Reflections on what turned out to be a fantastic day for these quirky terrestrial waders in and around Kimberley in the Northern Cape. The main and most difficult target for the day was the near-endemic Burchell's Courser Cursorius rufus, which we eventually found on an extensive dry pan. Not too far away, we found a [...]

Some miscellaneous field notes from a trip to Kimberley in April 2008. This late in the austral summer, many of the migratory species had already completed their moult into breeding plumage, and were in immaculate condition. Large numbers of Western Yellow Wagtails Motacilla flava patrolled the shoreline of Spitskop Dam, and many of the males [...]

This page (as well as the juvenile African Cuckoo) is from a sunny summer spent at Vaalkop Dam in December and January 2009. I'm sure that older birders will agree that there has been a massive decrease in the numbers of Yellow-billed Kites in the Transvaal (I used to see several individuals every day over [...]

The handsome little Pectoral Sandpiper Calidris melanotos was first recorded in Southern Africa in 1949. Interestingly, there has been a massive increase in the number of records since then. I have not fully traced all of these, but a quick scan of the literature shows that there were only 4 records before 1969, and at [...]