Swakopmund - Spitzkoppe - Omaruru

Unlike my previous trip in April we nailed Bank Cormorant early this morning, along with White-breasted Cormorants and nice views of South African Shelduck, which meant we could leave the mist enshrouded coastline and head inland where it was much warmer. 

Driving through Swakopmund we picked up Red-knobbed Coot standing on the banks of the sewage works before driving towards the impressive Spitzkoppe. Our first good bird here was Karoo Long-billed Lark perched on a large boulder and nice views in the scope they were too! Then we headed closer to the impressive cliffs and unbelievably at our second location called in a pair of Herero Chats – probably Namibia’s toughest speciality to find. Oh boy! 

Herero Chat

One bird came in very close and sang back at us for a while before flying from bush to bush around us. Must admit I was particularly pleased with this bird! As we celebrated some movement in a tree caught our attention and we had a mad five minutes with a female Cardinal Woodpecker digging out a nest hole, followed by a pair of Brown-crowned Tchagras in the same tree. Then a pair of Bokmakierie joined them and sang back at my ipod, followed by a cracking pair of White-tailed Shrikes flying around us, perching on the treetops and circling us a few more times before flying off. And there were also a couple of White-throated Canaries nearby, which were also our first ones of the tour so far. Wow!

Bokmakierie

White-tailed Shrike - apparently a terrestrial Batis now.....!

So we were done here! A quick check of the rock drawings, followed by a very nice picnic lunch and a confiding Rufous-vented Tit-babbler plus some Rock Hyraxes, and we were off towards Omaruru. A flock of Crowned Lapwings and an African Pipit were spotted just as we left. A group of 3 Ruppell’s Korhaans showed very well beside the road and even began calling back to Charly’s imitation!

It was another 150+kms so we didn’t hang around and all until closer to Omaruru where we stopped along the roadside to look at a Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill. As usually happens there were other birds around and we also called in a Brubru, and then saw Yellow-bellied Eremomela, Little Swift, Black-chested Prinia, Common Scimitarbill, Pririt Batis, Marico Flycatcher, Burchell’s Starling and a few other common birds. We ended up at a wonderful guest house in Omaruru where I spotlighted African Scops-owl and a Pearl-spotted Owlet to end a pretty good day.

Walvis Bay

A quick check of the gardens near the hotel gave us a pair of Orange River White-eyes, along with some Common Waxbills. So with time on our hands we walked along the seafront and enjoyed nice views of Pied Avocet, both Greater and Lesser Flamingos and some common waders, as well as scoping some distant African Black Oystercatchers before going for breakfast. 

Pied Avocet

Pied Avocet

Afterwards we walked around the corner to the small harbour and set out on our morning’s excursion across the bay. We were soon joined by a Cape Fur Seal that jumped aboard and demanded some fish, but he wasn’t that friendly and was soon ‘shown the door’. We cruised by hundreds more seals loafing on the beach, as well as getting a couple of Heaviside’s Dolphins. 

Cape Fur Seals

But it was very quiet for seabirds with just a few Cape Gannets, some Swift and Common Terns, and a Wilson’s Storm-petrel to show for our efforts, so we returned to calmer waters and were extremely fortunate to get decent views of a pair of African Penguins. 

African Penguins

There were lots of Cape Cormorants and a single Crowned Cormorant, and some very familiar waders on the shoreline such as Ruddy Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit and Sanderling. We finished with a nice little buffet, some fresh oysters and sparkling wine before returning to shore, getting a visit from a more friendly Fur Seal who posed for photos and selfies! Around the restaurants on the quay we managed to see the reported House Crow – a vagrant and one of very few records for Namibia!

Chestnut-banded Plover

After some time off to relax we drove along Walvis Bay and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours sifting through the wader flocks. It didn’t take us very long to find our first Chestnut-banded Plover, and they turned out to be extremely common with a rough estimate of 200+ present. We also had White-fronted and Three-banded Plovers, Whimbrel, Common Greenshank, Black-winged Stilt, plus Grey-headed Gull, Cape Teal and Cape Shovelers, and thousands of Lesser and Greater Flamingo’s.

Solitaire - Walvis Bay

Got woken up at 1.30am by a howling gale outside and I feared the worst for the rest of the day, but as I stepped out of my room at 6.30am I was confronted with the remarkable sighting of a Karoo Thrush sitting on a rock beside the pool right in front of me. I couldn’t believe my eyes and rushed around to get everyone. Once we were all assembled and seen the thrush, a short walk despite the high winds turned up a few goodies, such as Cape Wagtail, Helmeted Guineafowl, Red-billed Spurfowl and a Common Scimitarbill seeking shelter in a dense acacia right next to us. After breakfast a few Black-throated Canaries joined numerous Lark-like Buntings at the drinking pool, and then we left this wonderful lodge and drove out into the wilderness.

This Karoo Thrush was a big surprise outside my room at Solitaire

Continuing our run of good luck, the first of 20+ Ruppell’s Korhaans to be seen today was spotted close to the road. 

Ruppell's Korhaan

Then at our secret location, in the space of ten minutes, we quickly nailed the scarce Cinnamon-breasted Warbler that was creeping around a rocky hillside with a Cape Bunting. When a Bokmakerie began calling I couldn’t believe it when a quick scan produced a stunning pair calling back at us from the top of a large boulder. They came in a little closer to inspect us but never too close for a photo but boy the scope views were awesome! Then Dave spotted some movement in a close tree and just to show, when your luck is in – it really is in, it proved to be a Layard’s Tit-babbler. Wow!

Not a very good pic of a very, very good bird - Layard's Tit-babbler

So with that done we set off on the 250km drive to Walvis Bay, notching several Chat Flycatchers and Tractrac Chats as the scenery became more arid. A very productive drive towards the coast turned up many new birds for us, with Ostriches, Black-chested Snake-eagle, Lanner, Greater Kestrel, Three-banded Plover, Northern Black Korhaan, Cape Sparrow and both Cape & Pied Crows. We got stuck into the larks as well today with Spike-heeled, Stark’s and Gray’s showing well, but best of all were at least 4 Dune Larks – Namibia’s only true endemic.

Black-chested Snake-Eagle

Dune Lark was an easy find

Greater Kestrel

A good run of mammals included Steenbok, Oryx, Springbok, Mountain Zebra and along a ‘side road’ at Charleys’ special site we had our first Giraffes. Now if you’ve never been to Africa it is a very special moment when you see some of this continent’s larger mammals and we soaked up the views in the scope of ten animals feeding below some tall acacias.

Stunning landscapes are the norm in Namibia - this was our first Oryx...

As we reached the coast our first Cape and Hartlaub’s Gulls were nice, and in the distance Greater Flamingo’s and White Pelicans were seen. Then we spent the evening in the bar watching the world cup final. What a day!

Namibia Tour 2

It is considerably cooler since my last visit, well it is winter here, and there was a distinct chill in the air this morning as we met for our 7am walk. It is always a nice place to start as there are plenty of lifers for everyone and I think we did very well during our 80 minutes outing, where we walked just a few hundred metres from the hotel entrance! From an aesthetic point of view the stunning Crimson-breasted Shrike perched on top of an acacia for several minutes was the star bird, although a Bradfield’s Swift flying overhead was much more satisfying to my mind! As the day began to slowly warm up there was more bird activity and we saw Familiar Chat, Black-chested Prinia, Fork-tailed Drongo, Cape Wagtail, Marico Sunbirds, a few Southern Masked Weavers, several close White-browed Sparrow-Weavers, Southern Grey-headed Sparrow and lots of Cape Glossy Starlings. We walked around to an open area and then in a very short space of time we were watching an Acacia Pied Barbet, Pririt Batis, Burnt-necked Eremomela, Rufous-vented Tit-Babbler, Grey-Go-Away Bird, lots of African Red-eyed Bulbuls and several cute Blue (Cordon-bleu) Waxbills.

Then, following a nice buffet breakfast we headed off in a southerly direction before turning off the paved road and onto the ‘gravel’ road we would soon become accustomed to. Along the way we stopped to admire our first Tawny Eagles and several White-backed Vultures, whilst a single Lappet-faced Vulture just passed by too quickly, a Marico Flycatcher was scoped and we saw the first of many Burchell’s Starlings to be seen today..

The scenery was getting better and better, changing from typical ‘bush country’ to rocky gorges as the day went on and I really don’t know where the time went today, as it went way too fast for our liking. It was easy roadside birding all day and we picked up several Pale Chanting Goshawks, both Lilac-breasted and Purple Rollers and Common Fiscal early on. We stopped to admire a huge Social Weaver colonial nest in a large tree and a male Pygmy Falcon appeared nearby, along with flocks of weavers and Scaly-feathered Finches. Moving on we saw our first Helmeted Guineafowl, before stopping on a bridge over a dry riverbed, where one small pool was inviting lots of Lark-like Buntings and a single Green-winged Pytilia. Short-toed Rock-thrushes were numerous today and we probably saw at least 9 throughout the day – compared to April’s visit where we only had one distant view on our penultimate day.

Short-toed Rock-thrush

Lunch was taken at a quaint roadside restaurant and whilst waiting for our food we walked around the gardens getting our first Blacksmith’s Lapwing, Sabota Lark, Dusky Sunbirds, Kalahari Scrub-Robin, Familiar Chat, brief Black-throated Canary, Ashy Tit and a flyover Namaqua Sandgrouse. Both Tractrac Chat and Chat Flycatcher were seen shortly after leaving our lunch stop as well.

Kalahari Scrub-robin

The scenery became more rugged from here on and we searched for Herero Chat without any luck, but did get nice views of a group of 5 Monteiro’s Hornbills, Mountain Wheatears, lots of Chacma Baboons, Klipspringers and Black-backed Jackal. 

Klipspringers

A Bokmakierie was perched on top of an acacia as we drove past but disappeared as we all jumped out of the minibus. As the road dropped down to the valley floor a beautiful red sunset greeted us and 3 Ludwig’s Bustards striding sedately across the grassland was a fine way to end our birding.

Qinghai - The End

Our last morning’s birding was at a lake near Urumqi where we arrived quite early and straight away got our bins on a  male White-headed Duck! This is a rare bird in China and many country listers have visited this spot over the past 4 – 5 years to tick this bird here. 

The duck site...

White-headed Duck

There were also Red-crested Pochard, Ferruginous Duck and other commoner wildfowl, along with Northern Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, many Pale Martins, Pied Wheatear and Isabelline Shrikes. We drove around to the other side of the lake and walked down towards the water’s edge where we had much better views of a male, female and immature male White-headed Duck. It was a nice setting with hills all around, beautiful blue skies and plenty of birds but eventually the time had come to turn around and head back to the hotel and pack. But we weren’t done yet as we saw a family of Chukar on a hillside to bring our tour list to 245 species seen.

After lunch we drove to the airport and flew back to the UK via Beijing, arriving the following day. It had been a great tour and was very enjoyable to be able to spend time watching birds and really appreciating them without having to be tied to a fixed and tight agenda. And I must thank a really great group for their excellent spotting, camaraderie and good humour. 

Next up is our second tour to Namibia this year......

Return to the Mountains

Returned to the Tien Shan Mountains and birded a different valley for the morning. We found more Eversmann’s Redstarts, Godlewski’s and Pine Buntings, and many Common Rosefinches. A delightful Azure Tit performed exceedingly well but would just not settle on any close trees, instead it took delight in confounding us by landing on overhead telegraph wires…..The only new birds were a dark-phase Booted Eagle and a Great Tit – the latter species caused Clements’ list followers some palpitations in case it was a Turkestan Tit, but alas not!

Azure Tit

 As this was our 23^rd consecutive day of high energy birding/travelling we decided to finish after lunch and return to the hotel early. Despite the mother of all traffic jams slowing us down, fortunately the traffic queue was going in the opposite direction, we arrived back shortly after 4pm for a much deserved rest before visiting the Irish bar for ….. pizza…….

Tien Shan Mountains

What a day this turned out to be, as we drove up into the Tien Shan Mountains. 

The meadows at the base of the Tien Shan Mountains were full of wildflowers

Although after a little later start than normal we then hit bad traffic and it took well over two hours to get out of the city and into the arable land at the base of the mountains. 

Red-headed Bunting - the first of many surprises today

Rosy Starlings were common

Tawny Pipit

But some fruitful roadside stops amidst the meadows at the base of the mountains produced a number of goodies and we soon forgot about the journey here, as we quickly found several Tawny Pipits, lots of Red-headed Buntings, flocks of Rosy Starlings, Linnet, Common Whitethroat, Pied and Northern Wheatears, whilst the fields were alive with Eurasian Skylark song-flighting, plus many Turkestan Shrikes were seen as well.

Tien Shan Mountains

Driving higher we checked out some valleys without any joy, apart from finding our first of many Fire-fronted Serins and Eurasian Jackdaws, before heading off to another good area where Pine Buntings were common and we also had Spotted Nutcracker as well. 

Fire-fronted Serin

Pine Bunting

We had a lunch of lamb pasties before walking up a side valley and after a bit of a search came up with 3 of our main targets: Black-throated Accentor, Blue-capped Redstart and a fine Three-toed Woodpecker. Other species seen included Coal Tit, Eurasian Nuthatch, Eurasian Treecreeper, Goldcrest and others. 

Three-toed Woodpecker

In fact our search had taken longer than we realised as walking back to the road we noticed it was already 6.30pm so left on the drive for the hotel. However, Neil spotted a redstart beside the road and we reversed the coach only to find our main target of a fine male Eversmann’s Redstart. 

Eversmann's Redstart

Out we jumped and enjoyed fine scope views of it perched on some bushes before flying closer to check us out.