After finally finding the Cape Rock Jumper at Rooi-Ells we hit the road again. After starting in Cape Town, we were on a counter-clockwise route around the southern region of South Africa, stopping at a variety of hotspots along the way. Today we were enroute to the town of Swellendam, taking country roads most of the way. We were surrounded by farmland as far as the eye could see – it was like driving through Kansas (where there is nothing else to see but wheat fields). We made a number of stops along the way because it was good habitat for grassland birds. We packed a bag lunch for the road, but skipped the scorpion tails.
Early in the afternoon we stopped next to an extensive pasture for lunch – the little black dots on the side of the hill are cattle.
As we traveled through farm country in South Africa barbed wire lined either side of the two-lane road we were on, which makes excellent perches for grassland birds. Here’s an Orange-throated Longclaw peering across the road at us. It was reminiscent of an Easter or Western Meadowlark.
A Pintailed Whydah perched atop a fence post – I missed the BIF shot of its tail streaming behind it because the bird suddenly took off and unfortunately we never saw another one during our trip.
I did catch a Cloud Cisticola as it hopped up to a fence post. Cisticola was a whole new family of birds to me there – we saw 11 different species of Cisticola during our tour.
We saw some larger birds in the open fields like this Denham’s Bustard, a cousin of the more well-known Kori Bustard and the famous Dave and Bustard’s.
Egyptian geese were common throughout South Africa, but this was the only time we spotted the larger Spur-winged Goose, as it strolled across the middle of a field.
Not as large as the previous two birds, the Gray-winged Francolin was more like a grouse in behavior (walking on the ground) and size.
A small pond near a farmhouse contained several species of birds and my camera was drawn to the striking African Spoonbill. The Roseate Spoonbill, found in the southern U.S., is as distinctively pink as the African Spoonbill is white.
The Blue Crane was one of the most sought-after bird for each of the members of our group. It is the national bird of South Africa; 99% of the population is found just there (according to Google AI).
Next time: Birding around our hotel and Bontebok National Park.
CLICK HERE to see all the posts about our South Africa Bird Tour. Karen and I have had the opportunity to travel to many interesting places in search of birds. If you would like read about some of our other Bird Tours CLICK HERE.
If you enjoy seeing beautiful pictures of birds from around the world and reading about them CLICK HERE to sign up for our mailing list. Members can post their own GreatBirdPics and learn more about bird photography techniques.