Twitching The Dusky Lark in Beaufort West

The Return of Another Twitch Bus Adventure

For context, the SA Rare Bird News Report announced on the 7th of April that the province’s first Dusky Lark had been found the day before at Springfontein Dam in Beaufort West. It was twitched successfully by several birders in the following weeks, though it often seemed to vanish for days at a time.

On the 24th, we got an invite to join our friends, Michael Mason, Trevor and Margaret Hardaker, and Karin Wilson- on another legendary Twitch Bus™ adventure, this time chasing the elusive Dusky Lark. Although I hadn’t properly met Karin before, she’s long been a familiar name, always engaged and encouraging on these blog posts, which has been genuinely appreciated.

Excited about the offer and determined not to let opportunities slip by anymore, we gladly accepted. While Michael and the Hardakers handled the essential, detailed planning, we focused on the more critical task: dreaming up our species targets.

Although my birding journey has largely been focused on the Western Cape, I had never ventured into the distant northeast of the province. I always figured I’d tackle places like Murraysburg once I ran out of local targets around Cape Town. And while that day hasn’t quite arrived yet, it’s definitely reached the stage where every new tick needs a much more strategic approach.

So you can imagine my excitement at the thought of exploring a vast, untouched region, an area dramatically different in habitat from the fynbos-dominated landscapes I usually haunt. I had at least 22 potential lifers in mind, some more plausible than others:

An Early Morning Start

The adventure kicked off at an ungodly hour, with a plan to depart Michael’s place at 02:45 AM. After squeezing in a restless three-hour nap, our alarms dragged us into the dark, where, despite it being late April, the night air was warm, dry, and still, broken only by the hum of distant insects.

The drive through to Durbanville was uneventful. Once there, we rendezvoused with Karin and the Hardakers, packing our gear into the renowned Twitch Bus™, a VW Caravelle so storied it could probably write its own memoirs on the birds and terrains it has conquered. It could even serve as an effective VW marketing campaign.

Within five minutes, we were loaded up and rolling, embarking on the 4.5-hour journey to Beaufort West, our sights set on the Dusky Lark.

Our Travels Begin

Despite the early morning hours, with Trevor and Michael sharing a car, you know that there won’t be a shortage of humor and friendly banter. Mags, on the other hand, gave strict instructions to wait until at least the second cup of coffee before being addressed. And while in jest, the threat still somehow seemed very real.

AI Capturing The Essence of The Coffee Effect On Mags

Given the middle-of-the-night departure, most of us were operating in full zombie mode. Conversation was light, but Michael’s trademark one-liners pierced through the fog of sleep deprivation.

This was also Milli’s first intense twitch, the kind where you leave before 3 AM chasing a single, rare bird. Though still learning the ropes, she has an uncanny intuition for bird features, and like me, finds genuine excitement in milestone listings.

(And to anyone who clutches their pearls over “listing culture”. Thousands of birders started out chasing lists, and many have grown into lifelong conservationists because of it. But even those who don’t shouldn’t feel obligated to approach birding with a strict conservation approach. Having this mindset will only inhibit the potential for citizen-science-focused efforts later in life.

As the endless night began to lift, a faint, warm glow brushed the horizon.

Breakfast & Birding

To Trevor’s immense delight, the Beaufort West Wimpy was open, a beacon of hope on the barren landscape. While I pride myself as Wimpy’s #1 fanboy, Trevor’s enthusiasm easily surpassed mine. Frankly, he deserves a sponsorship deal:
“Wimpy: The Breakfast of Birders.”

With breakfast secured, we made the short hop to Springfontein Dam, as the Dusky Lark flies, anyway. In reality, the route involved a few rough tracks and some proper off-road maneuvering.

Importantly, I was only four birds shy of reaching 400 Western Cape birds, a milestone I’d been inching toward ever since the Sooty Falcon nearly eight years earlier.

With Beaufort West being situated in a vast expanse of landscapes, I wanted to focus a bit more on habitat shots, rather than just tight crops, so I’ve provided both for species where possible.

Our Arrival, And Searching For The Dusky Lark

We arrived perfectly on time, in fact, several minutes earlier than the 08:00 target, which seemed to be a routine for the bird. Although there were days without sightings, the successful sightings had been recorded then.

It was a birding area quite unlike anything I’d done, and although I still fondly recall some of the unusual rural KZN birding we did, this was quite different, especially in terms of habitat.

We scanned over the area, which was a flat, rocky area slightly elevated from the surrounding land. It was circled in thickets and some small ponds. It was here that we spent several hours birding, working the area hard for any signs of the Lark, which at this point was last spotted 4 days earlier, on Tuesday.

While there wasn’t anything new to my list in this area, Trevor and Mags showed us where they had just seen some Pirit Batis and Fairy Flycatcher, two species that Milli still needed, and so what was to become a significant trend in new species for her began. We also got some awesome views of a Dusky Sunbird.

After several hours of working the spot, it was jumped back in the van, and we made our way around the small gravel roads in the area. It was here that we got Karoo Korhaan, Karoo Long-Billed Lark, and Sabota Lark. 

All three birds were new for Milli, and even I needed the Sabota Lark! We got good views of it as well, the most distinct feature being the thick bill. But the bird was still somewhat far off.

Sabota Lark

Milli Prevents An ER Visit

We all hopped out and got closer for some photographs. Obviously, with eyes focused on the bird, I wasn’t too aware of what was happening down on the ground, so imagine my surprise when I heard Milli’s speaker softly and calmly:

“Ummm, Bryn – look by your foot”

Not even processing with my sleep-deprived brain, I stand still for a few seconds before I look down and see a small Adder moving directly towards me, hissing. I calmly stepped back and out of its way, allowing it to slither under a nearby bush.

The situation had caught Trevor’s attention, who managed to see the snake slip into the bush. There was a quick change in tempo, with the Sabota now a completely lost thought. Instead, Trevor managed to get the snake out for us to get some better views, and my god, what an awesome specimen!

Horned Adder

I had no idea of how common or uncommon it was at the time, instead just living in the moment of a cool snake spotting, but turns out a Horned Adder is a pretty special sighting. Especially for the province.

If Milli hadn’t picked up on the hissing at our feet, I was poised to stand directly on it, and our trip to Beaufort West could have taken a pretty bad turn, pretty quickly. And nobody wants to spend their long weekend dealing with cytotoxic venom. Necrosis is something I’d feel a bit more comfortable without.

It was then time to swing back to the Dusky Lark spot and give it another go, but this again turned up empty, and things were now starting to look a bit bleak. There was always a chance the next day, so we held onto hopes for that, while we spent the remainder of the afternoon birding other specials in the area. But not before coming across a large group of content Namaqua Sandgrouse, which gave us some awesome views, just meters away. This was yet another new bird for Milli, who’d racked up more than half a dozen at this point.

The blue tips on the male’s upper wing feathers were really unique and eye-catching, and while the females weren’t exactly drab, with the warm yellow tones, blue-grey bill, and subtle eye-ring, their plumage was closely aligned to other arid species, while the male’s feathers really stood out as distinct.

Chasing Down Targets and Karoo Specials

The first stop was for a Gabar Goshawk, a raptor that I’ve desperately wanted for the province, but one that’s also not exactly the easiest. We made our way into Beaufort West suburbia, or the closest thing to it, considering there’s no defined boundary between houses and open farmlands.

It took no more than 10 minutes for us to get the bird to make an appearance, even at one point flying directly towards us and into a tree behind us. I didn’t expect such good views of the bird, but what an awesome experience. If you’ve read my blog before or know me personally, you’d know that raptors are something special to me. While a staunch ABM (All Birds Matter) supporter, raptors just hit differently for me, even as a kid, seeing them fly over the yard, long before my interest in birding. This also took me to #398 for the province.

Gabar Goshawk

Next, we made our way to a very long and diverse road that runs between Beaufort West and Aberdeen. Trevor and Michael worked hard on this road to give us some incredible sightings, and man, I definitely didn’t expect the kind of results we had.

Within minutes, we had Spike-Heeled lark, another new Western Cape bird for me! That took me up to #399, and I could now feel the real possibility of hitting the 400 milestone before we left Beaufort West.

Since I promised to get the 400th bird tattooed on me, the jokes started coming in about my milestone bird being a Desert Cisticola, which was the next target bird. Not being one to bird-shame, I would be happy regardless, and drab or not, the 400th would find a place on my body.

Not long afterwards, an unexpected Greater Kestrel flew over the road in front of us, and while the views weren’t exactly great, it was clear that I’d hit my milestone target with a raptor! Even cooler than that is that my 300th bird was also from the Falconidae family, being the Sooty Falcon at Emily Moon.

Low Quality Record Shot of the Greater Kestrel (Western Cape #400)

It was a combination of excitement and relief at this point, and I’ll be sure to share the resulting tattoo here in a future post.

Nailing Down Target Species and Hitting WC #400

The new birds didn’t stop there, though! Milli and I were ticking off species left and right, and I think at this point she already had around 17 or 18 new species for the provinces, many of which were along this single road.

Scaly-Feathered Finch

It wasn’t just Milli that was getting new provincial birders, though, and as Trevor did a lot of the hard work of getting these birds to show, I kept getting new additions and ticking off the targets I had set prior to the trip. We managed to add: Red-Billed Firefinch, Scaly-Feathered Finch, Desert Cisticola, Yellow-Bellied Emeromella, Black-Throated Canary, and also an Eastern Clapper Lark. Trevor later joked that I’m probably the only birder he knows in the Western Cape who has Eastern Clapper Lark before Cape Clapper Lark, a species that, for some reason, has just avoided me over the last 14 years. Not for long though…

With the entire area being new to me, I was very reliant on Trevor and Michael’s knowledge and their ability to call the birds out from known locations. And one doesn’t realize the levels there are to birding. The ability to recognize calls in the field seems like the most powerful tool one can have, and Trevor’s ears are incredibly attuned to these species, picking out dozens of species by ear and successfully bringing them out.

Eastern Clapper Lark in its habitat, at a distance (record shot)

I felt sorry for Mags, who at this point must have had to hop out of the car to let me out for photographs 30 or 40 times. Of course, these were all species that she (and others) had seen plenty of times before.

Desert Cisticola, Red-Billed Firefinch, Rufous-Eared Warbler, Yellow-Bellied Eremomella

At this point, the sun was baking the dry, arid ground under our feet, and the mosquitoes were feasting on every part of our exposed bodies. The small, still pools of water create an ideal situation for mosquito massacres. As I type this, I’m scratching the many welts extending across my hands and legs.

Ludwig’s Bustard flying over the endless void of the Karoo landscape

We even had short-lived views of a Ludwig’s Bustard flying across the horizon, another cool species, and another new species for Milli. I believe that by the time we got back from birding this road, she had added 20 or 21 species to her provincial list, bringing her within reach of her 300-bird milestone. Hopefully, she gets an equally cool bird for hers!

Concluding An Eventful Day of Birding

The day was starting to come to a close, approaching sunset, so we headed back and made our way to the hotel – and that’s where I’ll pick things up from in the next post. So if you’d like to see if we ever managed to connect with the Dusky Lark and what other species and photos I got the following day, keep an eye out for that post.