Greetings from South Africa!

After 27 hours of travel, including stops at JFK and Nairobi, we finally arrived at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa this afternoon. Woo hoo! Even better, the area between the terminal and the shuttlebus zone was quite nicely landscaped with trees, plants, and a bit of lawn, so there was plenty to see while we waited for our hotel shuttle to arrive.

We spotted this little cutie before we had even reached the shuttlebus zone, and long-time readers might recognize it right away as a wagtail, but which one? I was thrilled to discover that it is my very first Cape wagtail (Motacilla capensis). Yippee!

By the time we found a spot to park for the wait, and I got my gear out, there was another little bird flitting around, who looked a bit like a house sparrow, but upon closer inspection, there’s more black on the head, face, and neck, and none of it is mottled, the way it is on a house sparrow’s neck, and that’s because this is my very first Cape sparrow (Passer melanurus). Hurray!

I eventually made it to the patch of lawn, where I actually took the two pictures above, and there was yet a third surprise also foraging there. The beak says “finch”, but it appears that they don’t make a “Cape finch”, so this one is my first ever red-headed finch (Amadina erythrocephala). Holy smokes!

I started to hear a little, high-pitched chirp in the tree growing above the lawn, and a brief search turned up this striking little foliage-gleaner, which resumes the parade of birds with “Cape” in their names, with Cape white-eye (Zosterops virens), a fourth first for me. Ach du Lieber!

Finally, I did manage to spot a bird I’ve shown you before, this common bulbul, which I first saw in Malawi. Phew!

Well, I’ve gotta wrap this up because Anne’s got us scheduled to leave for a safari in a nearby national park at 5:30 am, and I could sure as heck use some beauty sleep after that flight.