JiminAfrica

Sure, this amazing trip is over, but other trips and exciting everyday birding are always happening over at my new blog, WeeklyBirder.com! Check it out and get in on the WeeklyBirder challenge!

Well, I’ve finally finished updating my records with all of the birds I observed in South Africa (and Lesotho) and it appears that I saw and/or heard a rather whopping 439 bird species on the trip! 419 of these were birds I had never seen before!! Read on if you’re really into birds, otherwise, this … More Birding South Africa – Trip Report

I left Bateleurs Rontree at 10:30AM today to hop on a bus for Cape Town airport. Bateleurs was a lovely place to stay and I thoroughly enjoyed my last breakfast there. Because of the required check out time, I got to the airport several hours early and had to pass a few before I could … More August 14-15 – The Journey Home and Some Post-Trip Reflections

My last day in Cape Town arrived and I planned to take it easy. This is really a beautiful town, with some terrible traffic: it’s hard to keep traffic down when your roads are squished between an ocean (actually two) and a mountain. I was very excited today to visit with some friends who are living … More August 13 – Walking Cape Town’s Northwest Coast and Meeting with Friends

It rained today and, while part of me was saying, “Hey! This is my vacation!” the other part of me wasn’t complaining about being encouraged to take it easy. After all, this was only the second rain I’d had in 3 weeks! I walked down to the waterfront to a coffee shop and relaxed there … More August 12 – Some Relaxing and Photography in Cape Town

Today was a simple day dedicated to hiking…and sleeping in. After breakfast, I loaded up my kit for the day and headed for the hills. My plan was to hike up, across, and down the other side of Table Mountain. Table Mountain is perhaps Cape Town’s most famous landmark and is really a series of … More August 11 – Hiking Cape Town’s Table Mountain

We got to sleep in this morning and didn’t meet for breakfast until 7AM. After all, we only needed to drive a couple of hours to Cape Town to end the tour at the airport. There was, however, one tough little bird we’d try to find on the way. This was the Protea Canary that … More August 10 – Ceres to Cape Town

On this last full day of the tour we left early for the Tankwa Karoo: a large dry area of low scrub that is super-rich in endemism (of both flora and fauna) and which I was very excited to visit! We stopped first in a little area called Karoopoort to find a little endemic called … More August 9 – Tankwa Karoo

We headed northwest this morning for West Coast National Park. West Coast NP is a fantastic birding spot for shorebirds and I was very excited to have a chance to sit in some excellent hides and sift through the birds to pick out rarer ones. Along the road toward West Coast NP we were lucky … More August 8 – Cape Town to Ceres

We hit the road this morning for a beautiful drive along the shore and around the southernmost Hottentots-Holland Mountains to get to the spot for our main target bird in the area: the Cape Rockjumper (the other Rockjumper). We didn’t have any luck because the sun hadn’t hit the rocks yet, so we’d try again … More August 7 – Cape Town