New trip report and more photos

Here is a link to my latest birding trip report, for the South Africa and Namibia trip discussed in several posts below. It includes lots of photos and our full bird and mammal trip list. It was a great trip--enjoy the trip report!

Also, a couple of non-bird photos from the trip are posted below.

Tropical Birding guide David Nkosi (above)

Tropical Birding guide Benji Schwartz
scanning the huge gannet colony at Lambert's Bay,
north of Cape Town

More South Africa photos

I just thought I would post a few more photos from our recent trip. The trip report (with lots more photos) will soon be published, I will post a link to it here.

Southern Grey Tit


Western rock elephant shrew












Orange River White-eye






(left) Cape Gannet colony, Lambert's Bay

Two important stories

There are two interesting and important news items that have come out in the last couple of days for world birders.

One is conservation related--the very existence of Grenada Dove is being put at risk by the decision of the government of Grenada to sell off part of a national park to make room for a luxury resort. This is a discraceful decision, and if an online petition pops up to help prevent this development I will post a link. An excerpt from the Birdlife International press release:

"A ‘high-end luxury resort’ threatens one of the last remaining refuges for the Grenada Dove, a Critically Endangered species with a global population of just 180 birds. In an unprecedented move the Government of Grenada looks set to sell the whole of the Mount Hartman National Park to make space for a Four Seasons Resort, on the basis of its biodiverse location and “sea-view”.

"The Mount Hartman National Park – also called ‘The Dove Sanctuary’ - in the south-west of Grenada, supports at least 22% of the global population of the Grenada Dove - equating to just 20 pairs. With such a low population in just a few remnant patches of forest, Grenada Dove is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the near future."


The second story involves a birding lodge that I have very fond memories of from my first overseas birding trip, Rancho Naturalista in Costa Rica. Apparently it has gone severely downhill in the last few years, and a former employee of the lodge, Andrew Walker, describes its current state here. One of the more disturbing incidents described is the felling of a tree with an ACTIVE Cinnamon Becard nest (see photo below), despite the fact that the management was aware that nestlings were still in the nest. Birding lodges should be models of conservation, showing that birding and ecotourism can bring substantial amounts of money to a region. Such counterproductive measures as destroying nesting birds not only sets a bad example that reflects poorly on the lodge itself but shows a shameful lack of consideration for the birds themselves.

Sad news from China

I'm very interested in environmental issues around the world, and will be posting regularly when I come across particularly interesting stories. As many environmental stories are, this one is sad and disheartening. After the great news about a huge new park in Brazil comes this news out of China about the 'functional' extinction of the baiji, or Chinese river dolphin.

Speaking of China, the Chicago Tribune is running an excellent series of articles about how cheap products from China (with the U.S. importing the bulk of these products) are having disastrous effects on the global environment. It talks of desertification in China, deforestation in Papua New Guinea, and China's unquenchable thirst for oil. It's is well worth the free registration to check out these articles.

Water features near Pofadder

In many areas around Bushmanland, in northwest South Africa, farm dams attract thousands of birds from the surrounding area. These present excellent photographic opportunities. A selection of photos from water features and the red dunes southwest of Pofadder are posted below. The most common birds were hundreds of Lark-like Buntings and Gray-backed Sparrowlarks. The area is famous for the red 'dunes' form of Red Lark (see photo above left), a beautiful lark that we saw extremely well, and of which I was able to obtain distant photos. Tomorrow I will post a selection of photos showing variation in Gray-backed Sparrowlark, one of the more beautiful of the South African larks (but aren't they all?).

White-throated Canary and Lark-like Bunting


Namaqua Sandgrouse (male)


Rufous-eared Warbler

Common Redshanks at Veldriff

I was pretty excited to find my first rarity for South Africa at the beginning of our lark extravaganza trip (on 8 December), two Common Redshanks at the De Plaat mudflats in Veldriff. This area is well known for attracting rare shorebirds, and we were in the area looking for, among other birds, the recently reported Red-necked Phalaropes (which we didn't see, unfortunately). The redshanks were about 200 meters away, but as soon as I got the scope on them their identity was obvious. They had long, bright red legs, long, straight, red-based bills, and were approximately the size and shape of the many nearby Common Greenshanks. Because of the distance photography was difficult, but I managed to digiscope a few identifiable images, which are posted below.

Other birds of lesser note in the area were an Osprey, 5 Marsh Sandpipers, and 12 Eurasian Curlews.

The second and fourth images are the originals. With the first and third images I've used photoshop to adjust the lighting, but I have not tampered with the colors. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Back from recce

I just got back from a recce through Bushmanland and Namaqualand, South Africa, and Fish River Canyon, Namibia. The trip was a great success--we found all of our main target birds--Stark's, Sclater's, Red, and Barlow's Larks, Burchell's and Double-banded Coursers, a variety of raptors including Black-chested Snake Eagle and Martial Eagle, four species of bustards, and some great mammals. Over the next week I'll be publishing pictures and stories from the trip (see the first couple below). Stay tuned!

Cinnamon-breasted Warbler was a a target of the trip.
This individual was incredibly cooperative.

Illegal trapping in Namibia

David, Benji and I were driving along doing 100 kph on a dirt road in southern Namibia. It was a debilitating 45 degrees Celcius outside (naturally, the car didn't have AC) and we were seeing no birds at all. However, we noticed that every few kilometers along a certain stretch of road there were animals hanging dead on the barbed wire fences. The second time we noticed we pulled over to have a look. We were shocked to find single wild cats hanging from the fences on opposite sides of the road, and an aardwolf tossed under a roadside bush. We soon found a leg trap (unoxhaka in Zulu, according to David) under the fence nearby. An animal had dug under the fence, making a convenient thoroughfare for other animals to get past the manmade obstacle. The farmer (mostly sheep in this area), had been trapping the animals and leaving them for dead, then tossing them onto the fence. A few kilometers later we came across the wild cat in the photo, whose foot had been snapped off by the trap. We stole the trap (which was later discovered by customs officials at the border crossing back to South Africa, but that's another story), and off we were on our way to Fish River Canyon (see photo below), the world's second biggest, apparently.

Blog numero uno

Wow, my first foray into the blogosphere. Scared? Yes. But there will be so much goodness here, it will (eventually) be worth it. Enjoy.