November 1, 2021

Living in the land of sand and freedom: Driving on empty

One of our favourite activities every year is the annual vulture tagging. We have been participating since 2016, at which point one child was two and the other five. The first time we joined this outing we hadn’t yet met everyone involved, but had made telephonic arrangements to meet the team at Sesriem.
December 1, 2021

Birding with Pompie: What’s in a name

I think the only bird which has been named and featured in a movie is Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Bird on a wire by Leonard Cohen is the song most covered by other artists – about 400 different artists, I think. If this is because it is such a beautiful song or if it is about the bird I do not know. What is important is that I do not know what bird it was, but I think it has been sitting on the same wire for the last 50 years.
September 1, 2022

The value and virtue of vultures

I was hoping I would spot a Pygmy Falcon on my last trip to the Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia’s largest conservation area. Small, spirited and snow-white, the bird appeared as misplaced as an Edelweiss flower in the desert. The Pygmy Falcon soared like a white star, in stark contrast to the dry riverbeds, gravel and grassy plains.