'A good traveller has no fixed plans.' Tao Te Chiang
This was not one of thoseSwooping soaringPhoto opportunities, you know,Where the bird glides in fromStage left andExits beautifullyTo the rightWith a pristinePink and silverSalmon or somethingA missile ready to launchFrom its clawFlakes of morning lightFalling from its not yet barbecuedFlesh. This was murder, a brawl in the shallowsWhich ended badlyFor the thrashing creature in the [...]
This business of being on my own, here in Johannesburg, is for the birds I think. Fortunately Rob will be winging (eish, that is crushingly bad!) her way back to South Africa from Detroit, via Toronto and London later this week, and I will be picking her up at the airport on Thursday morning. Not [...]
Why does a coot cross the road? To demonstrate its flair? Marievale, Nikon D500. Nikon 70-300mm. Processed in Lightroom and Colour Efex Pro
We saw this Spotted thick-knee, otherwise known as a Dikkop, standing behind the car park at the Visitors Centre at Marievale around 10am on Easter Friday; it was still there, but lying down this time, when we left several hours later.
You knew at once, didn't you, that this was a female Amur falcon? Of course you did. Well, I didn't, and though I paged up and down and sideways through Roberts and the SASOL guide I couldn't figure it out. Until, of course, I posted the image on the SA Birdlife Facebook Group page, with [...]
Photographed at the Marievale Bird Sanctuary on Easter Friday. The nest was directly in front of the hide.
Evidently something of a rarity in these parts: a Grey-headed gull, photographed at Marievale on Easter Friday.
Little Egret - Marievale. Marievale Bird Sanctuary, Gauteng. I left in the power lines and pylons deliberately, as well as traces of the reeds and the trees, as I wanted to give a sense of the complex environment - not stereotypical, picture-postcard countryside - in which these birds live. Nikon D500, 70-300mm. Processed in [...]
Marievale Bird Sanctuary is a small area of wetland, bounded by farms, distant dwellings, power pylons, a highway, about an hour's drive east of Johannesburg, and - despite its size - home to an astonishing variety and number of birds, waterfowl in particular. The last (and only) time I had been there was about ten [...]
Bird photography is one of the most challenging areas of photography, at least in my experience. Finding them in the first place - birds, I mean - and getting them to sit still, or hover in one place, just where you want them, is the damnedest business, never mind getting your images sharp and properly [...]
