}

7 November 1986

My first two years birding in the Cape Provence (South Africa)

During my last couple of years at school, I developed a really strong passion for bird watching.  This was first ignited by Tony Verboom, a very close school friend of mine, who took me off on one of his birding trips. We spent the morning in a local swamp, crawling on our bellies, getting knee deep in mud and thoroughly filthy in our pursuit of lesser spotted thing-a-me-bobs.  And I absolutely loved every minute of it, especially when a beautiful osprey flew over our heads.  From then, I lived and dreamed birds and cycled to the local birding spots every weekend in pursuit of new species (or ticks as we call them) in order to increase my  life list.  I also joined the Cape Town bird club and went on some great hikes with them.

Here are some of the new birds I saw in my first couple of years in the Cape and surrounds.


Rondevlei

  • Avocet
  • Little Bittern
  • Redknobbed Coot
  • Reed Cormorant
  • Burchell's Coucal
  • Black Crake
  • Cape Shoveller
  • Cape Teal
  • Redbilled Teal
  • Yellowbilled Duck
  • Little Egret
  • Yellowbilled egret
  • Purple Gallinule
  • Egyptian Goose
  • Spurwinged Goose
  • Dabchick 
  • Great Crested Grebe
  • African Marsh Harrier
  • Blackcrowned Night Heron
  • Blackheaded heron
  • Grey Heron
  • Purple Heron
  • Sacred Ibis
  • Malachite Kingfisher
  • Pied Kingfisher
  • Moorhen
  • Eastern White Pelican
  • Blacksmith Plover
  • Kittlitz's Plover
  • Ringed Plover
  • Curlew Sandpiper
  • African Spoonbill
  • Blackwinged Stilt
  • Cape reed warbler
  • Cape weaver
  • European sedge warbler


Uilenskraal

  • Bartailed Godwit
  • Kelp Gull
  • Giant Kingfisher
  • Knot
  • Grey Plover
  • Whitefronted plover
  • Ruff
  • Sanderling
  • Little Stint
  • Caspian Tern
  • Sandwich Tern
  • Whimbrel


Devil's Peak

  • Black Eagle


Kirstenbosch

  • Cape batis
  • Sombre bulbul
  • Cape canary
  • Paradise flycatcher
  • Rameron Pigeon
  • Spotted prinia
  • Cape sugarbird
  • Lesser doublecollared sunbird
  • Malachite sunbird
  • Orangebreasted sunbird
  • Alpine Swift


Rietvlei

  • Osprey


Betties Bay

  • Levaillant's cisticola
  • Neddicky
  • Cape rock thrush
  • Ground woodpecker


Cape

  • Cape gannet
  • Cape Bulbul
  • Cape bunting
  • Jackal Buzzard
  • Steppe Buzzard
  • Cape Cormorant
  • black crow
  • Pied crow
  • Water Dikkop
  • Cape Turtle Dove
  • Laughing Dove
  • Redeyed Dove
  • Cattle Egret
  • Greater Flamingo
  • Cape Francolin
  • Greenshank
  • Helmetted Guineafowl
  • Hartlaub's Gull
  • Hoopoe
  • Rock kestrel
  • Blackshouldered kite
  • Orangebreasted longclaw
  • rock martin
  • sand martin
  • Speckled Mousebird
  • Spotted Eagle Owl
  • Feral Pigeon
  • Rock Pigeon
  • Chestnutbanded Plover
  • Crowned Plover
  • Whitenecked raven
  • Cape robin
  • Bokmakierie
  • Southern boubou
  • Fiscal shrike
  • House sparrow
  • Cape sparrow
  • European starling
  • Redwinged starling
  • Little Swift
  • Swift Tern
  • Cape wagtail
  • Cape whiteeye
  • Diederich Cuckoo


Karoo

  • Pririt batis
  • Mountain chat
  • White stork
  • Whitefaced Duck
  • Whitethroated canary
  • Karoo chat
  • Greybacked cisticola
  • Fairy flycather
  • Greater Kestrel
  • Redcapped lark
  • Palewinged starling
  • Cinnamonbreasted warbler
  • Rufouseared warbler

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