Dear All I recently went hiking in the Pugu Hills which are near the port city of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. These hills contain some precious fragments of forests that once covered most of the East African coastal areas. However, today only tiny patches of forest remain. These forests are home to a lot … Read more
Greetings from Turkana in Northern Kenya. I recently visited one of the farms that I work with up here and was very pleased to find the coriander (cilantro) flowering. This plant is a common and delicious herb that is widely used in the cuisines of many different parts of the world… Many of us are … Read more
Dear All – many greetings from the hot, remote desert in Northern Kenya… Lots to catch up on here but firstly I would like to thank everyone for reading this blog and sending in your kind comments. A few days ago I visited the Kerio Valley in northwestern Kenya. It was a hot, sunny day … Read more
Dear All A few days ago I visited a friend of mine who runs a farm on the outskirts of Nairobi. Su Kahumbu is an organic farmer who does amazing work with farmers across Kenya promoting sustainable agriculture and innovation… One of the crops growing at her beautiful model farm are raspberries. These delicious fruits are … Read more
Dear All – having been weighing and counting ants on the Whistling Thorns for some research work related to my PhD. There are a few alates around – these are the winged reproductive forms of ants… Each colony produces many hundreds, even thousands of alates that take off into the sky as part of a … Read more
Dear All Many greetings – have been in the Western Serengeti for 10 days training guides… Heavy rains and amazing insects everywhere. Watched these incredible Swallowtails soaring about a hilltop… This is the Citrus Swallowtail, one of the most common and beautiful of East African insects… The butterflies gathering at the tops of hills are … Read more
Dear All Attempted to start the New Year with a morning run and came across this remarkable little person crossing the road. He was so full of character that I just had to sketch him… He obliged by sitting still on a twig – one of the most cooperative subjects I have ever had! Let … Read more
I recently went on a walk in a forest in Western Kenya and stumbled into these remarkable beasts. Ants may be tiny, but they swarm in large armies and are also armed with some impressive weapons in the form of ‘jaws’ (mandibles) that can inflict a lot of damage quickly… Among the most impressive jaws … Read more
Hello – back in Kenya here. The Whistling Thorns are just starting to flower on the plains… There are lots of different insects visiting the flowers, including these bees. It seems like the bees are the most efficient pollinators of this acacia’s flowers.
Dear All Greetings from Western Kenya and many thanks to Rebecca and Dana for the kind comments. I feel very honoured that there are people out there who read this blog and care about the little creatures of the world! Just back from the Nandi Hills, and was in the Kerio Valley and West … Read more