Winter BioMAPping and Botanizing in Venda
On Friday, 12 June 2020, my friend Ruan Stander and I embarked on a reptile-and-plant-biomapping expedition in Venda. Venda is a wonderful and wild region in no...
Category: Trip report
BDInsight – July 2020
Life in lockdown has become almost normal. I, for one, have lost count of the number of days we’ve been in lockdown here in South Africa. We adapt to the ...
BDInsight – February 2020
First BDI Citizen Science Conference, Karoo Gariep Nature Reserve, Hanover The really important things at conferences happen outside of the formal programme. Th...
Karoo garden bird ringing, Vanrhynsdorp, January 2020
Not many gardens boast Karoo specials like European Bee-eater, Namaqua Warbler, and Lark-like Bunting. All these were ringed in a long weekend, as well as many ...
Fynbos Estate bird ringing expedition : 3 to 12 December 2019
Following a successful 10 day BDI bird ringing expedition earlier this year, another was held at Fynbos Estate in December. It was hot and windy but the days we...
Karoo ringing : 10 to 12 November 2019
Farm houses in the Karoo can be oases for birds, allowing relatively many birds to be ringed. Les, Karis and I visited New Holme guest farm (Karoo Gariep Nature...
Biodiversity/Citizen Science/Karoo/LepiMAP/MammalMAP/OdonataMAP/Site report/Trip report/Virtual Museum
Boegoeberg Dam BioBash: Where Kalahari Meets Karoo
The interface of Kalahari and Karoo is a study in contrasts: red sands and blue skies; dry earth and flowing river; bustling weaver colonies and deserted towns....
Biodiversity/BirdPix/Citizen Science/Karoo/LepiMAP/MammalMAP/News/OdonataMAP/Site report/Trip report/Virtual Museum
The BDI visits Roam Private Game Reserve
Five years ago, the Post family bought a 5000 ha property in the Karoo which had been used for hunting, turned it into a biodiversity conservation area, and ren...
Spreading the Seeds of Light
On Saturday, 20 July 2019, I was lucky enough to join the Saturday Girls for their Career Guidance Day at the New Dawn Centre in Acornhoek, Mpumalanga. I was as...
Calvinia BioBash 2019: Citizen Science in the Hantam Karoo
Five days in the Northern Cape with a team of avid birders?! It sounds like a dream come true, and for me, that dream recently became a reality. Wednesday, June...