Apart for being one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Cape Town hosts great wildlife. In my previous posts I shared my experiences at sea and in the Boulders penguin colony. In this post I will clear up the rest of the stuff we saw in and around Cape Town. I display here some of the birds I saw and photographed - mostly common stuff but all African birds are delicious IMO.
In my first afternoon we went for a nice walk on the beach at the stunning Hout Bay. Not too many birds but the view there is breathtaking.
We failed to find the Cape Mountain Zebras there, but saw some impressive Eland at a distance. The Chacma Baboons certainly found us.
In my first afternoon we went for a nice walk on the beach at the stunning Hout Bay. Not too many birds but the view there is breathtaking.
Great Crested (Swift) Tern
Sandwich Terns only look somewhat uninspiring, but they are bad-ass migrants!
Cape Fur Seal behaving like a good boy
Hout Bay
In my first morning I woke up early and went to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, before the rest of my family got out of bed. It was quite a productive hour. And, again, very beautiful. Despite the drought, the gardens looked good.
Swee Waxbill - Kirstenbosch specialty
Cape Sugarbird - what a bird
Hadada Ibis - common as dirt but super charismatic, and pretty in the golden morning sun
Brimstone Canary
Record shot of the scarcer Forest Canary
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
Another early morning my brother and I went with Trevor to Strandfontein WTP, a regional hotspot for birding. It was a superb morning with 90 species, lots of individuals and some cool stuff.
Some of the Hottentot Teal we had among the many Red-billed Teals
Hundreds of Cape Shovelers
Spur-winged Geese
Black-headed Heron
Fewer Lesser Flamingos among the many greaters.
Three-banded Plovers - check that stunning red eyering
Fun exercise to search for Grey-hooded Gulls among the many Hartlaub's
Note the diagnostic dark underwing of the Grey-hooded compared to Hartlaub's
Black-winged Kite
The impressive White-necked Raven
White-throated Swallow
The stunningly beautiful and distinctive female Cape Weaver
A visit to Cape Point was very powerful, because of the wild wind that day. As a result we saw few birds , but still enjoyed it very much. Cape Buntings are stupidly tame there:
I didn't succeed to photograph the parents of this fresh juv familiar Chat
We failed to find the Cape Mountain Zebras there, but saw some impressive Eland at a distance. The Chacma Baboons certainly found us.
Black-girdled Lizard - mini dragon
Cape Point
Very nice overview
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