Wednesday 12th November 2025. Although the main focus of this African adventure is birds, there are many other forms of wildlife worthy of attention. Birding in the forest today was a little slow, some of the targets simply wouldn’t show, others afforded brief glimpses before merging back into the thick tangle of luxuriant growth. That’s…
Tuesday 11th November 2025. I’m sitting in the grounds of our lodge in the depths of the Kakamega Rainforest in western Kenya watching a female African Crowned Eagle tend its chick. The nest is placed high in an isolated tree that grows directly adjacent to what was the living quarters of the owners of the…
The Kakamega Rainforest in western Kenya, close to Lake Victoria and the Uganda border, represents the country’s only remaining remnant of what was once a belt of tropical forest sweeping across the African continent. It is home to a range of wildlife found nowhere else in the country, including an outlying population of the Blue-headed…
Thursday 6th November 2025. Abdullah is a man of 80 that has a close affinity with his local wildlife. He knows no English, why should he? But every day he is up at dawn searching the cypress grove for a special bird that he can show off to clients of tour operators, or indeed anyone…
We spent the month of November 2025 exploring parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi in search of exotic birds and rare mammals, many of which are endemic to a particular area. The trip was arranged via Naturetrek and was a tailormade, wildlife focussed adventure that produced a wealth of wonderful encounters. Everything ran very smoothly,…
And then it was gone! Where just a few days ago a mass of pleasing pink apple blossom adorned the tree, now there is just greenery. A graphic example of how quickly the season progresses, how transient these elements are. We sit in our centrally heated homes shaking our heads at the grey winter skies,…
I’m just back from a few hours listening to one of the UK’s most enigmatic, elusive and enchanting birds, the Nightingale – beautiful songsters that have just arrived back from their winter grounds of sub-Saharan Africa. The venue for the best part of 5 hours tracking down these newly arrived birds was Westleton Heath in…
Islands hold a particular mystique, they capture our imagination and hold it prisoner, filling our heads with romantic notions of shipwreck, isolation, escape and abandon. Who hasn’t entertained the notion of being able to own an island, be master of your own domain and sever ties with the everyday world? Well, some lucky people can…
We’re now at the end of an all too brief visit to Honolulu, a 5 hour leap from Japan, rendering our body clocks somewhat confused. No sleep on the flight from Tokyo, too much spicy airline food, together with the aforesaid time differential initially resulted in feelings of nausea, lack of balance and general malaise. …
Back to blogging from a mile high, this time en route to Honolulu (someone has to do it). Thing is we’ve just spent 3 hours in the lounge at the airport guzzling wine and playing cards, so there’s every chance I’ll fall asleep. If this blog suddenly ends you’ll know why. In the meantime here…