In this second post on terrestrial birds in southern Africa, I share my photos of the tall and stately kori bustards (Ardeotis kori) that inhabit some of our drier regions, where they can be seen walking majestically through open savanna and arid grasslands.
Continue reading “Terrestrial birds in southern Africa: The stately kori bustard”
This week we move further afield and back in time as I recall a summer morning when we spent an hour or so watching a family of yellow mongooses on the Savuti plains in the south west of Botswana’s Chobe National Park.
Continue reading “A family of yellow mongooses”
When I was a child growing up in Kwa-Zulu Natal, elephants had not yet been introduced into our provincial parks, and so apart from sighting elephants on two brief trips to Kruger National Park, it was only in the early 1990s on slightly more extended trips to Botswana that we spent more time observing elephants – usually from our vehicle but sometimes too as they walked by, or even into, our camping site.
Continue reading “Elephant rumbles”
I have been thinking about elephants after last week’s post that mentioned the two pairs of elephant tusks framing the South African national Coat of Arms. In this national emblem elephants are seen to symbolise “wisdom, strength, moderation and eternity”, and by coincidence today is World Elephant Day.
Continue reading “Paying tribute to elephants”
Today I remember the New Year’s Eve that we spent in remote Linyanti in Botswana’s Chobe National Park, as we anticipated the first year of this millennium. How different things are now.
Continue reading “On the eve of a New Year”