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South Africa 2013 - Pt 5

2:39 PM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

De Hoop NR: What a fantastic location. If we had our time again we would have spent three days here, as it happened we had barely 24hrs. We used it as a midway point on our return journey from Knysna to Cape Town..... safe to say we will return one day.

It is regarded as a creditable place to spend time Whale Watching..... I can concur. We arrived late afternoon and were greeted by two fine species of antelope, firstly the Common Eland (I didn't know at the time but this would be my last sighting of the species during the three week stay in SA) and the wonderful Bontebok.

Common Eland

Bontebok

We checked into out superb Rondavels overlooking the estuary.

bfb...... taking in the sight

It was late afternoon so we headed straight to Koppie Allen as a number of Southern Right Whales had been seen earlier in the day. It was 30 minutes away but the dirt tracks didn't hold us back we arrived with gorgeous sunlight and were met by beautiful white sand dunes from where we witnessed 11 Southern Rights Whales.

Koppie Allen

I can think of worse places to be watching Whales from..... Matt, Ryan & Liz watching Southern Right Whales from the white Sand Dunes at Koppie Allen

Southern Right Whales

We could have stayed for hours but light would soon fade..... we spent a wonderful 90 minutes in the company of these gigantic creatures, certainly one of the trip highlights and something that we will do again soon. Back at the car park we had some stunning species of bird and mammal.

Four striped Grass-mouse

Speckled Mousebird

Cape Sugarbird

Cape Bulbul

Cape Bunting

Back at De Hoop camp and just before the sun dropped out of sight, a stroll around the grounds near to our rondaval brought this nice surprise, and only 30 yards away

Spotted Eagle-Owl

and our other neighbours that lived underneath the wall of our patio -

a family group of Rock Dassie

All the following bird species were seen within a 300 yrd walk of our patio!

Cape spurfowl

Southern Boubou

Ostrich

looking into the estuary were good flocks of Great White Pelican

and Greater Flamingos

Knysna Woodpecker

not sure if this was the luckiest sighting I had, but I had missed it a day earlier while in Harkerville forest, so to catch up with it here was a huge surprise.... and right outside the patio overlooking the estuary.... early morning light, the sun was still behind the mountains but still just fantastic!

Fiscal Flycatcher

Common Fiscal (Shrike)

Cape Weaver

African Spoonbill

Caspian Tern

Bockmakarie

brilliant bird, I could have watched this fella for ages

More Speckled Mousebirds

Bar Throated Apalis

Crowned Lapwing

Capped Wheatear

other species included, African Black Duck, Black Crowned Night-Heron, Red Knobbed Coot, Red Capped Lark, Familiar Chat, Grey Backed Cisticola, Sombre Greenbul, Brown Banded Martin, Little Swift, Eurasion Golden Oriole, African Stonechat, Laughing Dove, Cape Crow.......

and just as were leaving we added these two species

Yellow Mongoose

Leopard Tortoise

Its incredible to think that this whole post is dedicated to just this one location and in less than a 24hr stay - next stop Cape Town and a flight to Kruger

Labels:De Hoop,South Africa | 0 comments

South Africa 2013 - Pt 4

8:44 AM | Posted by Unknown | | Edit Post

The Garden Route: Montague to Knysna (Garden of Eden)

We spent 4 days touring parts of the garden route. It was always going to be a whistle stop tour just so we were able to get a small flavour of this part of the Western Cape. Travel from Cape town to Montague where we stayed at the very impressive Vineyard Country house See here. The garden provided me with Peregrine Falcon that ate its prey in the trees at the rear of the land, 3 Spotted Thicknees & Intermediate Egrets over, Levaillants Cisticola, Southern Masked Weaver, Alpine Swifts, while a little further out of town towards Barrydale we had Black Harrier, plenty of Jackal Buzzards, Pale Chanting Goshawks, Swee Waxbill and Red Faced Mousebirds

Our next stop was for 2 nights at the wonderful treetop chalet at Knysna (Garden of Eden) just outside Plettenberg Bay See here. A good list of birds from this location as you would expect from a forest location... Cape Batis, Black Backed Puffback, Red Eyed Dove, Fork Tailed Drongo, Dusky Flycatcher, Swee Waxbill, African Olive Pigeon, Bar throated Apalis, amongst a host of others.....

and some images

Grey Cuckoo-Shrike

Amethyst Sunbird

Greater Double Collared Sunbird (and the only sighting I had in SA)

Knysna Turaco.

I sat on the chalet balcony early morning with a coffee waiting for the sun to rise high enough over the canopy to attract the birds out. I knew this stunning species should be in the forest but just hoped to get a glimpse. I heard one got the bins and bingo their it was... distant but in full view. Happy days indeed. While the family got ready I went to the front intending to have a very short walk as I opened the door I was confronted with 4 Knysna Turacos...... it just couldn't get any better.

What a stunner, and certainly one of my birds of the entire trip to South Africa