The first morning's test run. The hide is suitably camouflaged by the surrounding grasses.
While clicking through albums from 2020, I opened a file that immediately made me chuckle. The story started during first lockdown, when I saw amazing bird photographs on a website called Floating Hide Photography. After a quick Google search, I realized that I wouldn't be able to get my hands on one of their hides any time soon. So I started with drawings, did a little planning and managed to construct one from PVC, wood and camo netting.
Running on water, a White-backed Duck takes off.
My first attempt in May didn't begin too well. While making my way through shallow water, the ground suddenly disappeared from beneath my feet and I sank into the freezing water just long enough for my waders to change into a wetsuit. Luckily my camera gear was safe and I could continue my adventure, albeit shivering with cold and staying closer to the water's edge. I found a good spot and managed to take the first photographs from my floating hide. I was amazed that the birds seemed mostly unaware of me. At times a Black Crake and Little Grebe came closer than the 4.5 metres my Canon 500mm lens could handle. It worked better than I had dreamed it would.
The author with the floating hide in the background.
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS
Keith Barnes, co-author of the new Field Guide to Birds of Greater Southern Africa, chats about the long-neglected birding regions just north of the Kunene and Zambezi, getting back to watching birds and the vulture that changed his life.
footloose IN FYNBOS
The Walker Bay Diversity Trail is a leisurely hike with a multitude of flowers, feathers and flavours along the way.
Living forwards
How photographing birds helps me face adversity
CAPE crusade
The Cape Bird Club/City of Cape Town Birding Big Year Challenge
water & WINGS
WATER IS LIFE. As wildlife photographer Greg du Toit knows better than most.
winter wanderer
as summer becomes a memory in the south, the skies are a little quieter as the migrants have returned to the warming north. But one bird endemic to the southern African region takes its own little winter journey.
when perfect isn't enough
Egg signatures and forgeries in the cuckoo-drongo arms race
Southern SIGHTINGS
The late summer period naturally started quietening down after the midsummer excitement, but there were still some classy rarities on offer for birders all over the subregion. As always, none of the records included here have been adjudicated by any of the subregion's Rarities Committees.
flood impact on wetland birds
One of the features of a warming planet is increasingly erratic rainfall; years of drought followed by devastating floods. Fortunately, many waterbirds are pre-adapted to cope with such extremes, especially in southern Africa where they have evolved to exploit episodic rainfall events in semi-arid and arid regions. But how do waterbirds respond to floods in areas where rainfall - and access to water - is more predictable? Peter Ryan explores the consequences of recent floods on the birds of the Western Cape's Olifants River valley.
a star is born
Itâs every producerâs dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
