The Tanqua Karoo: Karooport and the R355 towards Calvinia (South Africa)
19 December 2006

I’m back at work after what seems like both a long time off AND nowhere near long enough (Jo and I adopted a little girl from China in November, and this is my first trip back to work). It’s been absolutely great being at home with Jo and the Pixie, but with the contents of my bank account dropping faster than the outside temperature now that winter’s finally arrived it was time to get back to flying (and some overseas birding of course)…

For my return to work trip I was (again) rostered a trip to Cape Town, but with a different pattern of days off than when I was here in September (and managed to get to both the Karoo and to Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens). This time I only had one full day to get out (yes, “only one day in Cape Town, poor old Charlie” - I can hear the violins playing from here) - and I decided to spend it going back to the Karoo (more accurately the R355 Karoopoort to Calvinia road) to try to see some of the ‘karoo specials’ I missed last time round.

As I wrote after the visit I made in September, “an ancient and highly specialised biome, the “Tanqua Karoo” (beautifully described in Callan Cohen et al’s superb “Southern African Birdfinder“ as ‘parched brown expanses, aloe-lined escarpments, and lonely isolated hills’) contains some 18 endemic bird species amongst its avifauna and literally hundreds of endemic plants amongst its remarkable flora…and with the forecast set for ‘hot and sunny’, and the conditions seemingly just right for someone with a spot of wanderlust to drift wide-eyed in a huge landscape I had a feeling this was going to be one of those days that remain with you for many years”. And again like the visit I made in September I had a fantastic day. The mass of flowers from what had been a relatively wet spring had dried off to a honey-coloured carpet of dessicated stems and stalks, but the sun shone brightly in a clear sky and I once again saw some wonderful birds.

As it turned out I again missed finding some of the area’s more highly-restricted or erratic, nomadic species (most notably Cinammon-breasted Warbler (which I think I heard call once, but couldn’t find), Burchell’s Courser (I know I know, ’scan the gravel’ - I scanned until my eyes were seared red I’ll have you know), or Karoo Long-billed Lark or Black-eared Sparrow-lark (a nomadic species that wanders this far south some years, and was supposedly in the area somewhere)), but had great views of a female Ludwig’s Bustard (a SW African near-endemic) trotting frantically alongside a low fence as if the strands of stock wire were a sheer cliff face and the dummy had no idea it could just fly over them to get away (until it remembered that it could and, er, flew away), rolled the car right up to a covey of Namaqua Sandgrouse (a near-endemic), found miles of telegraph-poles topped with the beautiful Jackal Buzzard (an endemic resident that was completely absent in September), saw Pririt Batis, Fairy Flycatcher (a near-endemic and an endemic species respectively), and Pied Starling at the wonderfully-named SkitteryKloof picnic-site (where I thought I heard the Cinammon-breasted Warbler), and finally saw the stunning little Rufous-eared Warbler (yet another regional endemic and my absolute favourite bird of the trip - how I missed it last time I have no idea, they seemed to be popping up out of the scrub all over the place)…plus a host of other localised species like Karoo Robin, Karoo Chat, Karoo Lark etc etc. A really good day’s birding in other words (and six more species “for the year” bringing the total to 978)…

Trip List:
Southern Ostrich Struthio camelus 2; African Fish Eagle Haliaeetus vociefrus 1; Black Harrier Circus maurus 2; Pale Chanting-goshawk Melierax canorus 3; Steppe Buzzard Buteo (buteo) vulpinus 1; Jackal Buzzard Buteo rufofuscus 7-8; Martial Eagle Hieraaetus bellicosus 2; Rock (Common) Kestrel Falco (tinnunculus) rupicola 4; Greater Kestrel Falco rupicoloides 2; Cape Francolin Francolinus capensis 6; Ludwig’s Bustard Neotis ludwigii 2; Three-banded Plover Charadrius tricollaris 1; Namaqua Sandgrouse Pterocles namaqua 13; Namaqua Dove Oena capensis 4; White-backed Mousebird Colius colius c)20; Large-billed Lark Galerida magnirostris 5-8; Karoo Lark Calendulauda albescens c)10; Spike-heeled Lark Chersomanes albofasciata 4-5; Grey-backed Sparrow-lark Eremopterix verticalis c)20; Red-capped Lark Calandrella cinerea 100+; Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica c)15; Greater Striped Swallow Hirundo cucullata 2; Cape Wagtail Motacilla capensis 3; Grey-backed Cisticola Cisticola subruficapillus c)10; Karoo Prinia Prinia maculosa c)20; Rufous-eared Warbler Malcorus pectoralis c)10; Yellow-bellied Eremomela Eremomela icteropygialis 1; Karoo Eremomela Eremomela gregalis 8-10; Fairy Flycatcher Stenostira scita 1; Karoo Scrub-robin Cercotrichas coryphaeus 4-5; Mountain Wheatear Oenanthe monticola 3; Capped Wheatear Oenanthe pileata 1; Karoo Chat Cercomela schlegelii 6-8; Tractrac Chat Cercomela tractrac 2; Familiar Chat Cercomela familiaris 1; Pririt Batis Batis pririt 2; Grey Tit Parus afer 3; Malachite Sunbird Nectarinia famosa 4-5; Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio 2; Fiscal Shrike Lanius collaris 1; Bokmakierie Telophorus zeylonus 2; Pied Crow Corvus albus 20+; White-necked Raven Corvus albicollis 3; African Pied Starling Spreo bicolor c)10; Cape Sparrow Passer melanurus 8-10 ; Southern Masked-weaver Ploceus velatus 8-10; Yellow Canary Serinus flaviventris 20+; White-throated Canary Serinus albogularis c)10; Lark-like Bunting Emberiza impetuani 5; Cape Bunting Emberiza capensis c)10

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores