Life in the Sahara is no cakewalk. The baking sun raises temperatures to more than 120 degrees, howling winds conjure up dust devils and sand storms, and years can pass before a drop of rain falls. One desert creature is spectacularly adapted to these conditions: the addax, an ethereal-looking antelope with elongated, corkscrew horns. The […]
Category: Wildlife
The True Champion of the Flyway
This European Bee-eater is a true Champion of the Flyway. It not only flies 1000’s of kilometers each year from Africa to Europe, it also needs to avoid many people who want to kill it. For sport, food or even just fun. This beautiful bird is amongst the many species that in total loose […]
A winter Egyptian Nightjar – Jubail
When travelling to a birding site in the very early morning, when it was still completely dark I found an Egyptian Nightjar sitting under a line of trees. The bird flew a short distance and landed where I took a couple of photos of the bird using a flashgun before it flew again a short […]
POLL: Should the international trade in slow lorises be stopped?
In 2014, the Telegraph ranked slow lorises as one of the “top 10 internet superstar pets”. Unfortunately, the rising online popularity of slow lorises (Nycticebus spp.) as exotic pets is fueling the illicit trade in these animals. Japan, for example, is emerging as a major black market for illegally obtained slow lorises, researchers found in […]
Restless Hawk
I saw this immature red-tailed hawk last week in Central Park. It was inspecting tree holes. I think it was inspired by the spring weather to think about making a nest. It picked up sticks and carried them, put them down again. When I left the hawk it was standing with its foot on a […]
Dodging Wind Farms and Bullets in the Arctic
Troms County, Norway – A lone reindeer emerges from the forest, prompting the Sami herders to bring their snowmobiles to a stop in the middle of a clearing. All three are bundled in sheepskin hats and wool capes, called luhka, against the chill wind of a late January morning in the Norwegian Arctic. Johann Anders […]
Two winter plumaged Red-necked Phalaropes – Jubail
Phil Roberts and I found two winter plumaged Red-necked Phalaropes on some flooded Sabkha in Jubail on 26 February. This is the first time I have seen the species in winter plumage in the Kingdom and appears to be the earliest ever record for the Eastern Province. These two birds were behaving in typical Phalarope […]
POLL: Should the slaughter of wolves in Finland be stopped?
There’s been a massacre in Finland. The country, which from afar looks to epitomize sustainable living, has slaughtered a third of its wolves this winter. Seventy-five wolves have been killed since the end of August: 43 in a government-sanctioned cull, and most of the rest under a licence system that allows “problem” wolves – those […]