The last stage of my Cape round trip was spent at Augrabies National Park where I camped for two nights. The Falls are something that you have to see - here are some pics that I doubt could ever do justice to the splendour of the place:

Here are some of the birding highlights that I had around the campsite:

I spotted an Acacia Pied Barbet in the main camping area and they saw another and spotted a nest that had been hollowed out in a tree at eye level:

The place was full of Pale-winged Starling and it was great to get close to these beauties - many of them ringed for a research project looking into their singing variations.

Another highlight was getting some decent shots of a bird that I had seen at Ontseepkuns - Dusky Sunbird - some of the shots were taken in the campsite and some at Echo Corner on the game drive - I can't stop marvelling at the colours that reflect when the sun shines on these birds:

Here are some other sightings that I had around the campsite:

I spent a LOT of time scanning the Swallows and Swifts and Martins that fly above the waterfall - hoping to spot a Sand Martin for the first time - but sadly could not convert any of the Brown-throated Martins into the Sand variety! I did get some unpublishable (even for my standards) pics of Alpine Swifts.

A great sighting critter-wise was a Ground Squirrel that came to drink on a hot a dry afternoon:

I also snapped some pics of the Rock Hyrax that live around the falls:

And then this little chap popped in front of my lens (I will just call it Mouse for now until it is correctly identified):

A large chunk of my time was spent on my full day in the Park driving the game drive section. The scenery was spectacular once again (the only problem I had was that Echo corner is broken - I shouted out but got no reply!) with stunning rock formation where ever you look!

And then there are the Quiver trees that are all over the Park. This tree is indigenous to Southern Africa, specifically in the Northern Cape region, and Namibia. It is known as Choje to the indigenous San people, and gets its name from the their practice of hollowing out the tubular branches of this tree to form quivers for their arrows.

Here are some more pics I took of trees in the Park:

And when I came across this scene all I could think of was GOLD - this little waterhole in the midst of a very dry park must be well appreciated by the animals and birds that visit it:

Okay, I was getting a little frustrated with the lack of bird life in the game drive section. It was approaching 10am and I was really seeing much and had thought a few time to cut my losses and retire to the campsite to process my pics - when all of a sudden I spotted a Lark and before long realised that there was not 1 but 15 Larks just next to the side of the road. This is the first time I have even seen a flock of Larks foraging anywhere and you can imagine my delight when they turned out to be Stark's Lark - and I had all but given up looking for them having left the Pofadder area behind me the day before! In fact, I spotted 2 feeding parties of Stark's Lark within an hour (most likely two separate groups given the distance I travelled) and this selection of photos is a collection from the two sightings:

I noticed a strange looking dark black bird among the Larks and realised that it was Black-eared Sparrowlark (not a new bird for me but my first sighting this year):

Another super sighting in the same area as the Stark's Larks was this Karoo Long-billed Lark - for once a Lark that is easy to identify (okay, I will hold my breath until the experts have taken a look):

Another Lark that I scrambled to identify popped out - and this one I am pretty sure is Spike-heeled Lark:

I have spent hours the previous day searching around Pofadder and Ontseepkuns for Burchell's Course and knowing that they are found at Augrabies continued my search - I nearly jumped for joy when I saw this Courser hiding from the sun - but sadly it is the Double-banded species (still a nice sighting) - I never did spot the Burchell's on this trip (maybe next time):

Another special sighting and also one that had me thinking of Burchell's Courses was spotting a Namaqua Sandgrouse under a tree. I approached and it turned into a male and female sheltering from the midday sun (a second sighting a hour or two later added some more close up shots of a species that I had never before gotten close to):

Just after the second Sandgrouse sighting I spotted a tiny Falcon on a tree in the distance and zoomed in to discover that it was Pygmy Falcon - it flew off showing the speckles on the upper wings and the distinctive rufous coloured back which can be seen in this shot:

Another raptor sighting after the Falcon was this Pale Chanting Goshawk:

Here are a few other sightings from the game drive area (hopefully my id's of the Familiar Chat and Chat Flycatcher are correct):

An interesting sighting was spotting these Pale-winged Starling acting like Oxpeckers on two Klipspringers on a koppie around Echo Corner:

Here are some other mammal sightings I had:

What an amazing journey it has been birding through the Cape. The landscape has been indescribably - thank goodness for photography - and the bird life truly incredible. I will never forget the Pelagic trip from Simons Town harbour and every other new bird or previously seen bird along the way.