Geelbek Western Cape birding – Trip report
I learned about Geelbek Western Cape for birding through the Southern African Rare Bird News Reports I receive by email. While on holiday in Cape Town, I made Geelbek a priority visit.
You can also receive the Southern African Rare Bird News Reports, by joining the following Google Group:
https://groups.google.com/g/sa-rarebirdnews
Geelbek is about an hour and a half scenic drive from Cape Town. Look for the Langebaan Lagoon at the West Coast National park. The Geelbek hide is where I spent most of the day.
There are thousands of sea birds along the beaches and the lagoon. The area is a Ramsar site. As per Wikipedia: “A Ramsar Site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.” The Ramsar Convention conserves rare, important, and unique wetlands of international importance.
A great variety of migrant and wetland wader birds will keep you busy for hours. Flamingos, sandpipers, plovers, Cape gannets, African penguins, and pelicans are among the birds you can look for.
African Black Oystercatcher
Birding terminology
Twitchers are committed bird-watchers who travel long distances to see a rare bird that would then be ticked, or counted on a list.
Twitch: The act of traveling a long distance to see a rare bird. Synonymous with chase.
Lifer: A first-ever sighting of a bird species by an observer; an addition to one’s life list.
Life List: A list of every species of birds an individual birder has ever seen, or heard, in the world.
LBJ (or little brown job): Drab songbirds that are difficult to differentiate and identify.
Mega or megatick: A very rare bird.
Vagrant: A stray far from the normal ecological range.
I hope you enjoyed this post, Geelbek Western Cape birding. You might also be interested in these posts:
https://www.wwbirds.co.za/dir/boulders-beach-birding/
https://www.wwbirds.co.za/dir/geelbek-western-cape-birding/
Here is another post about the Cape Spurfowl that is endemic to South Africa.
Please leave a comment about your experience at Geelbek or anything you would like to share with us.
Content creator: Petrus A. van Tonder
