We arrived at the South Gate Camp in Moremi Game Reserve after re-stocking fuel and food at Maun. At the gate we learnt that our 1999 map was outdated! So we bought an updated one as a new area of the reserve, the Black Pools, Mogogelo area adjacent to the camp, had been opened to the public after our map was printed! This was good news as other known places looked quite far from us.

The campsite followed the same general lines of Nxai Pan with similar anti elephant fields in place. Fortunately the only stinkbugs present were those coming out of our car and unfolded gear that lived rather ephemeral lives, being rapidly consumed by the various birds that were attracted to them; clearly birds without taste!

The area around the camp was drying up but there were still a number of roads that we could not cross so…

The incident I will narrate took place during our last year’s trip to the Mabuasehube area of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana. As the observation was being published, I delayed its writing until this took place on 8 July 2018 [1]. For easy access I have also inserted the published document (Hornbill predation) as a PDF file under Pages in this blog.

Let me start by saying that if you find the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills likeable, you may need to review your stand after you read this piece.

While at Camp No. 2 at Monamodi Pan in October 2017 we were startled by the dryness of the place. Birds from the surrounding area will immediately come to drink in any water that we had around the camp. Common visitors were Southern Grey-headed Sparrows (Passer diffusus) but Cape Sparrows (Passer melanurus), Violet-eared Waxbills (Uraeginthus granatinus)…

(1) John Jackson Lewis, (2) Edith May (Lewis) Rider, (3) Marian Faith (Rider) Irwin, (4) Marian Dunlop (Irwin) Guion, (5) Judith Anne Guion.

The following are transcriptions of John Jackson Lewis’s diary and journal of his voyage to California in 1851. He was going from New York to visit his older brother William in San Jose.

February

Diary:

(Feb.)  5th.  Sea rough this morning, enough so to produce sea sickness with some of the passengers, and some sensations of the kind with myself. No land in sight to day, and nothing unusual to note. Sat in the cabin in the evening, and listened to an old captain and some young sailors (our passengers) sailing their voyages over again. They appear to have traveled quite extensively, Valparaiso, Rio Janeiro, Marseille, the Mediterranean, China and other parts being frequently mentioned. I have been much interested in noting the variety of professions…

The Athi plains, adjacent to the Nairobi National Park (NNP), was another area we visited on weekends. The place was sprinkled with Maasai manyattas and the sound of cowbells accompanied the movement of their herds while grazing. It was open grassland where giraffes, wildebeests and Thomson’s gazelles would be usually found. Occasionally we would spot small flocks of ostriches intermingling with the herbivores.

A Maasai manyatta.

Being rather obvious, ostriches could not hide very long from taxonomists and as early as 1758 Linnaeus had already labelled them as Struthio camelus. More than one hundred years later, more detailed observations followed and it was realized that Kenya hosted two different ostriches: the Maasai ostrich (S. c. massaicus) with a pink neck and its with a grey-blue neck. As the latter dwells in North-eastern Kenya, in the Athi plains* were the Maasai sub-species.

A male Maasai ostrich (S. c…

This is the latest Guest Post from gpcox all about the vehicles in service during World War II and a little about what the American Family had to sacrifice back home.

When Making a Car Was Illegal

After Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt ordered all car manufacturers to cease the production of private automobiles and convert the factories to produce military

Utility Truck

vehicles, weaponry, airplane engines, parts, etc.  But, this would not put an end to man’s love affair with the automobile.  A car manual became priceless to a private owner and a truck manual was an absolute necessity for a farmer or businessman.  With the rationing of gasoline in the U.S., the “National Victory Speed” was 35 mph and driving clubs were encouraged. (Our modern day car-pools).

Automobiles were produced in massive quantities before the Great Depression and this brought the price down considerably.  Then, the stock market crashed…