This male Fringilla coelebs was looking for food under the tables in a pub near Oxford. The species is mostly doing alright, apart from the subspecies on the Canary Islands which suffers from habitat loss.
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I saw this Coracias benghalensis (subspecies affinis) in Ayutthaya, Thailand. The good news: this species is doing well, and numbers seem to be increasing.
Oran’s coastline is mostly cliffs with some tiny sandy parts in between. But if you drive about an hour west (depending on traffic it can be faster or take a lot longer), you’ll eventually reach a zone of beaches reaching from Ain Turk via Cape Falcon to Les Andalouses.
All those beaches are extremely popular during summer. When we went there a handful of days ago however, the one we had picked was almost empty. The stroll we took was very pleasant, the food we had afterwards mostly too. It’s just so annoying that when you order vegetarian food (no fish, no meat) you still find chicken sprinkled over your salad – it’s not considered meat!
And a tip regarding transport: there are buses during summer to and from Oran. If you come by taxi, arrange with your driver beforehand to take you back. If you’ve got your own transport, parking is likely to be a problem during summer.
These beautiful Terathopius ecaudatus were doing their morning preening in Kruger Park when I spotted them.
This near-threatened eagle species is in danger because of habitat loss, poisoning, pesticides and trapping for international trade.
This is an all-African post, and two out of the three books were very exciting. Being an economic migrant myself, these stories tend to provide lots of opportunities for reflection. And at the end of the day, I see that I’ve been very lucky in my life.
153 Cameroon: Imbolo Mbue – Behold the Dreamers
This was a great story about the clash of living in Cameroon vs the USA, poor vs rich, male vs female. Although a wee bit lengthy and borderline preachy at times, I really enjoyed reading the book, mostly because there were some unexpected turns of events.
154 Liberia: Helene Cooper – The House at Sugar Beach
An amazing autobiography! I learned a lot about Liberian history, from its founding by freed slaves to fairly recent events just before the turn of the century. I thought the author has a wonderful sense of humour and shows a lot of self-awareness, so the story is about her, but equally about her surroundings and family members. Even though some of the events she describes are right out of the human abyss, I always wanted to continue reading.
155 Tunisia: Sabiha al Khemir – The Blue Manuscript
Right. Well, not really. I can’t say I hated the book because it was so boring. But it had been so promising! Archaeological excavations in Egypt, a group of mixed characters in a confined space, a mysterious manuscript … what more could you want? Now, I want characters that are defined by more than the same adjective throughout the book. I want archaeologists that don’t stare dreamily into the hot air when their excavation site has been tinkered with. And I most certainly don’t want the author to tell me what to think, thank you very much.
I saw this Spinus barbatus on Carcass Island. The species seems to be alright and one of the few lucky ones which isn’t threatened.
This Erithacus rubecula had made its home somewhere on the west coast of Scotland. The robins I’ve encountered in Scotland and England were a lot less shy than the ones in continental Europe.
The species is hunted around the Med, but generally the numbers seem to be on the rise.
Spocki's World 