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Birds
and Wildflowers
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Trip Information Dates: August 31 – September 12, 2006 Price: $5475 USD, $6675 CDN, Leaders: Richard Knapton and Lucy Chang (and local guides) Highlights: Featured Birds and Mammals: Featured Wildflower Locations: Trip Summary: |
An exciting and unique tour combining birding and botany, both wildflowers and gardens, in two fabulous areas of South Africa, the stunning Cape and the superb Kruger National Park, at the best time of the year, September, the start of the southern spring. Birds will be in full breeding plumage as they start another breeding season. The early rains may have coaxed life from the desert and with luck we will witness one of the best wildflower displays in the world. The Cape Floral Kingdom, or Fynbos, is the most species-rich on earth, with thousands of species of which the majority are found nowhere else. In the Cape area, we visit several gardens and wildflower preserves, including one of the world’s finest, Kirstenbosch, renowned for spectacular floral displays and collections of indigenous plants such as Proteas, Restios and heaths. The Cape peninsula supports a wonderfully diverse array of birds, from endemics such as Cape Sugarbird, Cape Rockjumper, Orange-breasted Sunbird and many more to African Penguin, Blue Crane and Black Eagle. The spectacular floral displays in Namaqualand are breathtaking. We then experience world famous Kruger National Park, a land of acacia and broad-leafed woodland, with impressive wildlife diversity ranging from the “big five” including Leopard to unparalleled and exceptional birding – the park boasts a list of over 500 species! A wonderful and exhilarating tour! See detailed itinerary below.
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ItineraryDay
1 Forest
patches south of Kirstenbosch have been set aside to create a greenbelt
to preserve the area’s natural
character. We will walk into one of these forest preserves and look for
the secretive
Knysa Warbler, a skulking inhabitant of steamside thickets with a beautiful
song. Other species here include Cinnamon Dove, Sombre Bulbul, Paradise
Flycatcher, Rameron Pigeon, and Red-chested Cuckoo. Both Red-breasted
Sparrowhawk and African Goshawk occur here, as do African Sedge Warbler,
Burchell’s Coucal and Common Waxbill. Cape Canary, Spotted Prinia, and Pied Barbet amongst many others occur at Rondevlei on the Cape Flats, along with several swifts - African Black, Little, Alpine and White-rumped. Several hides overlook the marsh affording excellent views of a wide variety of water and marshland birds which should include Caspian Tern, African Darter, Malachite Kingfisher, White-breasted Cormorant and Black-crowned Night Heron. We take in the penguin colony at Boulders Beach where over 900 pairs of the globally threatened African Penguin nest in burrows on sandy beaches among granite boulders. The penguins have become accustomed to sharing their beach with tourists, such that we can walk among the birds. Cape and Crowned Cormorants roost on the offshore boulders, while White-backed Mousebird and Bully Canary inhabit thickets nearby. The
Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve at the tip of Africa is a spectacular
area of rugged coastlines and windswept moorlands
and
is famous for
its striking landscapes, rich human history, and botanical
diversity — over
1 000 species of plant occur here, many found nowhere else on
earth. Birdlife is somewhat sparse, but includes the localized
and elusive
Hottentot Buttonquail, Cape Siskin, Peregrine Falcon and Plain-backed
Pipit. Commoner birds are Grey-backed Cisticola, Karoo Prinia,
Cape Rock Thrush, Red-winged Starling and Cape Bunting. Chacma
Baboons and
Bontebok, an endangered antelope endemic to the Cape, occur here,
and we have a chance at finding Grassbird, Grey-winged Francolin
and Orange-throated
Longclaw. Coastal thickets support Fiscal Flycatcher, and Speckled
Mousebird, and White-fronted Plover and several species of terns
forage along the shores. We visit Waylands Wildflower Reserve where renosterveld vegetation occurs; the vivid colours and diversity of flowering bulbs are spectacular! It is also an excellent place to see Clapper Lark. We also drop in to Oudepos Wildflower Reserve, the largest orchid nursery in the southern hemisphere, and a delightful spot that provides great flower viewing and surprisingly good birding for cisticolas, cuckoos, larks, pipits and longclaws, and the elusive Spotted Dikkop. The West Coast National Park is a wonderfully scenic and excellent birding and wildflower site. In particular, the northwestern Postberg section of the park, open only during the flower season (August to October), offers spectacular scenery, excellent flower viewing and birding and large mammals, including Gemsbok and Springbok.Spring wildflowers should be peaking when we visit. Roadsides could be a carpet of wildflowers, a photographer’s dream! Birding is equally good! Best known for immense numbers of migrant shorebirds on extensive mudflats, these can be readily observed from convenient bird blinds. Other waterbirds, from ducks and spoonbills to rails and crakes, can also be viewed from the blinds. Within the park, Ostrich forage on vegetated dunes, Black Harriers quarter low vegetation, flocks of Pied and Wattled Starlings occur throughout, and Cape, White-breasted and Crowned Cormorants, Cape Gannet and White-chinned Petrel can often be seen offshore. Angulate Tortoises are commonly seen crossing the park roads. Leaving the park our route takes us along the coast to Vredenburg, St. Helena Bay and the Berg River estuary at Velddrif. The estuary and floodplain cover a vast area, extending 40 km inland along one of the Cape’s biggest rivers. This area encompasses a wide diversity of habitats, including sandy beaches, mudflats, reedbeds, riverine channels, strandveld and floodplain, and it is famously rich in birdlife. We will amass an impressive tally of plovers, sandpipers, flamingos, waterfowl, herons, egrets, spoonbills among many others. Raptors could include Jackal and Steppe Buzzards, and passerines several species of larks, mousebirds, barbets, Rufous-eared Warbler and swallows. Spotted Eagle Owls nest in copses of eucalyptus and wattle trees. Day 4. Night near Langebaan. Day 5. Night in/near the wineland capital of Stellenbosch. Day
6 The Harold Porter Botanical Garden is a beautiful, secluded garden set between mountain and sea, in the heart of the Cape fynbos region and encompasses 10 hectares of cultivated fynbos garden and 190.5 hectares of pristine natural fynbos. Situated in the centre of the coastal fynbos where the flora is at its richest, the garden encompasses mountain slopes with their wind-clipped heathlands, deep gorges with relict forests, flats and marshes with restios, sedges and bulbs, as well as dunes adjacent to the beach with their specialized salt-adapted plants. We may be lucky to find the rare Protea Canary, found only in the fynbos, present in the garden. After a delightful visit to this garden, we head back towards Paarl/Stellenbosch, stopping in the Helderberg Nature Reserve and perhaps taking a detour through the Wine Country. Night near Paarl/Stellenbosch. Day
7 What to expect:South Africa is a land of contrasts, from semi-deserts to grasslands, mountains and forests, and we experience two fabulous areas in the country, the stunning Cape and superb Kruger National Park. September is when seasons change, therefore the climate should vary from warm days to cool nights, with the western Cape possibly cold, depending upon the passage of fronts. Rain is possible. Expect temperature ranges from lows in the 30s (5 Celsius) to highs in the 90s (30 Celsius). Dress in layers, with a warm sweater or jacket for cooler weather, as South Africa’s spring climate is variable and conditions often change markedly during a single day so layers can be put on and discarded. Good walking shoes or light boots should suffice at most locations. Most walking is largely on fairly level, even ground, with a couple of short stretches of steeper, rockier inclines. We stay in good quality accommodations, often in excellent birding localities. We will have game drives in Kruger, which will maximize our chances for viewing wildlife, especially large mammals. Days will usually start at first light, to catch activity in the morning before the day warms up and activity slows down. On most days, there will be a pre-breakfast optional walk, and we will have night game drives in the national park for owls and other nightlife. Most days will typically find us starting at dawn, continuing to noon, perhaps having a siesta before heading out again in the afternoon, and finishing at dusk, for a leisurely dinner during which we review what we have seen and discuss plans for the next day. Needless to say, there will be innumerable splendid photographic opportunities - bring lots of film and memory cards!! |
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