Still in Cape Town

We are coming to the end of our brilliant stay here in Cape Town and the Western Cape Province. The last 5 days have been a whirl-wind.  It's  almost impossible to keep up with photography as well as blogging on a daily basis. I have had some incredible experiences this last few days and seen some of the most exotic of birds, many on my wish list of species to see.  Almost every bird seen is a "lifer" meaning that I am seeing it for the first time in my life. Monday was another good day after the  off-shore pelagic trip when I had seen  Albatross and Shearwater and taken great photos to add to my galleries.  Late in the afternoon I travelled out to Intaka Island which is a wildlife reserve very close to the city. It is in actual fact, reclaimed land and was part of the planning conditions and  regulations when the giant shopping centre was built nearby. This is one of the best places  apparently, to photograph Malachite Kingfisher, a species that I have been keen to photograph since I arrived.  As luck would have it, the day I chose to visit there had been some work carried out and the reeds had been cut down which had created a great deal of disturbance as you would expect.  This is Murphy's Law unfortunately but it did spoil my visit....... almost!  I sat in a hide overlooking some conveniently placed perches where Malachites are regularly seenn perched.  I was told by a companion in the hide with me, a local man called Ajay, that you can almost guarantee them on these perches but the chopping down today would have disturbed them for sure. This was an immense disappointment!  I waited patiently for 2 hours with a no show because had they made an appearance I would have taken classic pictures, the perches were so close to the hide.  The local man, told me that they were not in the least bit put off by the proximity of  birders and photographers close by and this inspite of noisy talk coming from the hide .  It seemed too good to be true and so it proved.  I left the reserve with Ajay and as we chatted I suddenly heard a Kingfisher flying towards on the canal that we were crossing.  Now I know that Malachite Kingfishers call like Common Kingfisher because there it was just in front of us in reeds by this canal.  A result which was unexpected to say the least.

 

Malachite Kingfisher. These little Kingfishers are smaller than our own Kingfishers and even more brightly coloured with a bright coral red beak being the first and obvious difference (black in the male Common Kingfisher).  The back has an irridescent quality with almost purple wing coverts.  The head is strongly edged with white.

It's Thursday today and tomorrow, Friday our final day and at dawn I am going back to the hide to try for more shots 

Tuesday saw us in the car heading north towards the Western Cape National Park. and an over-night stay at Langebaan.  We stayed in a villa next to the golf course, always an oasis for birds and so it proved.  It was exotic with wild Greater Flamingos making use of the pools  on the fairways, weaver birds close to their nests and a  Fiscal Shrike on almost every fairway marker. 

 

Fiscal Shrike, this one is a very young bird still brown and with fleshy gapes around the mouth. At first light on Wednesday I had great fun trying to photograph this one in flight as it carried its food back to a favourite perch.