by Bryn De Kocks
Recent Adventures
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Bird Outings & Twitches
Little Crake at Clovelly – Twitch Successful!
Finally I managed to successfully twitch a rare species! Just for a bit of a back story, last year I dipped on a Cape Vulture that was spotted not far from me in Strand. On that day, as soon as I got the rare bird report e-mail from Trevor Hardakar about the sighting I took…
A West Coast Adventure – Part 2
This is a continuation of the previous post. We woke up fairly on Thursday and first looked at the forecast, so we could decide our next plan of action. We had paid for 2 nights of accommodation already, but spending a second night in weather that would keep us indoors seemed pointless. We could rather…
The Vacation Post – A Look Back at December
Again I find myself with the compulsion to apologize for a lengthy absence from the site, in fact it’s been near 2 months since my previous entry. Once again my opening sentiments will remain in line with my previous post in that despite several birding attempts over the past 2 months, things have been far…
The Tristan Challenge
Prior to my recent Flock at Sea cruise, I knew little about the Tristan Albatross. Sure, I had seen it in my guide books and the fact that it was listed as a critically endangered species. But only after the events on board the MSC Sinfonia did I begin to read about the bird and…
Birding Challenge – Gotta Tick ‘Em All
I was contacted by Trevor Hardaker this past week, letting me know that him and Margaret, his wife – would be passing through my area and heading to Rooi Els to target some birds for the challenge. They knew I still needed the Ground Woodpecker as a lifer and figured that it would be a…
Dick Dent Bird Sanctuary Meet Up
I recently headed to the Dick Dent Bird Sanctuary with the Somerset West Bird Club, originally I didn’t think I’d have time as I had an extremely busy schedule for the day, but after performing the errands I needed to, I found myself able to meet up with the small group of local birders at…
Storm Chasing Adventures
Browse All Storm Chasing Blogs
Chasing Dusk: A Guide To Predicting and Photographing Sunsets
Nothing brings a landscape to life quite like phenomenal lighting. Sunset photography is popular, and sometimes just being in the right place at the right time will give you the biggest advantage in creating the photograph you’ve been envisioning. Thankfully being in the right place at the right time isn’t just a result of luck….
Chasing Lightning in Cape Town 12 & 13 February
Despite being in the middle of a water crisis, the Cape Town area got a few millimeters of rain relief this week with the arrival of some rare thunderstorms to the area. I’d been watching the model runs for a few weeks, and they had repeatedly shown some interesting developments into the third week of…
Chasing Snow in Ceres – 16 July 2017
The weather forecasts for the past week had been showing a strong cold front pushing through the Western Cape on Saturday evening into Sunday morning. Of particular interest with this front was the forecasted freezing levels, which suggested that we may be in for a good snow event across parts of the country. With the…
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 website. My active involvement in storm chasing and tracking may have diminished slightly over the years, but you can bet that if there’s…
Chasing Fires in Somerset West (3 January 2017)
At lunch time on Tuesday I left the house to pick up my girlfriend, but as I opened the front door I was greeted with flames whipping into the air on top of Rome Glen, which is just about 2 kilometers to my east. Fires are usually pretty common in summer around the area, but…
Chasing Mammatus and Other Local Adventures
I woke up on Sunday morning with Monique doing a “Women’s Walk” in Cape Town, and thus had the morning to myself and had planned to head through to Kogelbay and try some surf photography again. The swell forecast was good and the surface wind was forecast as a moderate South Easter, usually good for…
