Wildlife of Africa

I have finally completed my new web site - Wildlife of Africa.

I have been fascinated by Africa for many years. It is a spectacular continent, teeming with wildlife and home to some of the most majestic animals on the planet.

I decided to put together a web site similar in style to English Country Garden to maintain a record of the animals, birds, flowers and trees that I have seen and photographed. I have researched each and tried to include some useful information.

You can visit the web site at www.wildlife-of-africa.com. I would appreciate any feedback and also would love to be informed of any inaccuracies.

I will be adding to it frequently because I still have photographs that have not yet been included/researched. We are also planning another trip later this year.

I hope you enjoy it.

Rain, Wind and More Rain

I have not posted for a long time mostly because there has been little to say about the wildlife or the garden. However, it has been a miserable winter - storm after storm coming in from the Atlantic depositing huge quantities of rain.

We are lucky to live at the top of a hill so have not suffered the terrible floods like so many others in the country. Absolutely devastating for them.

We have had some awful winds and have lost 5 trees already this winter.

Last Friday’s storm was the worst I have seen since the hurricane of 1987. It started in earnest around lunchtime and howled and poured until the early hours of Saturday morning. It is a complete miracle that our power stayed on. I had candles and torches distributed all over the house and filled the flask to make sure we had a hot drink in the morning but luckily we did not need them.

The photo above shows one of the trees that came down - a massive silver birch.

On the positive side, we have had no snow and the temperatures have been reasonably warm.



Spring is most definitely on its way. We have snowdrops, daffodils, primroses and crocuses in bloom but the ground is so sodden that it is like a quagmire trying to get close for photographs.

This photo is a beautiful double snowdrop. I am not sure which variety because we did not plant it but looking closely it is quite exquisite.



The animals have been quite elusive this winter although I have caught glimpses of a baby muntjac with its mother.

There are lots of birds around including this poor little robin. I am not sure what is wrong with it. It's head is almost completely bald. It has possibly been in a fight (robins are very territorial) or maybe it is something like mites.

My bird feeder was another casualty of the storm, so I have ordered a posh new one. We are making some big changes to the garden so hopefully I will have more photos when everything starts to grow again in the spring.