African Crake at Strandfontein Sewage Works
Late yesterday afternoon I received an email from the South African Rare Bird alerts, saying that an African Crake had been seen and photographed at Strandfontein on the S3 pan in the…
Photography
Bird Club Outing – Vergenoegd and Spier
After a nearly three year absence from the Somerset West bird club outings, I decided to join up with the club again as they visited Vergenoegd Farm and Spier Wine Farm during…
Autumn Birding in Rooi Els and Jonkershoek
There’s been a bit of a lull with regards to rare birds over the past two weeks, so I haven’t been engaged in any twitching. Instead, I’ve been focusing more on helping…
Flock at Sea Again 2017 – Pelagic Birding Cruise
A few years ago I put down a deposit for the Flock at Sea cruise that had been announced to take place in 2017. There was a previous Flock at Sea cruise…
Garden Route Birding – Day 3
This blog post is a continuation of my initial entry documenting our 4 day vacation in the Garden Route, staying at Lake Pleasant in Sedgefield and traveling to various nearby areas looking…
Garden Route Birding – Day 1 & 2
Introduction This blog entry is likely to be a bit longer than my other entries, both in terms of words and images. I’ll do my best to keep things concise, while ensuring…
Road To 300 – Lesser Crested Tern at Strandfontein Sewage Works (295)
Saturday morning started out with some local birding. A trip to Dick Dent Bird Sanctuary in Strand with Monique, saw us getting her a few new ticks for her life list. We…
Road To 300 – Black-Bellied Starling in Gordon’s Bay (294)
Monday morning started like any other, in the office working. But at around 9pm or so I got a Facebook message from a friend. It was a collection of cell phone images…
Chasing Lightning In The Cape
Some people may not be aware, but before birding came into my life I was heavily invested in storm chasing and in 2009 I founded the country’s first dedicated storm chasing community…
Road To 300 – Parasitic Jaeger (291), Sabine’s Gull (292), Atlantic Yellow-Nosed Albatross (293)
This past week I had made plans with Monique, for us to try tick the Lemon Doves at Kirstenbosch Gardens and then head down to Mouille Point in the hopes of catching…
Birding In Betty’s Bay and Rooi Els
After our recently failed attempt at finding the Protea Seedeater at Paarl Nature Reserve, Monique and I headed through to Harold Porter Nature Reserve in Betty’s Bay after someone reported seeing a…
Road to 300 – Cloud Cisticola
Birding for me started out of my interest in photography, but soon became more closely tied to my interest in collecting things, especially rare items. The fact that birding allowed me to…