Hi Paul / Lee / Wurzel, thanks - glad you're enjoying the photos. Lee - like you, when I saw the Paradise Skipper I wasn't entirely sure it was a butterfly as it reminded me of some of our best day-flying moths. But then, I've always felt that the Skippers were almost the link between the Moths and ...

Hi David thanks - the Natal Bar was one of the species that was in one of the groups (Genus Cigaritis) that I really wanted to see. They are all beautiful. The Striped Policeman is probably not much larger than our largest European Skippers, but it's one of the Coeliadinae, a sub-family of the Skipp...

Eshowe and Dlinza Forest (Friday 16th March) - continued... After a really nice breakfast (everything on offer, including some nice fruit to keep us going), Bert set up a butterfly-net with some fruit-bait in the B&B’s garden for when we returned from our later morning walk. We were soon walkin...

Eshowe and Dlinza Rainforest (Friday 16th March) Friday would be our last full day in South Africa, but I was really looking forward to staying in Eshowe and not spending that much time being driven from one place to another, especially with the possibility of seeing some butterflies. Our host at t...

Drive from St Lucia to Eshowe via Hluhluwe-Imfolozi reserve (Thursday 15th March) - Continued... After we passed the Rhinos we would see a few more Giraffe, and before the day’s journey ended we passed a small range of water-pools and this gave us good views of a lone Hamerkop and also the sight of...

Hi Nick, I'm glad you're enjoying the thread. Although I had a great time, I felt like I only scratched the surface of what was there. All the same I felt we had a few real treats at the same time - the Rhinos I particularly felt some affinity with straight off, regardless of whether the photos capt...

Hi David / Dave, thanks very much for the kind comments. I really enjoyed getting close enough to see those Oxpeckers properly: it was great to see them looking after the animals in such a good, benefits-all-relationship! We were very lucky to have those White-Fronted Bee-Eaters so close to the mini...

Drive from St Lucia to Eshowe via Hluhluwe-Imfolozi reserve (Thursday 15th March) We would leave St Lucia for the all-day drive to Eshowe at 9:00am on Thursday, but not before I’d nipped out trying to get a few last-minute photos of the St Lucia gated community and lawn-life. There were a few Blues...

I saw my first Orange-Tip in South Wales today, up at Parc Penallta at Ystrad Mynach (in fact, I saw about 5, but they were all flying by with no concern for stopping). There were also Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells and some flowers including some lovely Dog Violets and Cowslips. Plenty of Buzzar...

St Lucia (Wednesday, 14th March) continued In the early afternoon we visited a dedicated butterfly house on the outskirts of St Lucia: here they bred some of the local common species so it was easier to see at least some of the Acraea more closely: there were also some Tree-Frogs in the white-nette...

St Lucia, Igwala Gwala Forest Trail (Wednesday, 14th March) continued For the second session at the iGwala Gwala walk we drove to the forest in the Minibus. Bert left some fruit bait in the car park, as Amon gave a quick talk about the butterflies of South Africa, with a quick run-through of their ...

St Lucia, Igwala Gwala Forest Trail (Wednesday, 14th March) Again we would have a relatively early start and left our accommodation just before 7am and headed straight towards one of the local forests that were within walking distance from our gated community at St Lucia. The walk still took about ...

Hi Bill, Thanks as always, and even nicer to see you back on UKB. Spring really must be coming with your arrival!!! :D :mrgreen: :mrgreen: The story isn't finished yet, but yes, I realise there's a book here somewhere. Shame I have to work as well otherwise it would be sooner rather than later! I wi...

Final morning at Mkuze Reserve and drive to St Lucia (Monday, 13th March)- continued... Just before leaving our hosts guesthouse, I was shown one of the local Leopard Tortoises that were one of the ‘small five’ of South Africa. Another great creature I saw at the house were the many dung beetles th...

Excellent Michael, most enthralling, I'm enjoying every word and photo. Not sure about the shrike as many females or young look very similar. I'll have a look in my books when I get home from work. Hi Paul, many thanks - if folks are getting enjoyment from the thread that's a really nice bonus. Don...

Final morning at Mkuze Reserve and drive to St Lucia (Monday, 13th March) For our final morning at the Mkuze reserve on Tuesday we again rose early, but not as early as the previous day! Again there had been rain during the night but on this morning the sky was beautifully clear and bright sunshine...

Hi Paul / Lee, thanks for your kind comments as always. Although sometimes it's a bit of hard work going through everything (including choosing and resizing photos and checking ID's) it's quite nice for me to confirm species we saw while everything is still quite recent in my mind. Steve Woodhall ha...

Thanks Neil :) Mkuze Reserve (Monday, 12th March) continued... Our drive back to base was accompanied by some good views of our first Giraffes of the trip. Once we’d finished a late breakfast we visited the Mkuze lake again (there were plenty of good birds such as Flamingos and Osprey around the lak...

Mkuze Reserve and Fig-forest walk (Monday, 12th March) continued... As we walked further into the forest we would see more larger butterflies but these would also stay well above our heads: there were also a whole host of gorgeous spiders – some small, some very large – I noted that their webs were...

Hi Mark and Nick, thanks for your kind comments. I have Karen to thank for the Fig-Forest walk landscape shots as I was too busy trying to capture everything else with the macro and long-lens (there was enough to shoot even with two SLR bodies). Also - many of the birds and some of the lesser-known ...