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The birding at Jonkershoek Nature Reserve in Stellenbosch is not earth shattering at the moment because of a recent fire, however the indigenous forests are still intact and harbour the usual species – see below for details. I visited the reserve last week – not birding, but mountain biking – and was pleasantly surpised to [...]

Raptor watching at Kirstenbosch has not been producing the goods (ie Honey Buzzard) so I decided to give Newlands Forest a try. Newlands (only about 3 kms down the road) has been fairly reliable for Honey Buzzard in previous years and, in addition, a lot of the raptors observed at Kirstenbosch recently are first spotted [...]

One of Cape Town’s greatest attractions is that it is located on the boundary of the Table Mountain National Park – in fact the park is surrounded by Cape Town! The city centre is located in a bowl flanked by Table Mountain to the south, Lions Head and Signal Hill to the west, and Table [...]

Geelbek hide at Langebaan lagoon has been quiet on the rare wader front this summer, bar a Redshank and Mongolian Plover that have been putting in the odd appearance. I was lucky enough to catch-up with the Mongolian a few weeks ago. Initially the bird was quite distant, but the rising tide eventually pushed it [...]

Wednesday, a public holiday in South Africa, was spent birding with mates in the West Coast National Park. Located on the southern leg of Langebaan lagoon, the park is without equal in South Africa when it comes to the number and variety of shorebirds one can see. The Strandveld (local vegetation type) birding is also [...]

Some more time was spent raptor watching at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens this last Saturday. A decent number of raptors (for this area) were seen (8 individuals), but species were limited to Steppe Buzzard, Forest Buzzard and Black Sparrowhawk. Admittedly, I got there a little late. The optimal time is probably 8am because by 9am most [...]

Another video from Wayne Petersen; this time on how to use a spotting scope for birding. It’s not an earth shattering account, but for those who are new to birding and spotting scopes you may find it helpful.

Technology, digital photography in particular, is becoming an important part of a birders tool kit. Check out this explanation of how a digital camera can be used to identify birds.

Check out this video if you are new to birding and want to purchase a pair of binoculars.

Each summer Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, serves up some good raptor watching. The main attraction is the number and variety of buzzards that one can encounter. An average morning will produce between 5 to 10 individual birds; good mornings have produced 12 different species of raptor! Steppe Buzzard Buteo [...]