More from Riebeek and surrounds

Met up with a couple of local birders who wanted to go to Seeberg to find a rare plover and though I'd seen it and photographed it before, I went along for the ride as there was also a Tibetan sand plover hanging around that I wasn't sure was on my list - name changes are a pain.  There were several red knots in the melee as well and these two were well on their way to breeding plumage,,,,,,,,

..........plus a gaggle of grey plovers in full breeding, transitional and non-breeding plumage.  The foreground contains a knot, a ruddy turnstone (as in reddish not swearing) and a white-fronted plover.

Must say I had totally forgotten about the turnstones existence and had to a bit of searching, pardon the focus the wind was howling.

Looking for a tiny plover in amongst this lot requires persistence and I eventually had to resort to coercing a much younger pair of eyes attached to a telescope to find the thing.  It was far too distant to get a picture but the little white blob in the foreground on the left is what I was after, too bad I'd already seen it before when it was just a lesser sand plover!

This is the Seeberg hide which is a double decker affair and the top deck was pretty crowded with photographers trying for the other plover which wasn't playing ball either.

Got back to find a UFO trying to land on the Swartberg!

Decided to visit the Dasklip Pass again but simply had to stop and get a shot of Liemietberg, over which Bains built his wonderful pass.

Dasklip was being utilised by up to eight paragliders and a pair of jackal buzzards were showing them how it's done.

 

Wanted to get to Katbakkies to catch up with a few Karoo specials but the road from Ceres was being redone and there were endless delays at stop/go points which didn't improve my humour, so I ran out of time before getting there.  Did notice this phenomenon at one of them, sunlight shining through the glass insulators and the dark background accentuating the glow.

Did find a couple of black-necked grebes on a farm dam.  Though not in their majestic breeding plumage, the bright red eye is diagnostic.

While trying (unsuccessfully) to get a decent picture of the grebes a lark landed nearby and I had better luck with what is now called a large-billed lark...........

...................not quite sure what the cause of the obvious consternation was, but it kept a low profile for a while.

Someone in the Karoo has a really good sense of humour the sign says "Beachfront property for sale, occupation 2050" and in small letters at the bottom, Global Warming Properties, Tankwa! That's a fibreglass sailing dingy on top but have no idea what the building is for as there is nothing else for miles around.

Whilst trying to locate what would have been a lifer, I disturbed a pair of rufous-eared warblers and this very irate little fellow was not amused.  Always great to catch up with something you haven't seen for ages.

Was driving back from Durbanville one day when I noticed this mountain with three peaks which must be close to Stellenbosch and has previously always escaped my attention.  Tried to find a name for it without success.

Have always been impressed by the copious flowering Nuxias, but this one which is now in the neighbours garden was really living to the floribunda part of it's moniker.

The final fling on the bike involved the Franschoek Pass which was affected by last year's floods but has been reopened with diversions.  Looking back on the town from near the top gives an inkling of how special the area is.

Needed relief so made for some young trees on the side of the road and while engaged found something extraordinary that I've never seen before.  What I assumed was a wattle had two different types of leaf growing on it, both compound and simple.  Consulting the great botanical oracle that manifests itself to me as Richard Boon, I was informed of the following.  "Several wattle species that have phyllodes that act as leaves in mature plants, retain the twice compound leaf form when they are young. What you have is a plant transitioning from juvenile to adult form." So there!

Now and then the Swartberg seems to have caught fire..............

............and the night the kings arrived back a full moon rose over the Liemietberg.

 

My second home.

Word came through the Rare Bird report that the brown booby had been seen at Bird Island in Lambert's Bay again, thus another visit was in order.  Luck was with me this time and there were a couple of guys in the hide who had already located the bird.  Took a while for me to find it as it was surrounded by young gannets and only emerged from their scrum occasionally.  I can quite see why it was called a booby as it is extremely odd looking.  The white breast indicates that this is a juvenile but later the same day an adult was also found, but I had my pics and had departed by then.

On a different route back, I came upon this weirdly hollowed rock - which looks about ready to roll down the hill and flatten the farmhouse below.

A few days later it was off to the Groot Winterberg which involves a ride up the Dashoek Pass and near the top are a couple of launch sites for paragliders.  Unfortunately, the Nature Reserve has been closed to the public for some reason, Cape Nature is probably broke like so many others.

Coming back down the pass the view is of a very dry flat area in front of the Piketberg Mountains, which emphasises that this is a winter rainfall or Mediterranean climate.

Had to have another go at finding the American golden plover at Platboom on the Cape Peninsula but it seems to have disappeared entirely.  Plenty of African black oystercatchers about though.  Always wondered about that name oysters don't exactly require catching........oystersnatchers?

Heading back to the vehicle, I found a couple of young ostrich foraging on the beach.......

........and a short while later they were joined by mum in front of the rocks on the extreme right in this picture.

Came back from the Kommetjie side over a pass that drops down into Simonstown and there parked in the same place as I last saw them, our useless Navy which is now so crippled that their boats never leave harbour.

Thing with the Cape is that there are just so many things packed into a fairly small area, that it's hard to get to all of them even if you have three months.  This was taken from the old road up Du Toitskloof Pass looking down on the highway as it approaches the tunnel.

Over the top and headed down the other side to Worcester, there are panoramic views in every direction.

In search of a Tibetan (lesser) sand plover, I headed for the West Coast NP where I found this magnificent candelabra flower Brunsvigia orientalis (thanks Richard), really standing out amongst the dry vegetation.

At the Seeberg Hide it was a case of birds to the left........

.........and more to the right.

Sorting through the masses I spotted about 10 bar-tailed godwits, more than I've ever seen in one place at one time.................

.............and in front of them, what I initially thought was a curlew sandpiper but when looking at the pics, I realized that the beak and size are wrong so believe it's a red knot, which just happens to be a lifer!  He's moulting into his spivvy courting plumage as he and his mates will soon be winging their way north to breed.

On the boardwalk back to the car I found something that initially had me thinking sand plover and I took dozens of photos that I could pour over at a later stage but it eventually came close enough for me to see what is called the nuchal collar, which is absent on the sand plover.  The dictionary on the phone didn't have a definition for nuchal but Google did - a distinct coloured band (white in this case) across the nape!  Juvenile Kittlitz's plover, bummer.

This one also got me aflutter but it's actually a white fronted plover, see the collar!

No mistaking this little beauty in his breeding finery, a common ringed plover also soon to depart our shores.

This old shepherds croft is at the Seeberg lookout point and as I've said before if only I could persuade the Parks authorities to rent it out,,,,,,, 

On the other side of Ceres, Gido Pass climbs up into what is called the Kouebokkeveld, which was used in days of yore as a summer feeding ground for sheep and goats.

 

Up at the top were a huge swathe of common sugarbush Protea repens whose flowers are either pink or cream and there were a number of Cape sugarbirds feeding on the nectar they provide.

The area is part of the Cederberg, with massive sandstone ridges that have been worn into fantastical shapes by wind and rain.  This lot look like a scene from Easter Island...........

............while this balancing outcrop rivals anything I've seen in the Matopos, outside my hometown of Bulawayo.  Trust Eskom to spoil the view!

Whilst feeding the dogs one evening I glanced out of the window and was greeted by what could only be described as a lowering sky, with emphasis on the second syllable.

Speaking of which reminds me that I've had to resort to all sorts of cunning evasions to get out of the gate without these two Houdini's doing an escape routine.  Shadow in the background is in his second childhood and I've picked him up at least three times, near or in the cemetery which is kilometres away from the house.  Still love him to bits though.  His accomplice, Luna normally comes back and waits at the gate to be let in, which he also does on occasion.

Back to the Cape

Saw something fly into the tree outside the lounge window and managed to get a few pics of a red-chested cuckoo.  Have heard them around but this is the first time I've had the honour of a visit.

 

A host of the small pink lilies popped up just before a torrential downpour which Pete informs me are, you guessed it, rain lilies!

Headed off for a 3-month stint house-sitting for friends in Riebeeck Kasteel and spent a couple of nights back in the caravan.  The view from the top of Oliviershoek Pass is always breathtaking.

Doubt that he remembered me from previous visits, but this friendly fellow soon made himself at home.

With a tad over 1300 km to go, I decided to take it easy and only cover between 400 and 500 a day.  Turns out it was not so easy and became more of a schlep that a pleasant drive.  The route passed Sterkfontein Dam which always has the bluest of blue water.

Next stop was a farm near Trompsburg (I'd never heard of it either) with a very comfortable cottage in a garden dominated by a massive plane tree.  Situated about 80 km south of Bloemfontein, it's right on the edge of the Karoo and hence hosted a different suite of birds, of which the Karoo korhaan (which I heard and recorded for the Atlas) was a first for the area.

Thought the light fitting was a bit OTT though!

Next up, the Karoo National Park just outside Beaufort West with beautiful cottages that set me back about as much as a return flight to Cape Town.  Ah well it's only money!

Not a particular noteworthy sunset but still appreciated.......

.......as was the view early in the morning.

Only had time for a drive up the magnificent Klipspringer Pass and at the top..........

..........found a small patch of what I'm sure were labelled Cape violets but can't find anything on the internet (help Richard).

This is chat country but whereas there were always a lot to be found along the road from the gate, this time I only found a single Karoo chat.

Pressing on towards Riebeek, I stopped at a roadside picnic site where this very inquisitive familiar chat simply insisted on having his portrait done.

Riebeek now seems like a second home and the "cottage" that the Kings have squeezed into has magnificent views both ways.  There have been some very hot days however which resulted in some pretty devastating wildfires, this one in the Elandsberg that looked for all the world like a volcano erupting.

The view from the top of Bothmaskloof Pass shows the extent of the smoke, completely obliterating the mountain range beyond.

200 k's to Lamberts Bay to look for a brown booby and not only was it absent but both batteries for my camera were flat so just as well.  It is famous for its Cape gannet colony and there were many thousands of them nesting.  There appears to be a well-defined flight path with a runway as the younger birds require a good long trot and several bounces before take-off.

Near Piketberg came across this "projection" of solid rock, wonder what the locals call it?

Always moaning about the lack of raptors but they are still quite common down here.  This is a jackal buzzard but there are common buzzards, black-winged and yellow-bill kites aplenty. 

Went into the Tigerberg recently and on the way was a dam overflowing with waterbirds, mainly coots and Egyptian geese but unfortunately on private land and a little too far to see any others.

Went birding on the other side of the mountain and on Oom Gerrie's farm came across these odd-shaped flowers which again I'm unable to identify because my book is in the van!

Among the birds present was this Karoo robin......minus a body part and I'll bet thereby hangs a tail!

Specially for the ladies an "Ag shame", dinner anyone?

Searched for another lifer, on Platboom Beach near Cape Point but again left empty handed but the scenery is amazing. Will try again for the American golden plover as it was blown a very long way off course whilst migrating between North and South America, and it's highly unlikely that it will ever make it back.

Took the bike up Bainskloof Pass as the road has more wiggles than the creature in the next shot and the view from the top is spectacular.

There was much consternation when the gardener found this on the veranda as he assumed it was a snake and of course every snake is deadly. It is in fact Percival's legless skink and a very pretty little fellow too with a bright yellow belly, which was visible when I picked it up to take it to a quieter part of the garden.