After Beaufort West and the Karoo National Park we headed to Paarl South Africa, near Cape Town.  This is wine country, although we came for the birds, not the wine.

We enjoyed very nice accommodations at Nuwerus Lodge in Paarl.  After a hearty breakfast we decided to check out the Paarl Bird Sanctuary.  Once we got there we learned birders can only use the facilities (sewage lagoons) on weekends, or so we were told.  Hard to know for sure, but being it was Friday we couldn’t visit the sanctuary.  Our alternative was to visit the  Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve instead.  I’m glad we did as we got to see a number of “Cape” species – Cape Sugarbird, Cape Batis, Cape Francolin (or Spurfowl), Cape Widowbird (i.e., Yellow Bishop), and Cape Bulbul.  All were new (life) birds for me.

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Malachite Sunbird (Male)

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Southern Boubou

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Cape Widowbird (aka Yellow Bishop)

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Cape Sugarbird (Female)

If you like flowers this is a great place to visit.  There is a Botanical Garden at the reserve with plenty of species in bloom.

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Pond

Here are some of the flowers we saw at the garden.

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There were numerous trails through the Botanical Garden giving people opportunity to check out all the different flowering plants (and for us birders – a chance to see a variety of birdlife).

IT WAS A GREAT DAY TO BIRD