A PEEP INTO THE KAROO NATIONAL PARK

The Karoo National Park is a beautiful and peaceful place to spend a few days in. Imagine watching a Helmeted Guineafowl pecking at the ground as it makes its way to a nearby bird bath for a drink:

Or watching a Mountain Tortoise chewing on a blade of grass growing close to the chair you are sitting on:

What about going for a drive and stopping to admire these beautiful mountains:

Think of the wonder of coming across a magnificent pair of Gemsbok in the plains:

Then following a windy road into the hills, only to stop to admire this beautiful scenery:

Driving even further under the beautiful blue sky, you stop again to drink in this vista that seems to go on forever:

There is peace, a tranquility that is difficult to beat … and in between all of this beauty are trees, birds and a variety of other animals to look out for!

CHESTNUT-VENTED TIT-BABBLER

What a happy surprise it was to spot a Chestnut-vented tit-babbler (Parisoma subcaeruleum) foraging for the same red berries that had attracted to so many sparrows to the shrubbery growing opposite our tent in the Karoo National Park.

These active birds are rather difficult to get a good photograph of. At least I didn’t find it easy as they were constantly jumping around and tended to be ‘inside’ the bush rather than on the ‘outside’, where I would have seen them more easily.

These distinctive grey birds with pale eyes, streaked throat, rufous vent, large white patches on the tail and blue-grey underparts. Are a fairly skulking species that are both a thornveld species and commonly seen in coastal thicket.

Still, it was fun being able to observe a species that I don’t see where I live – another wonderful plus about travelling!

TAME KUDU IN KAROO NATIONAL PARK

The sun had already set by the time we had pitched our tent and got ourselves settled in at Karoo National Park. Our neighbour told us they had seen a tame kudu in the camp for two days in a row. Instead of seeing it, a black-backed jackal ran past us as we were sitting outside. It wasn’t until the following day that the kudu walked around the camp and stopped to browse the trees in front of our tent.

It later moved off towards a bird bath, where it had a drink.

I thought this would be the end of a magical experience. As I mentioned in my earlier post on the Karoo National Park, it actually came close enough for me to stroke it – this was a special moment for me. Before then, however, it approached our trailer to inspect its contents.

Then it browsed the trees right in front of us before moving along to see what else was of interest in the rest camp.

Later in the afternoon, I was standing at the door of our tent when the kudu stood next to our empty chairs – so close that I could have touched it again.

I know other visitors have experienced the presence of this kudu, but have no idea when it began this behaviour or what has induced it to become so people-friendly. I watched some visitors feeding it something (too far away for me to identify) and it helped itself to bread from our neighbour’s table. It looks in good condition though and is obviously happy to eat its natural food. I would love to find out more about it.

CAPE SPARROWS IN THE KAROO NATIONAL PARK

As on our previous visit to the Karoo National Park, I was a little disappointed to find that sparrows ruled the roost. I probably felt this way because they are such common birds that we tend overlook them unintentionally. Among the many sparrows were Cape Sparrows (Passer melanurus), which I do not see very often: there are House Sparrows that hang about the shopping centre and Grey-headed Sparrows in our garden. This is why I thought it would be fun to focus on the Cape Sparrows for a while: they are easy to identify, thanks to the distinctive white ‘C’ extending from their eyes down their necks.

These sparrows proved to be the stalwarts of the rest camp, keeping a close watch on the tents and caravans and quick to grab a crumb or two: a flock of them would fly in as soon as visitors had vacated a site and would comb the ground for edibles. They are mainly seed-eaters which source their food on the ground. This female was searching for seeds between the gravel stones outside our tent when she picked up this piece of dry grass.

It is my experience that when we take a closer look at the more common things around us we find real beauty. Spending a some quiet time with these active little birds proved to be rewarding for they were a delight to observe. While they also eat insects and nectar, I was delighted to watch these ones eating the scarlet berries on a plant growing close to our tent.

These berries looked juicy.

Some of them were more difficult to reach than others.

 

WELCOME TO KAROO NATIONAL PARK

Having driven nearly 500km from Cape Town, we were delighted to arrive at the gate of the Karoo National Park outside Beaufort West:

It is an entry to a delightful world of spectacular scenery, an array of animals and birds – as well as some unexpected experiences. I have posted about this park several times and in this one will focus only on the pictures taken with my cell phone. One of the unexpected experiences was the arrival of a very large Mountain/Leopard tortoise ‘crashing’ through the scrub next to our tent:

I soon discovered that there were three of these tortoises that used to wander around the camp during the day, nibbling on the lawn in front of the ablution block or feeding on the low natural vegetation growing on the edge of the rest camp. They are obviously used to people and the clicking of cameras for they paid us no attention. Birds are also used to the coming and going of visitors. This Cape Robin-Chat came right up to where I was sitting:

Another unexpected surprise was the daily arrival of this young female Kudu:

Here she is inspecting the (uninteresting) contents of our trailer. She came so close to me that I was able to stroke her:

All good things come to an end – you will be seeing more of the park in later posts – and we endured a heavy downpour on our last night. Although we remained dry inside our tent, the next day we had to pack up in the rain – hence the placing of the now wet tent on top of the trailer for the eight hour trip home. Here we are ready to leave: