Xwinger, I promise this is my last post abut our South Africa Birding Tour with Red Hill Birding (perhaps “promise” is too strong a commitment – how about “intend”). After reporting to you about a trip like this I enjoy putting together a summary of facts and figures for your enjoyment. At the bottom I’ve included some of my favorite pics.
- I took about 11,000 pictures over the 19 days in South Africa. Additionally I took 164 iPhone shots of lodging and landscapes which I use to help bring context to presentations and slide shows about the trip.
- After editing I ended up with 1480 images, or about a 13.5% keeper rate. This was higher than usual (7-10%) partly due to my desire to hold on to images of new birds, even if they were poor, and because of all the shots of mammals (elephants and giraffes in particular) I kept.
- I had 297 Lifers on the trip, which is pretty good! Karen had more because I saw some of the same birds previously in India.
- I saw 383 species on the trip, which shows that most of the birds I observed were new to me.
- The “group” saw or heard 411 species. The guides (Josh, David, and Edward) recorded species that they heard and even if I heard that same song I didn’t record it as a Lifer. Additionally we saw 43 mammal species there.
- I created an eBird Trip Report that gives an overview of where we went and what we saw. If you would like to view it CLICK HERE.
- All in all we had a great trip! It’s always been a dream of mine to go to Kruger National Park and it did not disappoint! Even though we spent 4 our our 19 days in Kruger, over half of my pictures were taken there. This is kind of amazing because we were limited to what we could see from our safari vehicle – just image how much more we could have seen if we had been able to wander about (setting aside the possibility of being eaten by a lion while being out in the open).
Before signing off, I want to add an extra thank you to our guide Josh Engel, owner of Red Hill Birding, for doing such a great job. He is at the top of my list of all the guides we have had, and we’ve had quite a few. In addition to being an excellent birder he is hardworking, organized and generally great to be around – everyone had a great experience because of Josh.
Thanks for all the kind comments about these Trip Reports. I enjoy writing them because I relive the trip as I share my experiences with you. Our next big bird trip is to Alaska this June so you can expect another Trip Report this summer (sorry, Xwinger).
Yes, it was expensive. Yes, we were gone a long time. Yes, we had a great time and would highly recommend the trip.
In case you missed them, below are shots of my favorite birds we saw during our 19 days in South Africa:
I found this Southern Red Bishop right outside of our Cape Town lodging in Cinnamon House.
I loved the eye-ring on the Three-Banded Plover.
I fell in love with the Common Waxbill I saw at the Botanical Gardens just outside of Cape Town.
Another stunner at the botanical gardens was the Fairy-paradise Flycatcher. What an amazing tail!
The Cape White-eye was seen much of the southern half of South Africa. Here was one of my favorite pics.
Penguins were an unexpected treat to see there – unexpected because it wasn’t in the frigid Antartica (kind of show how much I studied up for the trip).
The Krysna Turaco was one of the strangest birds we saw – it had a green hairy appearance.
I love BIF shots and the Long-tailed Widowbird was right up my alley. I begged Josh to stop and let me shoot away and came back with some keepers.
You can’t get more colorful than the Lilac-breasted Roller. I had to take pictures of them every time we saw one in Kruger.
The Golden-breasted Bunting was a small but beautiful bird we saw outside of Kruger NP.
Is there something wrong with me? I just love the ugly Hamerkop.
The Red-billed Oxpecker cracked me up – feeding on insects within the hair of a giraffe.
We saw Go-Away birds throughout South Africa. This one was in Kruger NP. I think I scared it.
A variety of weavers were see across South Africa. One of the most colorful was the Southern Masked-Weaver.
So which one was your favorite?
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.
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