August 31-September 12, 2024 with Marcelo Padua & Tarry Butcher
This was the second run of this wonderful tour, and we implemented some changes from the original tour that have made it even better. Instead of starting the tour in Johannesburg, we have added a night in Cape Town and started the tour there and we have added a night in Kruger allowing us to enjoy our game drives a bit more.
Our group met on the first day in the gardens of our hotel at the foothills of Table Mountain and saw a few common birds such as Egyptian Goose, Hadada Ibis, Red-winged Starlings and Cape Robin-chat, but the real highlight was a Cape Dwarf Chameleon. We had a beautiful first dinner accompanied by some great South African wines to set the tone for the days to come.
Up next, we enjoyed the highlight of any tour of Cape Town, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. A beautiful day in the gardens walking among Proteas, Aloes and Ericas proved to be quite productive, and we found several emblematic birds such as Cape Sugarbird, Cape Spurfowl, Cape Grassbird, Spotted Eagle-Owl, and many others. We followed the visit to Kirstenbosch with a brief visit to a sewage treatment plant (after all, no birding tour is complete without one) and picked up some great birds including Greater Flamingo, Lesser Swamp Warbler, Cape Shoveler, and Gray-hooded Gull. We finished the day with a visit to South Africa’s oldest winery and a memorable dinner paired with the wines from the winery, including Napoleon’s favorite wine for dessert.
We also dedicated a full day to exploring West Coast National Park, where we visited the Geelbek Bird Hide and enjoyed fabulous looks at a great number of waterfowl species, including Kittlitz’s Plover, Little Stint, Cape Teal, and African Oystercatcher, but the real highlight came with the carpet of wildflowers where Common Ostrich, Karoo Scrub-robins and Black Harriers roamed. This was certainly one of the most memorable birding days of our tour.
An added day in Cape Town meant we could explore our way along False Bay to Bettys’s Bay in a leisurely manner, and our drive along the bay produced great looks at Cape Rock-thrush, Karoo Prinia, Cape Rockjumper, Fiscal Flycatcher, Orange-breasted Sunbird, and Cape Bunting. Our drive culminated with a visit to Stony Point where we visited a colony of African Penguins, enjoying great looks at these charismatic birds, but also allowing us to study Cape, Great, Bank, and Crowned Cormorants side by side, as well as other great birds such as Water Thick-knee and Cape Gannet.
Our last full day in the Cape area was devoted to visiting Cape Point National Park where we visited the famous Cape of Good Hope and found a Common Ostrich right by the sea and a stunning Malachite Sunbird before heading back north towards the wine country to visit Spier Winery, where we sampled some wonderful wines but also found some wonderful birds. Their gardens hosted, amongst others, a male Pin-tailed Whydah, African Black Duck, African Fish Eagle, Cape Canary and Cape Sparrow. We finished the day with a visit to the DeWaal wine estate, where we learned everything about South Africa’s iconic grape, the Pinotage.
Our time in the Fynbos was magical but we clicked our heels three times and said “There is no place like Kruger”, and just like magic, we were in the Bushveld surrounded by Elephants, Zebras, Impalas and a completely different avifauna. We settled into our hotel at Skukuza Camp and loaded up on our safari vehicles to begin exploring this incredible place, making a stop at Lake Panic hide and picking up Purple-crested Turaco, Natal Spurfowl, Black Crake, African Jacana, Chinspot Batis, and Bearded Woodpecker, just to name a few. We also enjoyed the interactions of Hippopotamus in the lake before heading back to camp.
On our first full day in Kruger, we slowly made our way to Lower Sabie Camp for lunch, taking a full morning to cover the 35 miles that separate the two camps as we stopped for Walberg’s and Tawny Eagles, Green Woodhoopoes, Yellow-billed and Red-billed Hornbills, White-fronted and Little Bee-eaters, Sulfur-breasted Bushshrike and more Elephants, Giraffes, Hippos, Impalas, Zebras, Vervet Monkeys and Mongooses than any of us could count. Lunch at Lower Sabie was quite eventful too as herds of Elephants came to the river to drink, surrounded by Black-winged Stilts, Three-banded Plovers, Wood Sandpiper and many others. Not to mention the Greater Blue-eared Starlings that eagerly waited for us to leave the table so that they could start their clean up job, and Wahlberg’s Epauleted Fruit Bats draped from the thatch roofs and watching all of the commotion below. After lunch we returned to Skukuza in a more expedited manner (or else we would have been locked out of camp) but still managed to find some great birds like Red-crested Bustard, Martial Eagle, Bateleur and Pearl Spotted Owlet. What an unforgettable day!
After two nights at Skukuza it was time to pack up and transfer to Satara Camp, but before hitting the road we took advantage of the safety of our camp to bird on foot and connect with wonderful birds such as Black-collared Barbet, African Black-headed Oriole, Red-capped Robin-chat, Scarlet-chested Sunbird and Lesser Masked-weaver, before hopping on our safari vehicles once more, this time for a 60 mile drive that would take us all day as we moved from the more wooded areas around Skukuza to the grassier fields around Satara. The drive was every bit as rewarding as one would expect, as we found Lionesses hunting along the road, Leopard, Southern Ground-hornbills, Saddle-billed Storks, Hooded and White-backed Vultures, Black-backed Puffbacks, Purple Rollers and several others along the way. What a fabulous way to spend a day.
Mammals we saw:
Vervet Monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus)
Chacma Baboon (Papio ursinus)
Scrub Hare (Lepus saxatalis)
Smith's Bush Squirrel (Paraxerus cepapi)
Black-backed Jackal (Lupulella mesomelas)
African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus)
Common Slender Mongoose (Herpestes sanguineus)
Banded Mongoose (Mungos mungo)
Common Dwarf Mongoose (Helogale parvula)
Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
Leopard (Panthera pardus)
Lion (Panthera leo)
African Savanna Elephant (Loxodonta africana)
Rock Hyrax (Procavia capensis)
Plains Zebra (Equus quagga)
White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum)
Desert Warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus)
Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
Nyala (Tragelaphus angasi)
Northern Bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus
Greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros
Common Eland (Tragelaphus oryx)
Cape Buffalo (Syncerus caffer)
Bush Duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia)
Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus)
Southern Reedbuck (Redunca arundinum)
Bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus)
Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
Klipspringer (Oreotragus oreotragus)
Steenbok (Raphicerus campestris)
Impala (Aepyceros malampus)
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis)
Winery, Wine name, Origin, Wine type, Vintage
Charles Fox, Cap Classique Brut, Sparkling, 2016
Anthonij Rupert Wyne, Protea, Coastal Region, White, 2023
Mooiplaas, Pinotage, Stellenbosch, Red, 2022
La Motte, Sauvignon Blanc, Franchhoek, White, 2023
Groot Constantia, Estate Wine, Constantia, Rose, 2024
Groot Constantia, Sauvignon Blanc, Constantia, White, 2023
Groot Constantia, Pinotage, Constantia, Red ,2022
Groot Constantia, Shiraz, Constantia, Red 2021
Groot Constantia, Gouverneurs Reserve, Constantia, Red, 2020
Delaire Graff, Cabernet Franc Rose, Stellenbosch, Rose, 2023
Groot Constantia, Grand Constance, Constantia, Fortified, 2019
Groote Post, Seasalter, Darling Hills, White, 2023
Groote Post, The Old Man’s Blend, Darling Hills, Red, 2023
Warwick, The first Lady, Western Cape, White, 2023
Chamonix, Feldspar Pinot Noir, Franchhoek, Red 2022
Oak Valley, Beneath the Clouds, Cape South Coast, White, 2022
Benguela Cove, Lighthouse Collection Syrah, Walker Bay, Red, 2020
Strydom, Danièle Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, White, 2022
Spier, Frans K Smit, Stellenbosch, Red, 2015
Spier, Cape Winemaker’s Guild, Stellenbosch, White, 2017
Spier, 21 Gables Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, White, 2022
Spier, Creative Block 2, Stellenbosch, White, 2023
Spier, Creative Block 3, Stellenbosch, Red, 2020
Spier, Creative Block 5, Stellenbosch, Red, 2021
Spier, 21 Gables Pinotage, Stellenbosch, Red, 2022
Spier, First Stone, Stellenbosch, Red, 2021
DeWaal, Pinotage, Stellenbosch, Red, 2020
DeWaal, CT De Waal, Stellenbosch, Red, 2018
Steenberg, The Black Swan, ,Constantia, White, 2023
Steenberg, Catharina, ,Constantia, Red, 2020
Springfield Estate, Life from Stone, Robertson, White, 2024
Springfield Estate, Whole Berry Cabernet Sauvignon, Robertson, Red, 2020
Fleur Du Cap, Essence du Cap Chardonnay, Western Cape, White, 2022
Diemersdal, Eight Rows Vineyard Selection, Cape Town, White, 2021
Cirrus, Pinot Noir Ceres Plateau, Ceres Plateau, Red, 2021
Rust En Vedre, Estate Vineyards Syrah, Stellenbosch, Red 2021
Jean Engelbrecht, Hangbrug Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, White 2023
Guardian Peak, Merlot, Stellenbosch, Red, 2021
Donkiesbaai, Steen, Stellenbosch, White, 2023
Donkiesbaai, Luiderkruis, Stellenbosch, Red 2019
Graham Beck, Brut Rose, Western Cape, Sparkling, No Vintage
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/273509
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/sbw24TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Marcelo Padua