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| Southern Black Korhaan |
Following our stay at Honeywood Lodge (see here) we headed north-west to Paternoster on the coast north of Cape Town for a 3-night stay, in another nice lodging booked through Air Bnb. We travelled via Karoopoort and Ceres to take in the bottom end of the Karoo ecosystem.
We failed to find Cinnamon-breasted Warbler in a couple of likely looking spots and did not have time to head further north to the main sites for this species. In the karoo and rocky outcrops we saw Karoo Prinia, White-backed Mousebird, Pale-winged Starling and Fairy Flycatcher.
We also saw a couple of Klipspringer.
Paternoster is a delightful town with boulder-strewn beaches and buildings structured around classic Cape Dutch-style architecture.
On our first morning at Paternoster we drove east to St Helena Bay. In roadside fields were numerous larks including the western race of Cape Clapper Lark, a likely split, and plenty of Red-capped Larks and Large-billed Larks.
Other birds included White-throated Swallow, Southern Red Bishop, Capped Wheatear, Familiar Chat and White-throated Swallow.
We failed to find Cinnamon-breasted Warbler in a couple of likely looking spots and did not have time to head further north to the main sites for this species. In the karoo and rocky outcrops we saw Karoo Prinia, White-backed Mousebird, Pale-winged Starling and Fairy Flycatcher.
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| Karoo Prinia |
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| White-backed Mousebird |
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| Klipspringer |
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| Coast near Paternoster |
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| Paternoster town |
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| Large-billed Lark |
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| White-throated Swallow |
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| Southern Red Bishop |
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| Capped Wheatear |
We caught up with two targets missed on previous trips – Grey Tit and the diminutive Cape Pendulite-Tit in the strandveld vegetation.
Other birds in the strandveld included Karoo Scrub-Robin and Chestnut-vented Tit-Babbler.
Blue Crane was plentiful in the area and Spotted Thick-knees were about in areas with open ground.
European Bee-eaters had arrived in numbers for their annual summer visit.
In the afternoon we visited the Lighthouse Reserve south of Paternoster. Cape Spurfowl was numerous and White-fronted Plover was on the beaches in numbers.
Offshore we saw several fairly distant Southern Right-backed Whales, while Cape Gannet was plentiful.
Southern Double-collared Sunbird was common about our lodge. Kelp Gull and Speckled Pigeon were abundant around the town.
Later in the afternoon I drove along another side road off the Vredenburg-Paternoster road and succeeded in finding another target – Cape Long-billed Lark.
The next day we visited the West Coast National Park, where wildflowers were in abundance amid a magnificent coastal vista of sweeping strandveld plains, lagoons and coastal dunes.
At Seebook Lookout, not far from the park's northern end, we flushed a male Southern Black Korhaan – another much-wanted South African endemic – and then a second korhaan. Grey-winged Francolin was also here.
Yellow Bishop was an inquisitive visitor at a lunch stop.
We saw two Black Harriers, surely one of the most impressive raptors, separately hawking the strandveld.
Around the lagoons were Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, Cape Teal, Kittlitz's Plover and African Marsh-Harrier.
During our return to Cape Town the following day via the Darling Wildflower Route, we found a pair of Southern Black Korhann roadside (first image of this post). We flew to Johannesburg for an overnight stay before flying home.
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| Grey Tit |
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| Southern Penduline-Tit |
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| Chestnut-vented Tit-Babbler |
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| Blue Crane & Sacred Ibis |
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| Spotted Thick-knee |
European Bee-eaters had arrived in numbers for their annual summer visit.
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| European Bee-eater |
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| Cape Spurfowl |
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| White-fronted Plover |
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| Cape Gannet |
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| Southern Right Whale |
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| Kelp Gull & Speckled Pigeon |
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| Southern Double-collared Sunbird |
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| Cape Long-billed Lark |
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| West Coast National Park |
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| West Coast National Park |
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| West Coast National Park |
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| West Coast National Park |
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| Southern Black Korhaan |
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| Yellow Bishop |
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| Black Harrier |
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| Cape Teal |
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| Greater Flamingo |
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| Kittlitz's Plover |