Derek Keats: Blog

Talking about things that interest me, and hopefully interest you too.

Birds and bird photography

Giant Kingfisher — I am going to try a little activity log for a change. Today, unusually in the afternoon, I went up to look for the Verreaux’s Eagle (black eagle) at Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden in Roodeport. As usual, the garden was full of people enjoying the lawns and scenery for […]

Giant kingfishers at Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden

20th May 2017 in Birds and bird photography tagged birding / kingfisher by Derek Keats

Strangely, even though I have been chasing birds around the bush for about five years now, and half seriously for at least three years, I had not photographed a black-faced waxbill (Estrilda erythronotos) waxbill until last weekend at Zaagkuildrift. This waxbill is a common species of estrildid finch found in southern Africa, especially […]

The black-faced waxbills of Zaagkuildrift

22nd March 2017 in Birds and bird photography tagged birding / birds by Derek Keats

Olive-tree warbler — Last weekend (March 17-19) was spent providing food for mosquitoes and learning warblers with Etienne Marais and Sheleph Burger. Every year many millions of warblers make the journey from the northern hemisphere all the way to Africa, many of them overwintering (the northern winter) in South Africa. Etienne put on […]

Warbler weekend at Zaagkuildrift

21st March 2017 in Birds and bird photography by Derek Keats

Crowned eagle — We took a five days in the second week of August 2016 to visit Ndumo Nature Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Ndumo is located in the far northeast district of KwaZulu-Natal Province known as Maputaland, on the border with Mozambique and adjacent to Swaziland where the Pongola River joins the Great […]

Ndumo: birds of prey with adaptations to the forest

14th August 2016 in Birds and bird photography by Derek Keats

The passing of a caterpillar from male to female Diederik cuckoo — A few people have asked me how to take pictures of birds, and I often get asked by casual observers how I do bird photography. Most bird people know this already, so this is really just for the people who ask me so I can point them somewhere. I often […]

Bird photography tips – what you do

12th June 2016 in Birds and bird photography / Nature photography tagged photography tips by Derek Keats

Diederik cuckoo male passing food to female — Diederik cuckoo This blog post is about Diederik cuckoo, Chrysococcyx caprius, and is illustrated with photos taken at Rietvlei Nature Reserve last summer. I wrote it for two reasons: to talk a bit about bird photography, and to illustrate something about these birds biology – they are more than just […]

Diederik cuckoo, Chrysococcyx caprius – interesting birdwatching

10th October 2015 in Birds and bird photography / Nature photography / The natural world tagged birds / brood parasitism / nature / photography / sexual dimorphism by Derek Keats