 |
||||
 |
||||
|
Day Tours 1-day Cape Peninsula Birding Tour
Cape Town, one of the world’s most beautiful cities, is located near Table Bay on the northern extremity of the stunning Cape Peninsula. This morning we will fetch you from your Cape Town hotel and spend the day taking you to some of the Peninsula’s top birding sites. We will try to find a lot of the localized endemics (of which there are many), and we will also see flamingo, pelican and other waterbird spectacles, plus we will enjoy fantastic botanical garden birding in idyllic surroundings. We will start the day at the Constantia Greenbelt where our main target bird is the endangered, skulking, Knysna Warbler. Here we may also find African Olive (Rameron) Pigeon, Red-chested Cuckoo, Buff-spotted Flufftail (with luck), the characterful Cape Batis, and other forest birds. Then we will spend a couple of hours birding the famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Here, it is quite easy to find some important fynbos endemics such as Orange-breasted Sunbird and Cape Sugarbird. Other fine birds such as Cape Francolin, Southern Boubou, Cape Canary, Brimstone Canary, Cape Thrush, Cape Robin-chat, Spotted Prinia, Swee Waxbill (with luck) and a whole host of other excellent birds abound. Eurasian Honey Buzzard, a very rare bird in South Africa, is actually regular at Kirstenbosch in late summer. Many other raptors are possible in the gardens and at other sites we will visit during our Peninsula day trip – including Verreaux’s (Black) Eagle, several exciting accipiters, Jackal Buzzard (endemic), Forest Buzzard (endemic), Peregrine Falcon, Rock (Common) Kestrel and others. After an early lunch, we will visit a wetland, either Rondevlei or Strandfontein Bird Sanctuary. Here we should find wildfowl such as Cape Teal, Maccoa Duck and many others, Greater Flamingo, Great White Pelican, African Black Oystercatcher, African Purple Swamphen, three grebe species, shorebirds, African Marsh Harrier, a host of heron species, four species of reed-associated warbler, and MANY more. We will visit a colony of African Penguin (one of only three mainland colonies of this Namibia/South Africa endemic), en route to the spectacular south-western-most tip of the African continent, Cape Point. From this “end of the world” spot, we should see Cape Gannet, a large breeding colony of Cape Cormorant and quite a number of interesting terrestrial birds – Cape Grassbird, Cape Siskin, Bokmakierie and Cape Bulbul are exciting possibilities. Time permitting, we may be able to briefly visit Kommetjie for both species of endemic cormorant (Bank and Crowned), White-fronted Plover and other species. However, we are trying to fit in a huge amount anyway during this frenzied day of Cape birding. In fact, birders wanting a more relaxed pace or wanting to fit in additional sites should definitely add a second day of Peninsula birding. An additional day greatly increases the chances of finding difficult species such as accipiters and Forest Buzzard.
|
Itinerary: Duration: 1 day Limit: 2-12 Date: as required Start: Cape Town End: Cape Town Price: on request Price_Includes: Guiding fees Vehicle hire and fuel Price_Excludes: International & domestic flights Transfers Personal Insurance Meals Entrance fees Accommodation Alcoholic Beverages Gratuities Laundry Service Personal expenses such as gifts
|
||
|
© 2008-2010 Birding Ecotours · www.birdingecotours.co.za was updated March 2010 |
||||
