South West lowlands

This area covered comprises of Bontebok NP, Angulhas farm fields, Potberg escarpment and Da Hoop NP, which lie to the east of the Cape by about 200kms. All the areas have their specialist birds and we saw them all. Bontebok NP in particular was magical, with birds around the river plentiful and some quite rare for the area.

 Black-headed Heron

 Blue Crane

 
 Brown Hooded Kingfisher

 Malachite Sunbird

 Martial Eagle - immature

 Southern Red Bishop

 Olive Pigeon

 Brown-throated Martin

 Great Double-collared Sunbird

Hartlaub's Gull

Yellow-billed Duck

Off the fynbos back up to the Karoo

We left the coastal fynbos behind and headed back up to the Cedarberg mountains where we again spent 2 days exploring the area and the south part of the Karoo. We searched for and found most of the speciality species of the area while staying at the Klein Cedarberg Private Reserve complex, which was one of the most relaxing experiences anyone can have. The stars at night were incredible and the birding wasn't to bad either.

 Chat Flycatcher - I think

 Blue Crane

 Cape Weaver

 Cinnamon-breasted Warbler

 Cape Wagtail

 Cape Robin-chat

 Familiar Chat

 Karoo Eremomela

 Laughing Dove

 Southern Masked Weaver

 Speckled Pigeon

Karoo Long-billed Lark

Off the Karoo down to the Fynbos

As we left the Karoo we descended through the mountains of Namaqualand to the coastal fynbos. Places visited included Namaqualand, Lambert's Bay, Bird Island, Berg River Estuary, Saltpans near Veldriff and the West Coast NP. New sets of species were seen bumping up our trip total.

 African Darter

 Bar-throated Apalis

 Blue Crane

 Cape Gannet

 Caspian Tern

 Chestnut banded Plover

 Greater Flamingo (mainly)

 Ground Woodpecker

 Jackal Buzzard

 Kittlitz's Plover

 Lesser Flamingo

 Southern Black Korhaan

Wattled Starling

Out of the desert into the Karoo, South Africa

We did some birding outside Kgalagadi NP. Mainly around the dry river valley near a small village called Askham and Uppington River Park and Augrabies Falls NP on the way to our next stop in Poffadder at the heart of the Karoo, the area is known as Bushmanland and is semi scrub dry desert with very little rain. This area has been in a severe drought for two years and the rivers from here that supply Cape Town's water have all dried up and the Cape is quickly running out of water. If it doesn't rain heavily soon Cape Town could run out of water in 6 months and that would spell disaster.

 African Grassland Pipit

 Blacksmith Plover

 Cape Glossy Starling

 Crested Barbet

 Crowned Lapwing

 Lilac-breasted Roller

 Martial Eagle

 Northern Black Korhaan

 Pale-chanting Goshawk

 Pale-winged Starling

 Southern Grey-headed Sparrow

 Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

 Violet-eared Waxbill

 White-backed Vulture

 White-browed Sparrow Weaver

Southern Pied Babbler