This represents a much-wanted new bird family (see also its family page). Although traditionally placed near thrushes, the two rockjumpers of South Africa actually evolved at the base of the passerine tree of life, closest to Picathartes (Rockfowl), and very far removed from thrushes. They separated from the rockfowl ~31 million years ago (Beresford et al. 2005). They are completely unique, not to mention elusive and spectacular.

The other planned new family for the trip; there are two species in South Africa, and this one is endemic around the Cape. They rely heavily on flowering Protea plants. The sugarbird proved to be reasonably widespread within range and habitat, and we encountered small numbers daily during the first week of the trip. Recent biochemical evidence (Beresford et al. 2005) suggests that the Spot-throat (Modulatrix) and Dapple-throat (Arcanator) of eastern Tanzania may be members of the sugarbird family [Promeropidae]

Snowy Sheathbill
Chionas alba

A totally unexpected vagrant — representing yet another new family — were two sheathbills that had just appeared in Cape Town harbor. Through the help of Richard White's connections and local Trevor Hardaker, we connected with local birder Eugene Fourie who had first found one bird on 24 June, and two on 27 June. We missed them our first try on 30 June but with lots of non-public access provided by Eugene on 2 July, saw both birds at a distance and this one close up. It was very skittish and flew across the harbor just after this shot. This is the nesting species around the Antarctic Peninsula and Falklands but the population disperses from April-June, when vagrants reach coastal South America. The few South African birds may be ship-assisted but the records are limited to June-July, consistent with the dispersal pattern. There is no evidence this bird was captured or transported against its will, and it could (and did) fly vigorously and was very wary.

Days 1-5   Cape Town & vicinity, including a pelagic trip and a Great White Shark trip
Day 6   West Coast NP & Lamberts Bay
Day 7   Lamberts Bay to Brandvlei
Day 8   Brandvlei vicinity (and a night drive)
Day 9   Brandvlei to Augrabies Falls NP
Day 10   Augrabies Falls NP (and a night drive)
Day 11   Augrabies Falls to Kalahari-Gemsbok NP
Days 12-14  Kalahari-Gemsbok NP (2 night drives)
Day 15   Kalahari to Fish River Canyon
Day 16   Fish River Cyn to Anib Lodge (night drive)
Day 17   Anib Lodge to Windhoek
Day 18   Spitzkoppe & Erongo Mts.
Day 19   Erongo Mts to Etosha via Uis
Days 20-22   Etosha NP
Day 23   Etosha to Rundu on Caprivi Strip
Day 24   Caprivi Strip woods to Okavango Delta
Day 25   Okavango Delta
Day 26   Mahango Game Reserve & back to Namibia
Day 27   drive to Waterbueg NP
Day 28   Waterberg NP & on to Windhoek
Day 29   Daan Viljoen Reserve in a.m.; fly to London in p.m. for a 4 day visit

• A trip total of ~390 birds — an excellent number for mid-winter — that included 9 of 10 "most wanted" chosen before the trip
• Ticking my 5000th world bird — Jackass Penguin
• Excellent success with interior Namibian specialties, including Rockrunner, White-tailed Shrike, Herero Chat & Hartlaub's Francolin
• Good success with Cape specialties, including (beyond the new family representatives for rockjumper, rockfowl, and penguin), Knysna Warbler, Black Harrier, Forest Buzzard, Cape Grassbird, Protea Canary, and Swee Waxbill
• Seven bustards, including highly-prized Ludwig's and Rueppell's
• 15 larks, including major locally targeted Red, Sclater's & Starke's, and 3 of the 5 recent splits in the Long-billed Lark complex
• 5 or 6 hornbills (depending on your taxonomy), including much desired Monteiro's and Bradfield's
• Wattled Crane & White-backed Night-Heron
• Pel's Fishing Owl, plus 7 other owls, nearly all at day roosts
• 57 mammals, including these heart-stoppers
• Aardvark!
• Aardwolf!
• Ratel, Cape Fox, and Springhares
• Sitatunga, the rarely seen swamp antelope
• African Wild Cat snatching a baby hyrax
• Up to 11 Black Rhinos visiting waterhole in one evening, including mother and very young baby
• Damara Dik-Dik marking territory within arm's reach
• assorted Lions, Elephants, Giraffes in interactions
• Close views of Great White Sharks!

• Birds that we had a reasonable chance to see but missed
• Cinnamon-breasted Warbler — we tried tapes at a good variety of regular sites but they just weren't responding in winter
• Burchell's Courser — a nomadic bird that we just flat missed
• Slaty Egret — the only "top 10 wanted" bird missed; the locals say it arrives at our Okavango Delta site about a month later than our visit
• Cape Griffon & Black-eared Finch-Lark — both long shots for different reasons. We didn't have time to visit the vulture nesting site in South Africa, and the finch-lark is exceedingly nomadic [we missed a few other birds that we didn't spend any effort on because we'd seen them elsewhere before — perhaps Ground Woodpecker is the only significant name in that category]
• Mammals missed
• Brown Hyena — we had scheduled extra time in Kalahari-Gemsbok NP in hopes for this, but were just not lucky enough. A night drive a week before our arrival had seen one.
• other than 3 lions, we saw no other big cats. This is not east Africa where encounters with leopard & cheetah are more regular (but other visitors to Etosha or Kalahari-Gemsbok had both of those cats during our visit; these were a very small minority of visitors to the parks; we chased one 'leopard-in-a-tree' report but missed it)