Bird of the week – Week 58: Ashy tit
The Ashy tit is a small bird, the adults just 15 cm in length, and is not very common within its chosen range. To come across one as it hops through the dense foliage...
Queen of the night – a regal display
When you hear the word “desert” you tend to imagine a place consisting of sand and vast empty spaces. Namibia certainly does have landscapes like that, but it also has beautiful trees, grasses and...
Bird of the week – Week 57: Grey heron
Large grey herons are a common sight at many dams, rivers estuaries, lagoons and other bodies of water within southern Africa. Unmistakable with their long necks, long legs and dagger-like beaks, the Grey heron...
Mouth Ulcers – Kill or Cure!
Have you ever wondered what makes some human beings tick? I mean, what makes some people overflow with the milk of human kindness and others with the venom of a basketful of asps? I’m...
Bird of the week – Week 56: Common whimbrel
The Common whimbrel is one of the many migrants who wing their way over vast distances to visit the shores of the southern African region during the summer. They arrive from the northern hemisphere...
Sociable weaver’s nests – Nature’s condominiums!
On our first trip from South Africa to Namibia, we drove through the dry region of the Northern Cape and it was there that I first came across the fascinating nests of the Sociable...
Bird of the week – Week 55: Diderick cuckoo
At that time of the year when spring is moving towards summer, a new bird call, familiar from last year, is heard with growing frequency throughout most of southern Africa, excluding the really arid...
The Bishops of Avis
The summer rains arrived in Windhoek, Namibia, during December and the transformation that these showers wrought to the landscape was both immediate and spectacular. With the greening of the vegetation, the insects, the animals...
Bird of the week – Week 54: Cape glossy starling
A Cape glossy starling seen in bright sunlight reflects a particularly striking colour – an iridescent dark blue that shimmers vividly as the bird moves and the sun dances off its feathers. If it...
The camels of Vendetta Farm
We’ve been privileged to meet some very special people whilst living in Namibia and it has lead to us having some unique experiences. Take for example weekends that we spent on the farm, Vendetta,...
Bird of the week – Week 53: White-throated canary
The White-throated canary is locally common within the shrubland and gardens in the drier eastern parts of the southern African region, to which it is a “near-endemic” (its range includes only a small part...
The Millipede or Shongololo
Windhoek has been blessed with wonderful rain showers since Christmas, which have brought relief to both the human and animal inhabitants of the area after a sweltering heat wave. There’s something about living in...
Bird of the week – Week 52: White-browed sparrow-weaver
A common sight in trees throughout the arid and semi-arid regions of southern Africa are untidy balls of dry straw, often several clustered in close proximity to each other and seeming to favour the...
The Whistling Rats of Rooiputs
In 1284, so the story goes, the town of Hamelin in Germany suffered a plague of rats. A little man dressed in a motley pied costume arrived in town and offered to rid Hamelin...
Bird of the week – Week 51: Yellow-billed kite
During July and early August a large brown bird appears in the skies over southern Africa, preferring the wetter parts of the region and avoiding only the dry Kalahari and Namib Deserts. Visiting southern...
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