Living In Luangwa

Zambia’s South Luangwa national park is well known in safari circles for its stunning scenery and abundance of big game. Herds of elephants drink and bathe along the riverbanks, giraffes feed from acacias in the riparian strip and lions pursue vast, dusty buffalo herds through the thickets.

Specials Overload

Photographing birds between Zaagkuildrift and Kgomo-Kgomo

Owl Awards 2021

BirdLife South Africa presents worthy recipients with Owl Awards in recognition of their outstanding efforts to help ‘give conservation wings’.

Sightings In The Subregion

Winter is never an optimal time from a rarities point of view, but in the past some of our most exciting ‘finds’ have occurred during this season. The latest review period was no different, producing a mega first bird for the subregion as well as several other good species to keep twitchers entertained.

The Enigma Buzzard

The late Leslie Brown, doyen of African raptorphiles, remarks in his African Birds of Prey (1970) that he found the status of the European Honey Buzzard in Africa puzzling. In his own experience he never saw one in Kenya during his 25 years’ residence there. He correctly surmised that birds from Western Europe disappeared into the forests of West Africa and the Congo Basin. This has been recently authenticated by several birds from Germany being tracked with telemetry. But what about the eastern population that crosses into Africa via Eilat? For example, in May 2015 as many as 450 000 individuals were recorded in two days. Any birds seen in southern Africa would be derived from this source.

Hope For Penguins

The De Hoop Nature Reserve on the south-western coast of South Africa is one of CapeNature’s flagship conservation areas. The associated marine protected area is home to a vast array of marine species, from whales to fish and turtles. And for a short time in the mid-2000s it was home to African Penguins too. A small colony established itself there naturally and was first found on a small headland on the eastern side of the reserve in 2003. Increasing to 18 breeding pairs by 2006, with about 100 other penguins roosting there regularly, the colony seemed off to a promising start. However, penguins are particularly vulnerable to predators when on land. A local caracal soon learnt that there were easy meals to be had and the colony was abandoned by 2008.

Journey To The End Of The Earth

After being thrown from my bed for the third time, I decided to get up and find a vantage point to better enjoy the storm. As I walked down the swaying corridor and up the stairs with the gait of a drunken sailor, I began to reconsider my decision to go outside. It was a doubt quickly stubbed as I jumped through the heavy metal door leading outside moments before it smashed closed behind me with a deep roll of the ship.

Birding MBOMBELA

The heart of the Lowveld

Give & Take

The quest for ascendency on the predatory ladder

Montagu's Harriers Hunting In The KNP

Montagu’s Harriers hunting in the KNP

Feather Light

Leucistic White-fronted Plover – or is it?

Secret Success

South African Shelduck

Altogether Now!

Living in groups makes you clever

Hidden Pleasure

Birding the Baviaanskloof

Birds To Watch

American Cliff Swallow

Home & Away

COVID-19 WREAKED havoc worldwide and no more so than in the travel industry, where I make my living.

Ice And Memory

Peregrine Falcon migration

rara avis

It’s a blustery day at Rondevlei outside Cape Town and a few hardy bird club members have come for the monthly bird outing. Peter Steyn has been birding since before the reserve was founded in 1952, yet he still returns and is as enthusiastic about seeing a Little Bittern skid across the water in front of us as the woman next to me, for whom it is a lifer. Later, as I register an African Spoonbill on my atlas checklist, Peter and I discuss his 1957 record of the first breeding colony of spoonbills in the Western Cape.

Home Invader

Diederik Cuckoo

Jackpot Birding

Observing Striped Crakes

Mixed Messages

Deciphering South Africa’s first Crested Honey Buzzard

It's A Calling

Warwick Tarboton is a true naturalist and respected as one of the country’s foremost natural history authors and bird photographers. There is little doubt that he has influenced many people to take their interest in birds in particular to the next level.

The Birds And The Beast

Addo’s bird/mammal associations

Sightings In The Subregion: Mid-January To Mid-March 2021

After a midsummer that was so busy with rarities, one might have thought that things would calm down somewhat, but the later part of the season continued to deliver a dazzling list of mouthwatering records. Twitchers were kept fully entertained and on their toes!

Juvenile African Cuckoo Diet

Juvenile African Cuckoo Diet

Redefining Plett Rage

The call I received from my friend Alastair at 06h00 on a Friday at the start of our year-end holiday was inevitable during the advancing second wave of Covid-19 cases, but it was one I had hoped to avoid. His entire family had just tested positive for the virus and we had just given his son, Alec, a lift from Cape Town to Plettenberg Bay to join us for a few days of holiday. Alec qualified uncomfortably as a close contact, having spent eight hours in the car with us and then slept in the same dorm room as all my kids for two nights.

A Wahlberg's Summer

Wahlberg’s Eagles have always been close to my heart and when the opportunity arose to photograph a breeding pair at the nest, I grabbed it with both hands. It all started when Marius, my future son-in-law, told me early in 2019 about an eagle’s nest in a thorn tree near the Sand River on the farm where he lives in Limpopo. He sent me a photograph of the two eagles at the nest and I immediately recognised them as a pair of Wahlberg’s. To add to my excitement, one of them was a pale morph.

action stations

Natural fish traps in the Okavango

What's In A Name?

Introducing the Blue-billed Teal and Fynbos Buttonquail

The Place Of Wonder

Birding in iSimangaliso Wetland Park and St Lucia