I have spent a great deal of time researching a safari to Africa and have found a wonderful non-commercial site which offers excellent information on the Parks and Reserves in Africa. www.game-reserve.com

What a great site! Thanks for the link

Good to know Peter thanks

Peter, am about to leave soon for Africa and so I had good reason to check out the site. Want to alert others about to leave to note my fav. part, a checklist to print out of mammals!

Rocco posted this site a few months back and I also found it invaluable - infact I wrote a quick email to the site creator to say thanks - she's also worked on a number of other Africa related sites, some commercial ones for camp owners etc.

Clematis, at each lodge or game park ytou visit, you can ask management to give you a printed list of mammals and birds, to mark off as you sight them. These may also be in your room. I also find their stores sell useful guide books. Usually there's also a small library of source material focused on their particular area. If you have a special interest, perhaps the lodge management might hook you up with an especially informed ranger who shares your interest. Have a good trip.

Wilderness Safaris had these checklists too - and they WERE fun! I'd forgotten about them till you mentioned them!

Kavey...thanks for the acknowledgment! Not quite the same as discovering the New World, but I'll take it!

Thank you for the good wishes, It. That is much easier having a checklist from the camp than lugging around heavy field books. I know already I am much more interested in mammals than birds and I have learned from reading other posts here that people tend to fall into one of two "camps."

Clem I thought I was the same myself - the birds didn't enter my thoughts - I was so curious about and longed to see the game...

When I got there I found myself converting... I still wanted to see and spend time with the game... but I also became surprisingly interested in the birds - Pete too.

We really surprised ourselves by this development!

Enjoy!

Kavey -

I don't know if you are interested in just viewing the birds or photographing them also. There is a website of nature photography that has an avian forum. The posters list the lens, exposure, etc. that was used and it can help you get an idea of where to start with your settings for bird photography.

I thought I would be the LAST person to be a birder. I dreaded whenever I got stuck with birders in the van with animal lovers. What a waste I thought. Then.......I went to Botswana and saw Madikwe Island (I think thats how its spelled), and the migratory storks and other large birds had just arrived to begin their nesting process. Took my breath away. Another time in East Africa we came across the storks flying from South Africa to Europe. They stopped off in Kenya to rest and the sky was just covered with them riding the air currents and I was just in awe watching them. Now I love the Bee Eaters, the Lilac Breasted Rollers, whatever. I don't consider myself a birder by any stretch of the imagination. But it grabs you at one point and now I always hope to come across the migratory birds on our animal safaris. You'll see! Liz

Liz that's it exactly - I'm not what I'd call a birder - in the UK I enjoy seeing them but can probably only just about recognise anything more difficult to identify than a red-breasted robin!

But it was so thrilling to see soaring eagles and vultures, secretary birds, saddle billed storks, red and yellow horn bills, lilac breasted rollers, and my favourites, the little bee eaters...

Sundowner, would love to know that website, thanks.

PS Anyone (who doesn't already) write to me and fancies an extra pen-pal - please do feel free!

Kavey (and anyone else interested)
It's an online magazine -
http://naturephotographers.net

Once you enter, click on Reader's Forum, then on Image Critique Galleries.

I don't remember if you have to register to view the pictures or just to post. Whichever, it is way worth it as some of the photos on this site are simply breathtaking.

I subsribed to the magazine and only visited a few of the forums for a long time. Then one day I went to the Avian forum and now it's the second place I go - after Fauna. (You never know when someone will post their safari pictures!)

If you do find this magazine interesting, check out the Editor's Picks 2002 because the pictures drop off by time. Many of these should not be missed.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
~Cindy

Oh, oh, I see now - you're all secert birders, you can't hide! I cannot tell you all the times in a Rover people were falling all overthemselves talking about some little feathery thing in the bush, while lions were moving our way. I must admit I bought a bird book, and now I'm a damned birder too. "Hi, my name is itleyen, and I'm a birder."

"Hi, my name is Kavey, and I'm a birder too!"

ROFL

No, no, never! <justkidding>

Okay, so does this mean I should bring a Newman's bird book as recommended by Wilderness "if you are a keen birder?"

I guess my prejudice goes like this - watching mammals involves observation of their habits, seeing how they think, anticipating what they'll do next, watching the grace of their muscles. Bird-watching seems more about checking off a list because by their very nature they are flighty <s> - they're there and then they're gone. And why is it that whenever I have seen keen birders they tend to be either quite elderly (or English)? I actually suspect birding is an acquired taste like fine wine or opera.