Brown Snake Eagles are common in the Kruger National Park and are often seen perched on the uppermost branches of trees, their upright posture distinctive. Their intense yellow eyes fascinate me and are, for me, the final confirmation of identity. That piercing stare gives me the shivers and I’m glad I am not a snake. I often told my wife Alma that the day would come when I would get pictures of one with a snake. Early in January 2021, between Crocodile Bridge and Lower Sabie in the Kruger National Park, this dream was fulfilled in a spectacular way.
On 10 January we leftcamp as soon as the gate opened and set offon the H4-2 Crocodile Bridge road in the direction of Lower Sabie, hoping to see a leopard. Just past the S28 turn-off, we saw a Brown Snake Eagle perched at the top of a dead tree just to the left of the tar road, overlooking the bare, brackish patch around the first part of the dirt road. It was our third Brown Snake Eagle sighting of the morning and we decided to watch it for a while. Why this specific one I cannot really say, but perhaps it was because the bare veld the bird was surveying looked as though it might offer up something.
Bu hikaye African Birdlife dergisinin March/April 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye African Birdlife dergisinin March/April 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
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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
It’s every producer’s dream to plan a wildlife television series and pick the right characters before filming.
