It's been said that the love of a mother is undying. We judge, praise, scorn and vilify various types of mothers based on our own perception of what motherhood should be. Sure enough, some of the images within this post are bound to conjure familiar feelings - especially with the primates - but what really is motherhood? Is what we feel unique to us?
Given that everything in nature can be scaled both up and down infinitely, let's look at the general process involved in bringing the next generation into the world - albeit in a grossly simplified manner. There is typically a stage of tender love,...
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A slightly different version of this article was published in the Tobago Newsday a few days ago. This is the original piece. You can view the equivalent of a radio edit here.
As birders, we’re often jaded when it comes to birds we’ve grown accustomed to. As human beings, this occurs as well, except not with birds but with other facets of our lives. So much so that a saying has been coined to counteract this very phenomenon: “one man’s trash is another’s treasure”
Why then has it become such second nature to take things for granted? Have we evolved into a wholly superficial...
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This morning at quarter to three, my alarm sounded, jolting me awake and galvanizing my cat into action to prevent me from leaving the bed. After eventually winning that battle with the large, soft, warm and fluffy creature, we made ourselves ready for our first birding mission within T&T since returning from Kenya. It had been some months since we were out birding, and we were suitably excited.
Fast forward a few hours later, and before the clock hit six o clock, we were traversing the rugged eastern coastline of Trinidad, heading into the village of Kernaham, hoping to score a couple special...
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Within the past few days I've been struck with the realization that I'm *gasp* getting some identifications wrong, some of which are supposed to be routine for me, after a decade of birding in T&T, after having compiled and written extensive material on the birds that can be found within these two islands (including offshore islets) - and I believe I've figured out what went wrong.
As you may be aware, I've recently returned from a completely epic journey across much of Kenya. I'm still processing the images from that trip, consequently I haven't been out in the bush here since our return....
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We had eyes on Lake Nakuru long before we physically presented ourselves there, eyeing it from the journey into the (gorgeous) town of Nakuru, as well as from our lofty overnight perch at the Alps hotel. We knew we'd likely get our first glimpses of thousands of flamingos there - not to mention countless other avian species - as well as chances for more big game, even Leopards! But seasoned in the act of wildlife viewing, we knew better than to anticipate what we'd see beforehand.
African sunsets are legendary, and sunrises weren't too bad either. Being at a reasonably high elevation, we enjoyed...
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I originally intended to do one of these every few days, keeping everyone up to date with a pseudo-realistic walk-through of our safari, but days turned into weeks, and I sit here desperately trying not to let weeks slip into months. We all know how it can get, life that is. Truth is, it's not that I haven't been getting the time to write, but I've been using that time to pore over fresh images, each time I'm finished with a batch I simply import another, and I must admit that I've been reliving our adventure privately over the past few weeks, sometimes sitting open-mouthed, staring at the computer...
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We deliberately arrived in Nairobi a couple days before the scheduled commencement of the safari itself, as there was the mutual understanding that once the birding begins, it begins. All energies replenished during the easy days, everyone was eager for the 6am start at Nairobi National Park. Located in Nairobi itself, the park is over a hundred square kilometres of welcoming African bush comfortably close to the sprawling city.
I made somewhere around 110 images (as in keepers, not how many times I clicked the shutter, that's in the thousands) over the course of our twelve-hour extravaganza...
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I owe everyone a bit of an explanation. One day I ended up on the other side of the world without warning, checking in at various airports to ultimately end up in Nairobi, Kenya. How in the world did this even happen? Was I dreaming? Turns out the last two weeks were the unimaginable conclusion of extensive odds being tossed around for about two years. I had been contacted by one Washington Wachira, with the proposition of working together to show more people the birds and wildlife of East Africa. Why this focus on birds? Washington's TED Talk explains it perfectly (and is also very much the same...
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I remember my first experience with a White-tailed Sabrewing deep in the rainforest that is Main Ridge - a large, confident hummingbird that suddenly materialized out of the deep greens and dark shadows, hovered directly behind me, then faced me head on, and then went on to perch nearby, keeping a suspicious eye on me the entire time.
Since then, I have encountered the species countless times, for the most part at the feeders at Cuffie River where it's an entirely different ball game. Constant battles for supremacy with the other hummingbirds, all smaller than it but not anywhere short of attitude....
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Whether we believe in the concept of time or not, it is forced upon us in the form of a great rush and hullabaloo with the eventual restart/rebirth command for the "new year, new me" thoughts to suddenly activate within our minds, triggering some transient shift in thought and behaviour that has been decreasing proportionately with our attention spans. I'd be lying if I said that I'm not afflicted by this same bug, case in point this blog post, the first here in many months, the writer suddenly galvanized into action by the impending turn of the calendar (more on this later!)
There's lots more...
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