April 25, 2018

Birding on the Chobe River

Birding on the Chobe floodplains is like falling into a big bowl of ice-cream, without the negative side effects of eating too much of it. Being a boatman for a bird watcher or bird photographer must be exhausting. Stopping every few metres for yet another bird. Imagine how tiring it must be for the photographer!
July 13, 2018

Starlings not that Common

If there were a lion behind every second bush, or a leopard in every tree, would they be so special? Would photographers want to shoot them (to protect them), would photographers drive off-road or into a no-entry road to get a better angle on their million dollar picture? I have in fact seen people drive all over each other to get a closer look at a lion, to get to the front of the scene of the crime. Imagine, for a lion! Luckily no photographer will ever do that. The point I want to make about starlings is that they are too common. Most of the starlings have a metallic sheen flashing back when the sun touches their feathers, but unfortunately they are not so special because they are just too common. This might be where this terrible word is coming from: ‘common’, like too many seen too often. Possibly it is also because they are robust and gregarious. Let’s rather call them plebeian.
September 16, 2018

Chasing the Rain to the Nyae Nyae Pans

The Nyae Nyae Pans in the east of Namibia were filled up after good autumn rains. Stories abounded of lions that roamed the open grasslands. Of a massive flock of flamingos that had descended on the water. One word: paradise.
September 20, 2018

Birding for Beginners

Arriving in Namibia many moons ago as a free man, not on any anti-depressants but with lots of hair and muscles, weekends were open for enjoyment. As a novice birder (2 months), I decided that Etosha should be the first place to conquer with my new-found knowledge and enthusiasm for the world of birds. Since I had been in the country for just one month there were a few birds to discover, over 600 to be more precise. Without wanting to bore the reader with the "wel en weë van (ups and downs of) die blou bul birder" this might be of real importance to any novice Namibian and birder.
August 27, 2019

How to Start Birding

If this story will not motivate you to start birding you can just as well die and never be able to enjoy life to its fullest. If you are an anti-social animal, birding is for you. If you are a party animal and crowd pleaser you will even like it that much more, entertaining your guest with another wonderful sighting of your first 50 birds (mossies?).
March 4, 2022

FOUR RIVERS – Go slow and experience the depth, wealth and wonder of the northeast

Rièth van Schalkwyk followed the whim of a family member to break the tradition of Christmas at the seaside, packed the camper for two weeks of slow travel and camped on the banks of the Kavango, Zambezi, Chobe and Kwando to discover the magic of looking closer and staying longer.
June 1, 2022

Birding in Lüderitz

I wonder if any of those pioneers in the early 1900s ever saw Barlow’s Lark (Calendulauda barlowi) at Pomona, or the Dune Lark (C. erythrochlamys) in the dunes near Lüderitz? Looking at the barren ‘killing fields’ those diamond hunters left behind as memories for later generations, I doubt it very much. I suppose the diamond’s blinding effect on your eyes has the same effect on your mind. In the end, it’s the larks that are still around, and not those diamond hunters.