Pollinators hard at work! “One in three bites of food can be attributed to a pollinator”. This statement is often quoted by biologists around the world when talking about pollinators and their importance to our lives. In Africa pollinators are primarily wild insects that travel between farms and natural habitat, and are extremely … Read more
Male bees keeping watch on their patch of bush…. Dear All, Hello – have just been travelling through Western Kenya working on pollinators at various sites with groups of farmers. Its been amazing and I look forward to sharing some of the discoveries and photographs with you all over the next few days. … Read more
Life from death… As many of you will have read and heard on this site – there’s been a serious drought in Kenya and this has lead to lots of cattle dying. Out here on the plains we finally got some rain, and this means that there is a lot of green grass … Read more
Ant in the evening… A few weeks ago while visiting a forest at the coast I took a stroll in the evening. One of the most common kinds of ants along the East African coast are members of the genus Polyrachis. These are fairly large (as ants go!), over 1 cm long, and can … Read more
Hello! Sorry for not posting more often – have been really busy chasing after bugs now that the rains have started and they are popping out all over the place! Many, many thanks to everyone for their kind comments on the blog post ‘Ants in the dust’. I will try and post a … Read more
Bees in the news Dear All – here are a couple of links that might be of interest. Bees have been in the news over the last couple of days. Newsweek has an article about the effect of bees disappearing on agriculture. Here is the link to it: http://www.newsweek.com/id/141461 And … Read more
Dear All – thanks for the kind comments – only just saw them! Will post a link to the BBC piece asap. On a separate note, today is Blog Action Day and the topic of focus is climate change. As I write this it is raining outside (unusual that its before 7 am) … Read more
Dear All – many thanks for the kind comments and I will respond to some of the questions soon. I just found and photographed the most incredible ‘creepy-crawlies’ in my house this evening. As I was brushing my teeth, I noticed someone watching me quietly from the corner. The area around my sink … Read more
Ants in the dust… The drought continues here on the plains. Today at midday I stopped by the harvester ant nest to check on how they were doing. While most of the other animals were resting almost comatose in the shade due to the burning heat, the ants were hard at work. … Read more
Hello – many thanks to Dana and Uwe for the kind comments.Here are a couple of insects from one of the most amazing habitats in East Africa – the alkaline lakes in the Rift Valley. These lakes are fed by volcanic activity and steamy, alkaline pools that support large flocks of flamingoes. But it is … Read more