notice the track on the left.

One camps right next to the sea.

It is wild & windy here.

A sunny, sheltered spot on the beach.

We then drove to Pasternoster, a nice authentic Cape settlement on the coast. It is a pretty little spot with nice places to stay & eat. In the afternoon we visited an old haunt of Delana's The Cape Columbine Nature Reserve. It has limited diversity but is a scenic spot for camping & lounging for a couple of days.

Common Greenshank

This would be aa nice spot on the map to spend a couple of days basically doing nothing.

Blue Cranes were common on the farmland.

Black headed Heron

Cape Long billed Lark

Saw six birds, but didn't manage a good photo!

Large billed Lark

Sickle-winged Chat

This is a species I hardly ever see.

 I don't spend much time in its range.

So nice to get good views this morning.

The next morning Delana had to work, so I went birding down a little used dirt road looking for Cape Long billed Lark & Sickle-winged Chat. The conditions for birding were terrible! The wind was very strong & made life difficult. However I did see both target species well.

That was the end of our few days away along the west coast. The places were fantastic, but the constant wind was a drain. Delana says this is normal here, so camping could be interesting! We did enjoy some spectacular scenery & some great birding. We will be back!