Bokmakierie

Two Septuagenarian Twitchers
Text & photos by Jim McLuskie
September 2016. I have just finished a birding
trip with my friend of more than 40 years
and birding buddy, Laurence Fenn. The area
we went to was a roughly triangular area
from Upington in the western central, to Port
Nolloth in the northwest and Calvinia in the
south. We had seven target species in mind;
some were lifers for Laurence and some for
me.
We left Jo’burg at 0600 on a Monday and
completed the 1000 km journey through
Upington to Pofadder (Afrikaans for puffadder,
a very venomous snake), we made
good progress, stopping only when we saw
a Temminck’s Courser and for a sandwich.
Arrived at 1700, very content, only to be told
by a fellow parker that our back left tyre was
flat! Laurence took off for the garage where
the tyre repair part was already closed. However,
the owner arrived at that moment and
reopened the repair shop.
We left early next morning in good shape,
heading north for the Orange River at Onseepkans.
Our target birds were Red Lark
and Sclater’s Lark. We saw neither but lots
of other nice birds. We retreated to Pofadder
and struck out southwest towards the red
dunes at Koa, the best place in the world to
see Red Larks. Unfortunately, the Red Larks
had not read the same book! So we reached
Springbok, late, tired and larkless. We stayed
3 nights on a very comfortable guest farm.
Wednesday morning, after a great breakfast,
we started down through the hills towards
Port Nolloth, the targets being Karoo Lark
and Barlow’s Lark. The guide says: start
looking 5 km from the port, at the start of
the coastal plain. So we did and it was not
long before we saw several Karoo Larks. One
down and six to go. We then moved to an
Barlow’s Lark
area just north of Port Nolloth, adjacent to
the sea. It was an area where I had previously
seen Barlow’s Lark. After several hours of
traipsing up and down, we were on a track
back to exit the area when we saw one! It
was a great view and I even got some photos
(not National Geographic standard but recognisable
at least). After fish and chips in the
port and a look at the De Beers ship facilities
there, we returned in leisurely fashion to
Springbok. Two down and five to go!
The guest farm was very comfortable and
did an excellent breakfast, so the next day
we were early at the entrance to a local
reserve (Goegap) that is well known for its
wildflowers. Though the season had passed
a week earlier, there were still some lovely
examples to be seen: gold, yellow, purple,
white and red clumps. After a briefing by an
enthusiastic reserve manager, we set off on
a 4x4 trail. At each good area indicated, dry
river bed with reeds, we hunted the elusive
Karoo Eremomela. I used my phone birding
app calls with a blue tooth loudspeaker and
we walked and called, listened and walked,
walked and called and listened again! At site
number 4, I was walking along the high bank
of a dry ravine calling and listening.
38 | Bokmakierie December 2016 No 247