10,000 Birds

MARCH 16, 2016

I was planning a trip to South Africa, I had about five days to fill, I wanted to get a bunch of desert species (particularly the Springbok – not a bird) in a way that wasn’t too hard to reach from Johannesburg. A Shaft-tailed Whydah, a member of a small African family of cuckoo-finches. I never get bored of Giraffes.

South Africa 189

South Africa Leopards Giraffes Africa 189

10,000 Birds

MAY 12, 2013

Of course Africa could not to be left out of the pink weekend so I have researched all African species whose official or alternative names include the word “pink”. Its mostly found on the ground in thickets or the edges of dense vegetation and usually in small family parties. Another not very pink species is the Pink-footed Puffback.

Africa 251

Africa Somalia Mozambique Pelicans 251

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 26, 2021

And apart from local people, primate researchers sometimes spot it, but it is a species seen by fewer than ten living birders. The rest of the 216 pages long book is devoted to various African bird families and half a dozen individual species. He has authored several other books and many articles, largely on natural history.

Congo 264

Congo Africa Madagascar Kenya 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 11, 2012

Elephant The big – two species of elephant are now recognized as occuring in Africa, the smaller and more secretive Forest Elephant and the larger, more familiar African or Bush Elephant. Prime destinations for seeing African Elephant in the wild include Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda.

Buffalo 245

Buffalo Rhinoceros Leopards Elephants 245

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

18 years ago I moved to Botswana where that gloriously bright sunshine makes observing them easier, while shorebirds themselves ease things further by mostly sporting their wintering plumage. Illustrated by Chandler’s mainly excellent photos, the book shows about 180 species, or some 80 % of the total. Anything else would be a lie.

Botswana 164

Botswana 2017 Groups Europe 164

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 21, 2019

In one of the first of Dee’s observations about gullers he calls them: “men leaving their homes and their families to spend time peering at arsey birds in some of the arseholes of the world.”. At the time I was the Secretary of the Botswana Bird Club, and Claire was one of recipients of the club’s ornithological journal The Babbler.

Angola 232

Angola United Kingdom Mozambique Botswana 232

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

The reserve, in the eastern corner of Botswana near Zimbabwe and South Africa, isn’t open to the public in general, so I figured I’d share a few images here by way of showing off. Red-crested Korhaans are attractive members of the bustard family. As well as birds, the reserve holds endangered species like African Wild Dogs.

Zimbabwe 103

Zimbabwe Botswana South Africa Endangered Species 103

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 4, 2017

I saw Painted Wolves again, my favourite species ever. In particular they evoke the New Hampshire lake my extended family descends upon each summer and has done so from before I was born. The Orange-fronted Parakeet is a critically endangered species that I came agonisingly close to seeing but didn’t. I went to Ethiopia.

United Arab Emirates 100

United Arab Emirates Ethiopia 2016 Singapore 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 9, 2013

A Long-tailed Sylph, one of the America’s many long tailed hummingbird species, photographed in Colombia by Adam Riley. A Great Argus in full call, this species’ tail consists of the longest feather in the bird world. The 9 species of whydah are brood-parasitic seedeaters belonging to the Indigobird family.

Papua New Guinea 260

Papua New Guinea South Africa Africa Zimbabwe 260

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2015

But I do have rules about whether I can have said to have visited a country, ie does the country “count” which I have inherited from my family, particularly my Dad. I bring this up because birding the Chobe River in northern Botswana gave me the interesting opportunity to bird a country I technically wasn’t in.

Botswana 162

Botswana Lesotho Elephants Bald Eagle 162

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

Even in the tropics there are few birds that excel some of our own in elegance and beauty of plumage and we have an unusually large number of species considering the smallness of the area they inhabit. ” (Woodward brothers, “Natal Birds”, 1899) The mighty Drakensberg Mountains run along the western boundary of KwaZulu-Natal province.

Mozambique 237

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 237

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

And so, back to political entities, this field guide covers Namibia , Botswana , Zimbabwe , the southern half of Mozambique (south of the Zambezi River), South Africa , Lesotho and Eswatini ( Swaziland ). Distribution maps show the relative abundance of a species in the region and also indicate resident or visiting status.

Africa 264

Africa South Africa Swaziland Lesotho 264

10,000 Birds

MAY 8, 2012

Africa has more than its fair share of storks, with 8 of the world’s 19 species gracing the continent. Furthermore we have another very special stork-like bird, the regal Shoebill , previously known as the Whale-headed Stork but now placed in its own family. It is also related to Wood Stork of the Americas and Milky Stork of Asia.

Africa 250

Africa Tanzania South Africa Uganda 250

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 12, 2015

Conservation is concerned about protecting populations, species, habitats, ecosystems. That conservation uses the death of the species it is trying to save is both paradoxical and not. If tourists are too dim to tell Sierra Leone from Botswana or Tanzania, do we really want to rely on them to save Africa’s species?

Lions 255

Lions Sierra Leone Hunting Buffalo 255

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

One study found that birds living in Botswana had elevated levels of lead in their bloodstreams during hunting season, presumably coming from lead bullets used on animals killed by hunters. I could immediately tell them it was an Egyptian Goose – an invasive species in Germany but not at Kruger. ” (HBW).

Elephants 147

Elephants Congo Birds Africa 147