I am making this post not because I have some beautiful photos that will win awards, but because I want to show how photography can be used under tough conditions to tell a story. Telling stories is what makes me want to find what I call…
Visitors from Europe are often surprised when visiting this part of the world when they learn that we have so many species of kingfisher (10 species in South Africa), and that more than half of them are not associated with water. In Europe…
Back in June, if I was writing this I would have said that two species of leaf warblers were known from South Africa. However, this changed in July when a single wood warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix) was found at the lovely Sefapane Lodge…
The helmetshrikes comprise one of the most distinctive groups of birds that you find in the Hoedspruit area where I live, and throughout the South African bushveld. They are never far away, and family groups are often seen on their own or…
Everyone knows oxpeckers, those strange birds that hang around on mammals and make their living eating parasites, dead skin and blood. Watching them go about their business on mammals such as impala, zebra, giraffe and buffalo can be quite…
Most people are familiar with the nest parasitism – or brood parasitism – that is shown by our cuckoos, such as the Jacobin cuckoo and Diederik Cuckoos, where the birds lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species. These other…
I live in the Hoedspruit area of Limpopo province of South Africa, and every summer, our skies are full of agile and fast birds flying around picking insects out of the air. In the dying days of our summer, some such as the barn swallow,…
This post was initially written as an article for theHoedspruit Explorer Magazine. There is a loud, high-pitched, monotonous warbling sound that is heard throughout the bushveld in the Hoedspruit area in summer, particularly in areas with…
It is summer now, and the “die die diederik” call of the onomatopoeic diederik cuckoo is heard throughout the bushveld. These birds migrate from equatorial regions of Africa in spring, arriving in South Africa starting in October and…
Almost invisible on a map of the world, the two tiny islandsof Trinidad and Tobago are located at the southern end of the Caribbean, justoff the northern coast of South America. Its proximity to mainland SouthAmerica addresses its history;…