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My second day-trip to Nigeria this year (the first gave me a very good morning’s birding in Abuja in July) took me to the huge coastal city of Lagos. One of Africa’s most densely-populated cities with about 8 million inhabitants Lagos is built on several islands in the Lagos Lagoon - which basically means to [...]

Sombre Greenbul Andropadus importunus
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, South Africa
 
The Sombre Greenbul is a resident breeder in coastal bush, evergreen forest and dry shrub land in eastern Africa from Ethiopia to the Cape in South Africa. Though it’s a common bird, as anyone who’s looked for them will now it does tend to stay hidden in foliage [...]

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos Cacatua galerita, one of the largest parrots in the world, are common and very familiar in parts of Australia. Their range extends throughout the northern and eastern mainland and Tasmania. A small population has become established around Perth, Western Australia. The species also occurs in New Guinea and the Aru Islands, and has [...]

Lagos, Nigeria
29 September 2006

The entrance to the Lagos Botanic Gardens…

A very interesting morning spent with ex-pat Jo Sievers in the (rather odd, it has to be said) Lagos Botanic Gardens - a ramshackle, vanity project hacked out of the bush some 100km east of Lagos in memory of Murtala Muhammed and now slowly and inevitably [...]

Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, Cape Town
07 September 2006
 
After my exertions of yesterday in the Karoo, I was in two minds whether to go out again - but, what the heck, I’m not likely to be back here again for a while and there were still a couple of very easily seen endemics I hadn’t caught up [...]

Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix, Arizona.
21 November 2005

 
“Desert Botanical Gardens” - that’s a juxtapositioning of words that doesn’t quite sound right, does it?

Well, it may not sound right, but it exists and it’s a good place to look for birds if you’re in Phoenix and don’t have much spare time. Right next to Phoenix Zoo [...]

The green side of Kolkata…: Kolkata, India
15 September 2005
 
In 1690, Job Charnok, an agent of the East India Company chose a site for a British trade settlement. The site was carefully selected, being protected by the Hooghly River on the west, a creek to the north, and by salt lakes about two and [...]

I and the Bird #5: 01 September 2005. Hosted by John at A DC Birding Blog
 

Melbourne Botanic Gardens, Australia
12 August 2005
 

 
We’re in Melbourne, Australia today, and I managed just a few hours birding in between heavy rain showers…

Sadly our crew lay-over in Melbourne doesn’t really give me enough time to hire a car [...]