You are browsing the archives of larks.

Almost a year ago I began a post describing a visit to the UK by one of the best bird bloggers on the net (the wonderful Carrie Laben of Great Auk - or Greatest Auk?) with the words. “If I visit a blogger somewhere and they don’t write about it within a few days I [...]

Even after nearly twenty years of flying international routes, travelling between the northern and southern hemispheres like a (slightly moody it has it be admitted) jet-propelled swallow, I still forget that ’summer’ is something that happens north of the equator in June, July, and August and then happens again to the south in November, December, [...]

Birding the Cape: the west coast
May 29, 2008

For my second trip to South Africa in just three weeks, this time to Cape Town (the first was to Johannesburg), I decided to hire a professional guide for the two (actually, one-and-a-half) days I would be there. Normally I’m happy just to hire a car and wander [...]

On May 16th (after visiting both Marievale and Suikerbosrand on the 15th) I spent the morning driving up and back down the Zaagkiuldrift gravel road to Kgomo-kgomo - a lightly-used, exotically-named dirt road that cuts between privately-owned farms and game reserves in excellent thornveld to the north of Pretoria. The road more or less follows [...]

Steve West is an English birder who has lived in Catalonia, Spain for the last 20 years, dedicating much of that time to finding the birds of this biodiverse region and showing them to others. Steve is the author of the website, BirdingInSpain.com which offers free itineraries, checklists, and other resources and has written two [...]

Saturday was a day for birding. After looking for winter gulls along the Mohawk River upstream from its confluence with the Hudson and not finding any except a single Iceland Gull just west of where Route 9 goes over the Mohawk. I decided to try Fort Edward, not for the Short-eared Owls that [...]

Agulhas Clapper Lark Mirafra majoriae
South Africa, April 2007

The Agulhas Plains near Malgas (south of Swellendam), Western Cape

 
The Agulhas (pronounced Uh - gull - ous) Plains (or Overberg) is a fynbos region of incredible floral endemism right at the bottom of Africa that also lays claim to two species of endemic lark: the Agulhas Clapper Lark [...]

Agulhas Long-billed Larks Certhilauda brevirostris
South Africa, April 2007

The Agulhas Plains near Malgas (south of Swellendam), Western Cape

 
The Agulhas Plains (or Overberg) is a fynbos region of incredible floral endemism right at the bottom of Africa that also lays claim to two species of endemic lark: the Agulhas Long-billed Lark and the Agulhas Clapper Lark. Much [...]

Grey-backed Sparrow-lark Eremopterix verticalis verticalis
The Karoo, Sept and Dec 2006, and the Agulhas Plains, April 2007

One of three species of sparrow-lark occurring in southern Africa, the Grey-backed Sparrow-lark is a SW African endemic found from coastal Angola throughout Zimabwe and Namibia, and down to the Cape. In South Africa it is perhaps most commonly [...]

Red-capped Lark Calandrella cinerea
Western Cape, South Africa. December 2006 and April 2007

The Red-capped Lark Calandrella cinerea breeds in the highlands of eastern Africa southwards from Ethiopia and northern Somalia. In the south, its range stretches across the continent to Angola and south to the Cape in South Africa. In eastern Africa, this is a bird [...]

Looking for Regional Specialities, North of Pretoria
03 March 2007

I’ve been birding in South Africa many times - particularly around Johannesburg/Pretoria - but have been acutely aware for a while that without good local knowledge I was never going to find some of the region’s really difficult local specialities and tricky “LBJs” (those hard to find [...]

Bushveld Pipit Anthus caffer
South Africa, December 2006

The small and unobtrusive Bushveld Pipit is an African endemic found from south-central Ethiopia down through the savanna biomes to Zimbabwe and south-west South Africa. Usually found in pairs, the species responds enthusiastically to the call of the Pearl-spotted Owl when the distinctive, soft, and unpipit-like “tzeet” call the [...]

Spike-heeled Lark Chersomanes albofasciata
South Africa, December 2006

Spike-heeled Lark, Tanqua Karoo, Western Cape, September 2006
 

Spike-heeled Lark, Midrand, Gauteng, October 2004

 
All photos copyright Charlie Moores
 

The Tanqua Karoo: Karooport and the R355 towards Calvinia (South Africa)
07 September 2006

(This report was previously posted on Charlie’s Bird Blog)
 

 
What a fantastic day - and what a long one too! I woke up in a very dark room at about 02:30, spent an hour trying to remember which country I was in (South Africa), [...]

Nairobi, Kenya
10 June 2006

Kenya covers an area of 582,646 square kilometres. The land stretches from the sea level (Indian Ocean) in the east, to 5,199 meters at the peak of the snow-capped Mount Kenya. From the coast, the altitude changes gradually through the coastal belt and plains (below 152 metres above sea level), the [...]

North-east Germany (with Jochen Roeder)
26 March 2006
 

St Mary’s Church/Marienkirche, Stralsund - built between 1383-1473
 
 
It maybe that only the best people read this blog, or it maybe that I’ve just had a good run of luck this month, but I was fortunate to spend a “mini-break” in north-east Germany birding with Jochen Roeder - a [...]

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, 11 January 2006.
 

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve

 
After a few hours in the morning spent at the Ramsar-designated wetlands of Marievale, the rest of the day was spent driving slowly around Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, a beautiful and peaceful 13000ha island of protected highveld grassland and thornveld just off the N3 - one of the [...]

Skylarks Alauda arvensis
Portland, Dorset May 2005

The Skylark has declined hugely throughout the UK (see below for details), but on Portland a combination of protected land and low-intensity farming has resulted in a relatively healthy population. Breeding birds - there are thought to be between 30 and 40 pairs - are augmented by migrants, particularly in [...]

 
Kuwait is a relatively small State (17,818 square kilometers (6,880 square miles), including the Kuwaiti share of the Neutral Zone (2,590 sq km)) at the top of the Arabian Gulf, and is almost entirely flat desert.

Kuwait was attacked and overrun by Iraq on 2 August 1990. Following several weeks of aerial bombardment, a UN coalition [...]