Hi All, I did a quick one day trip to the flowering Tanqua on Saturday 26th August.
The veld was STILL in excellent shape, in fact new flowers were in evidence from the last trip on 16th August. This means that it has been flowering since July!
Many birds were either building or feeding and hence many were displaying. Did not see any Karoo Korhaans or Ludwig’s Bustard this time, but they may have been in the park itself. We spent most of our birding time on the R355 and P2250 which produced a large variety of species. We saw 5 Larks, 2 Sparrow-larks, and 6 Chats. The Black-eared Sparrowlarks were easy to track and get close too, did not get any pics but would have been a possibility with more time! Namaqua Warbler, Karoo Eromomela, Layard’s Titbabbler, Fairy Flycatcher, Black-headed Canary and Dusky Sunbirds were fairly obvious in the shrubbery. One of the Dusky Sunbirds had the most black on the front with very little buffy/white on the belly I have seen for a long time, even displayed it’s orange wing flashes!
Saw 58 species in the Tanqua valley alone but I think that once the flowers go to seed many more Canaries, Sparrow-larks and Buntings will move in.
The Tanqua river at the Tanqua Guest House (bought a great picnic lunch there!) was actually flowing on top of the soil instead of underground. I have never seen this in the last 6 years that I have been going there.
All in all another great trip in ‘Brian’s Tanqua Taxi’.
More trips too come soon.
Brian
https://brians-birding.co.za/birding-blog/43-tanqua-mountain-views