March 10, 2021

The life of birds in trees

It might sound like a bit of a cliché to mention the importance of trees for birds and vice versa, although there are unfortunately people who still cannot see that importance, and probably not the importance of trees for humans either – so how in hell would they ever see the importance of trees at all.
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November 1, 2021

Birding with Pompie: Slowness

Namibia is a large country, size does indeed matter, so driving and being on the road will be part and parcel of travelling (and bird watching) in this vast and beautiful country. To get to the different hotspots for birding you need to do the travel thing (remember slowness), be it by car, boat or on foot, although I must confess Namibians are not known for the foot thing.
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September 1, 2022

Birding with Pompie: Quelea quelea

Visiting Etosha National Park in early May this year we encountered what might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience: watching a flock, or rather flocks, of Red-billed Queleas at Goas waterhole one morning coming in for their daily drink. Apparently this usually happens twice a day, but my fellow waterhole visitors in the car got a bit fed up with the once-in-a-lifetime experience after a few hours and I had to leave the birds on their own for the rest of the day, to my utter dismay.
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June 29, 2023

Birding with Pompie: Three wise men from the west

Did they bring any presents? Yes, they did. Are they wise? Indeed they are. Are they windgat? No. Are they your typical bird watchers/guides? Not at all. Do they know everything about birds? No, they know everything about nature, be it birds, bees, flowers, trees, butterflies, reptiles. They do not know that much about rugby, but that makes it so much easier to explain the finer points of the Blue Bulls, not to be corrected by wise-guy Stormer supporters. These are probably all the reasonable nice things I can say about these fellows.
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March 21, 2024

Practice Makes Perfect

This is probably the most fascinating bird that occurs in Namibia, at least as far as their hunting/ fishing methods are concerned. They are skimming the water with accuracy and precision with their flexible orange red bill only 2–5 centimetres below the surface for fish that might have the audacity to come up that close.
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