Blue Eyed Birder: The Western Cape for Oriole Birding

We crept out early and found a Fiscal Flycatcher waiting for us in the front gardens of the houses opposite and a couple of Red-faced Mousebirds fluttered through. Guineafowl strolled along the pavements… as they do.

Today was a hot and dusty one and we began around the Saldanha Steelworks and nearby Asphalt plant (which did not have an asphalt road! Larks were on the cards and we did quite well with Karoo, Large-billed, Red-capped and Cape Long-billed but there was only sporadic song.

Red-capped Lark - Neil Colgate

this juvenile confused us but we decided on Red-capped Lark

We got excellent views of Grey Backed Cisticolas, both Weavers and two Canaries while a pair of Karoo Scrub-Robins put on a fantastically energetic show as they showed off to a third bird.

Karoo Scrub-Robins

Karoo Scrub-Robins - I think I kept nearly every shot from this sequence

There were African Stonechats dotted around and I even found a male Black Korhaan striding through the scrub but better was to come with a male Black Harrier silently using the wind to cover as much of the landscape as possible. It was good to watch him without the risk of being own down by traffic!

Black Harrier

Black Harrier - so hazy

Black Harrier - Neil Colgate

A pale phase Booted Eagle was sat up on a near post eating breakfast and when it eventually flew it dropped back down and picked up a large ball of tumble weed that it took playfully high into the air before letting it drift back down.

Booted Eagle

Yellow-billed Kite

A Cape Grey Mongoose ran across the road as we drove out and on towards Jacobspaai where a fresh coffee beckoned. We searched the front gardens here for Spotted Thick-knee with no joy but we did see the ghostly shape of Barn Owl deep within its nest box.

A drive around the nearby St Helena farmland gave us fine views of Capped Wheatears and a herd of Springbok that included a leucistic buck. There were Ostriches and Blue Cranes but we could not find a Secretarybird out on patrol. However, the nest was occupied and we could just make out one of the pair sitting very tight at the top of a big domed bush. It was difficult in the wind but we could see the red face, grey back and occasionally a blowing tail feather or head plume. It would more than do for a start. A party of Crowned Lapwings were seen on the way back out and European Bee-eaters were keeping very low.

Ostrich

Zitting Cisticola - they look different everywhere I go

Blue Cranes

Springbok

Being watched by a Secretarybird

Crowned Lapwing - Neil Colgate

The Cliphoek Saltworks alongside the Berg River were the next stop and the shimmering white surface was reflecting a wall of wavy heat and the wind was making things interesting for us. We had one main target here, the rather scarce Chestnut-banded Plover and fortunately we picked a pair up very quickly and they gave close views but like us, they could barely stand up in the wind! Some quality leaning was required by all parties! One of them was colour ringed and has been reported.

Chestnut-banded Plover

Chestnut-banded Plover getting blown in mid run!

Chestnut-banded Plover

We soon moved on in case they had a nest nearby and spent some time scanning the other lagoons where a similarly ringed Kittlitz’s Plover was safeguarding two button top fluffy chicks. There were a few Blacksmith Lapwings, Curlew Sandpipers and Little Stints, Stilts and Avocets and the first Common Sandpiper of the adventure which could have been breeding on a Scottish lochside just months before.

Kittlitz’s Ploverlet

Kittlitz’s Plover

There were Black-necked and Little Grebes and a few Terns and Ibis as well as an African Darter that got blown through. European Bee-eaters were perched up on the fences where Capped Wheatears were collecting food for fledged young.

Black-necked Grebes

There were some moulting African Pied Starlings too

Our packed breakfast had been so vast that it qualified as lunch too so we headed for Velddrift and had a walk alongside the Berg to the Columbine café where fine coffee was ground before your nose. There were Flamingos, African Spoonbills and Flamingos and several Reed Cormorants and African Darters sitting on the jetties where Hartlaub’s and a couple of Grey Hooded Gulls rested.

Greater Flamingos

African Darter

African Sacred Ibis

Reed Cormorant

Grey Hooded Gull

Hartlaub’s Gulls

Grey Hooded Gull and Hartlaub’s Gulls

Kelp Gull

A Common Sandpiper bobbed along and White-throated Swallows sat on the small boats and gleamed blue in the strong light. Noisy Pied Kingfishers patrolled up and down and one gave us a top hovering performance at close range, somehow keeping its head still in the wind. A male Mallard rather dodgily found its way onto the list…

A young Swift Tern was following its parents around whining in that squeaky bicycle way that Sandwich Tern kids do while an adult Caspian Tern had no visible dependents.

Common Sandpiper

Swift Tern - Neil Colgate

Swift Tern

Swift Tern - the whiner

Caspian Tern

Pied Kingfisher

Coffee with the local House Sparrows was enjoyable and Little Swifts zoomed around us before entering the building next door and Large Rock Martins had clay nests on the outside of the same wall. A Levaillant’s Cisticola sung from the reed tops and a Little Rush Warbler gave a couple of bursts and crept back into cover.

White-throated Swallow

Grey Herons

umm - well - a Mallard

Little Egret

Little Swift

Little Swift - Neil Colgate

It was time to hot the road and head inland on some scarily straight featureless roads through mile after mile of golden farmland. Ian did a grand job to keep going – we all might have nodded. There were many lakes along the way (they call them dams) and most had wildfowl – always Egyptian Geese but sometimes Spur-wings, Shovelers, Yellow and Red-billed Teal and the first White-faced Whistling Ducks for the trip. There were Whiskered Terns and Knob-heads and sometimes a pair of Blue Cranes in attendance. Raptors were few and far and just the odd Steppe Buzzard was noted.

Mandy was still awake!

Spur-winged Goose family

Red-billed Teal

Spur-winged Goose

White-faced Whistling Ducks & Yellow-billed Ducks

White-faced Whistling Ducks, Yellow-billed Ducks & a Red-billed Teal

A short stop in Michell’s Pass before dropping down to Ceres gave is eye ball views of White-necked Ravens with those oversized bills, a pair of very Familiar Chats, singing Cape Buntings and a fine Chacmha Baboon surveying his territory from an outcrop.

Chacmha Baboon

Familiar Chat

The leafy town of Ceres offered us a walk in the park before checking into the Riverside Lodge for a couple of nights. Southern Grey-headed Sparrows called in the Oaks and Cape and House Sparrows fed underneath with Cape Canaries while a pair of African Paradise Flycatchers sallied in and out. Down near the Dwarsrivier there were showy (at last) Common Waxbills and Malachite Sunbirds but our real target in this urban setting was African Black Duck which is a shy river specialist that seemed out of place here with kids splashing in the water and dog walkers running around but one flew past us almost immediately flashing bold speculum, white underwings and dark bill. We tracked it down and were able to watch it quietly around the reedy margins but it always seemed to have one eye on us. It was not particularly spotty.

African Paradise Flycatcher

female Malachite Sunbird

Southern Masked Weaver

Common Waxbill

African Black Duck

The lodge was literally around the corner on the same river and we struggled to get in inside due to the two flowering Boer-Bean trees by the front door as they were heaving with Sunbirds with so many SDCollareds and bully boy Malachites and even a couple of Cape Sugarbirds. They were spectacular and very noisy. A short walk before dinner gave us Weavers and Southern Red Bishops breeding in the reed bed in the river where African Reed Warblers could be heard singing before everything was drowned out by the pre-roost chorus of Guineafowl, Gypos and Hadada Ibis! A male Pin-tailed Whydah fluttered over with tail trailing behind but we would have to wait a couple of days before getting it on the group list.

I do love a Guineafowl

Cape Sugarbird

Malachite Sunbird

Even our attempts at dinner were interrupted by the hooing of a Spotted Eagle Owl in the pine outside but we could not find it and Spotted Thick-knees wailed from the park. It had been a long but rewarding day.

Blue Eyed Birder

Friday, 28 November 2025

The Western Cape for Oriole Birding - Day 5: 15th November 2025

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