2009 Tour Highlights

South Africa Our beautiful home country continues to provide all visitors with a superb birding holiday experience. From the scenic Cape Peninsula to the legendry Kruger National Park our tours sampled the remarkable scenery, culture, wildlife and birds that our home country offers. Our ever popular 24-day South African Mega-endemic tours just keep going from strength to strength and the bar keeps getting pushed higher as David Hoddinott yet again broke the current record on this years October trip. Our comprehensive departures also continue to provide a concise overview of the region while also achieving huge totals and high percentages of the possible endemics. Highlights on our recent spate of tours included stunning views of the shy Buff-spotted Flufftail, all 10 South African Bustards, Southern Fulmar, an amazing 40 species of raptors including the mega Taita Falcon and graceful Black Harrier, nomadic Burchell’s Courser, localized Green (Woodward’s) Barbet, Bush Blackcap, the endangered Blue Swallow, both species of Rockjumper, 24 larks including Sclater’s, Red, Botha’s, Rudd’s and Barlow’s, both species of Sugarbird and all 14 Sunbirds including the sough-after Neergaard’s. Some of the mammalian highlights on the recent tours have included the enigmatic and rarely encountered Aardvark, superb views of Aardwolf, families of entertaining Meerkat, the ever-popular ‘Big 5’, Cheetah, Heaviside’s Dolphin and Southern Right, Humpback and Bryde’s Whales