Texas Style Deer Jerky

The Regular Rifle season opens for most Texans this Saturday. Some have already taken a deer during the Texas archery season and a few more were harvested by the Texas youth hunters this last weekend in the Texas special youth season. At the start of every deer season I get emails asking how to make things like deer jerky, venison sausage and other recipes for deer meat.
Everyone must like jerky and many want to know how to make their own. This has been my go to recipe for years and it sure doesn't last long around my house. Most of my hunting buddys and family now make it this way so it must be pretty good. If I take a bag of it along to deer camp or on a fishing trip it seems to disappear almost like magic. You can change it by adding other flavors and or spices. Many add soy sauce or red pepper for heat. Some even add barbecue sauce to the brine. You can come up with your own special flavor.
Here is the basic no fail way I make it.

Cut lean strips of venison, beef, chicken or turkey. The pieces should be at least ¾ inch thick or more and as large as you want them. Trim off all fat as it will turn rancid as the meat dries. Fill a large mixing bowl with water and stir in 1/2 cup of Brown Sugar and 1/2 cup Kosher non iodized salt. Stir in 1 Teaspoon of Garlic powder,½ Teaspoon of Allspice 1/8 Teaspoon of ground Cloves. Add meat and soak in the brine for 8-24 hours in a refrigerator. The longer it is in the brine the more salt it will absorb. Remove meat from brine and rinse very well in cold water. Roll or shake on coarse ground black pepper to taste. Do not use table ground black pepper or it will have too strong a pepper taste. Remember coarse ground pepper adds flavor, fine ground adds heat. Arrange meat on a smoker and slow smoke with your favorite wood keeping the heat under 170 degrees until fully smoked. I smoke mine overnight. I use very dry oak or seasoned mesquite with no green left in the wood. If you do not have a smoker you can do this in your oven, just add liquid smoke to the original brine and dry on your ovens lowest setting or warm setting. Place a wood spoon in the oven door so moisture can escape and dry meat to the texture and hardness desired. You can then place jerky in a bowl in the refrigerator for up to a week to finish dehydrating. It never lasts that long at my place. Place any extra in a bag in the freezer and take out about 2 hours before you intend to eat it. It is worth it to take the time to slow smoke the jerky as the wood smoke flavor enhanced meat can never be matched by that made in an oven. Enjoy, Wild Ed

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The Texas Orange Throat Darter

I recently set up a freshwater aquarium at the house so the grand kids and I could stock it with native Texas fish from the lakes, rivers, creeks and streams that we visit here in Central Texas. I thought it would be a good teaching method for the grand kids. It has however, become an educational obsession for me instead. I have acquired two books which I highly recommend to anyone that fishes in Texas or wants to learn about the many species of fish that occupy the waters of this State. The first is a pocket guide titled “Freshwater Fish of Texas Field Guide”; the second is a book titled “Freshwater Fishes of Texas”. The field guide I carry in my pocket and the other I use as my desk reference. You may purchase either at the following links.



Through my fish sampling of a few local creeks and rivers I have found fish I did not even know existed in this area. I am now on a quest to collect some special little fish for my aquarium known as the Orange Throat Darter. It is a very small fish that lives in mostly clear, fast-flowing creeks and streams in the Central Texas Hill Country primarily in the Edwards Plateau. Texas biologists claim that Texas populations are stable and they are not a protected species. I can not imagine any tropical fish you could buy for an aquarium being any more beautiful than this little native fish. It frequents shallow gravel bottoms in riffles and fast water. A colorful fish all year the breeding males literally bloom into color in the spring time. The female has a dull olive color with patches of orange and blue, while the male darter has metallic blue and green bars on the sides of its body with fins that are bright blue green in color with red orange hues throughout. The color may vary in the different drainages and watersheds the little fish calls home.

It is a very small fish in the 3.5 inch and smaller range. I hope to find a few before spring time so I can have them for my grand kids to study when the colors are the most vivid. Maybe I can catch a few Texas Cichlids and some grass shrimp at the same time, or maybe some freshwater prawns and some mussels or maybe…

If you see an old grey bald fat guy throwing a cast net or pulling a seine in the middle of a creek around Central Texas you will know who it is. Have a great second childhood, Wild Ed

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Texas Special Youth Deer Season Opens

This Saturday and Sunday, October 30-31, is the Texas Special Youth rifle season that kicks off the 2010-2011 rifle season for deer here in Texas. I have a problem with parents that have to have a special season in order for them to take their kids hunting. My kids and others in my family were always included in the season whenever they wanted to go hunting. That being said if you have a child that has an interest in hunting you should have them out there this weekend. Make sure you have given them good safety training and a chance to practice with the rifle they will be shooting. Remember that many counties in Texas have Antler restrictions that you will be responsible for knowing and making sure your children abide by those restrictions. Keep it safe, but above all, make sure your kids have fun. After all that is why we are there in the first place, Wild Ed

Bwejuu, Zanzibar: October 21-23, 2010

Having spent a week scuba diving and exploring the island’s cultural points of interest, including taking a spice tour of the island and visiting historic Stone Town, Aimee and I retired to the southwest coast for a bit of rest and relaxation. Although I had no substantial plans for birding during this vacation, aside from a morning’s visit to Jozani-Chwaka National Park, this side of the island appeared to harbor much more birdlife than the northern coast, where we had stayed earlier. The scrub and garden habitat around our small hotel harbored a few lovely birds, including the Lilac-Breasted Roller and Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, and each day the tide would go out dramatically, exposing over a kilometer of reef to shorebirds. For once, birding for me was a leisurely activity, as I lounged in the hammock all afternoon reading a book with my binoculars around my neck.

A fruiting tree next to the dining area provided a few hours of entertainment each morning, as I watched waves of garden birds come through and snatch a few berries away from the resident Zanzibar Sombre Greenbulls. The most delightful of these was the Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, a member of the diminutive genus of African barbets, which would calmly choke down relatively massive berries as the greenbulls cautiously looked on. A group of noisy Black-Bellied Starlings would also make an appearance, although they weren’t nearly as disruptive as the hotel staff, which insisted on yelling to each other all morning as they went about their duties just nearby. I find this high-volume interpersonal communication to be one of the most challenging aspects of living in Tanzania, but I imagine I’ll get used to it eventually.

As the tide dropped late each morning, I would walk around on the exposed reef in my shoes, joining the rest of the village communities along the coastline as they scoured the tidal pools for stranded fish, crabs, and eels. Of course, I was just looking for shorebirds, and eventually found a few solitary Crab Plovers slowly patrolling open sandy areas. This uniquely large-headed plover stabs about in the sand occasionally with its stout bills, running about on long grey-blue colored legs. It looks rather like a tern but has slightly webbed feet, making it something of an anomalous bird; indeed, it has been placed in its own family. Common enough along the coastline in the Indian Ocean, it’s still one of my favorite birds of the region so far.

Notable birds seen: Crab Plover, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird.

Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park, Zanzibar: October 22, 2010

Thanks to years of steady hype from the Zanzibar tourist industry, Tanzania recently elevated the status of the modest Jozani Forest to the level of a national park, joining it with the adjacent estuary to the north. The main attraction of this swamp-forest habitat is the endemic Kirk’s Red Colobus, a striking monkey whose world population stands at about 2,500. Most visitors to Zanzibar typically arrange a short stop at the park on their way to the island’s western beaches to see the much-promoted monkey, a group of which have been habituated and are easily seen from the road that passes along the park’s southern border. The park also boasts a network of nature trails that visitors are free to explore, as well as a short boardwalk that passes through mangrove habitat, located a kilometer south of the main entrance along a dirt road.

After considerable expectation, Aimee and I finally visited at the end of our stay on Zanzibar, hoping to encounter the endemic race of Fischer’s Turaco among other coastal east African birds. Arriving around eight in the morning, we first birded the mangroves, hoping to catch the end of the early morning bird activity in this homogeneous habitat. After marveling over a male African Paradise Flycatcher, but finding not much else, we crossed the tarmac road and entered the forest, which first appeared to be little more than a red mahogany farm. Eventually, we entered more authentic looking swamp forest, but bird activity was low, except for a few pairs of chatty Dark-Backed Weavers. Within an hour or so my injured knee grew uncomfortably stiff, and we decided to cut short our visit and return to the coast, having seen a small fraction of the avifauna that the park purportedly offers.

Notable birds seen: Mangrove Kingfisher, African Paradise Flycatcher, Blue-Mantled Crested Flycatcher, Forest Batis, Dark-Backed Weaver.

Respite in the New Mexico High Country

I recently spent a few days at the Montaraz Ranch near Capitan, New Mexico. I was taken in by the beauty of the country and wildlife. The views and vistas of the Capitan Mountains and the other surrounding high country have a way of restoring the soul of a person that lives in the city yet longs for the country lifestyle. The ranch is privately owned so I won't go in to all of the details but my stay bordered on spiritual renewal.

I spent time alone in the high country each day, most of my time was spent observing all of the birds and many mule deer I shared my mornings and evenings with. One of my best moments was a stare off with a mule deer doe from just feet away. She had come down to water at a small watering hole hidden in a draw surrounded by tall pine trees. I was in full camo, but she had me pegged as something out of place so I could not move. I sat in one position so long that my rear end went to sleep and I thought I would just fall over. Finally, satisfied that I was just a weird bush she finished drinking and walked on down the trail. While sitting at the water hole I had all manner of birds land in the tree I was sitting under and go on with their lives unaware that I was spying on them. I was intrigued with the tiny mountain chickadees. The minuscule birds are very entertaining to watch as they flit from limb to limb.

I did some reading each night on the original peoples of the area and even found a pottery shard from some of the very first Indians to settle the region. I also took some pictures of the ruins from the later white settler's structures and equipment. The pictures do not do the old buildings justice but I hope you enjoy them anyway. It is so hard to imagine how difficult the struggles of daily life and survival must have been for those early residents of the area. Looking out over the landscape you can almost see the early Indian villages and the later settlers structures. It was very easy to get lost in your imagination. You just had to be there to feel what it was like. Wild Ed

Brad's Burgers Lampasas Texas A #1 By Me

Yesterday my wife and I were up at the family place in Lampasas to fill the deer feeders and check on the oats in the food plots. We have had no rain since planting and only a few oats have sprouted due to the moisture in the ground. We worked up a pretty good appetite and decided to eat in Lampasas on the way back home. We usually grab a bite at a fairly famous burger joint or a chain chicken place there in town. My Uncle Bob had told me the next time I ate in Lampasas to stop at this place many of the locals go called Brad's Burgers. It was easy to find just a half block off of the west side of 183 across from Sonic's side parking lot. At first sight Brad's is a hole in the wall drive through Burger Joint where you order from your vehicle and one of the guys brings your food out to the truck. There is a place to sit outside but it is not much of one. You may prefer to go to the park or eat in the vehicle. That aside the Cheese Burger was one of the best I have had in quite a while. The French Fries were the frozen crinkle type but served golden brown, hot and salty, they were done to perfection. My wife commented several times on how good her food was compared to what we usually got at the other place. The prices were reasonable and the servings more than adequate. I have since been told that next time I need to try Brad's Onion Rings and Chicken Fried Steak Dinner, I can assure you I will soon. Just thought if you are going through that part of the country you might like to try them out. Wild Ed

The NRA Just Doesn't Get It

I have been a member of the NRA for about forty years. In the last few years I have been getting irritated by the constant duns for money in the mail and from phone calls on behalf of the NRA. I did not renew my membership after there was talk of the NRA endorsing Harry Reid. I thought I would wait and see how that worked out before I renewed. I now know I will no longer support the NRA with my membership due to the swing to support left wing politicians with the endorsement of 58 Democratic candidates. I do not take this lightly and think that all gun owners should think about the support the NRA has given to the left by endorsing these 58 Democrats for election. Most of these are incumbents and are seeking re-election, some are career politicians. It is not like there are not conservative, pro-gun candidates running against them in the race. Does the leadership of the NRA not understand that if the liberal left shreds the Constitution and the Bill of Rights there will be no second amendment to fight for anymore? Can they not see that if all 58 of the Democratic candidates endorsed by the NRA are elected the left will still be in control of Congress and Pelosi will still be Speaker of the House? Do you really believe that all 58 of these Democrats will stand up for your gun owner rights when their colleagues start the next round of gun control and vote against gun rights and for new firearm regulations? Most of these Democratic candidates consider themselves Blue Dogs yet they have voted right along with Pelosi on most issues. If you feel that this country is on the right track then keep your membership and go along with the flow. I for one, along with other shooters and sportsmen that I have heard from, will be supporting some other organizations besides the NRA until there is a big turn-around in the thought process going on in the current leadership. Think about it and make up your own mind, Wild Ed

Kakum National Park, Ghana: Nov 24-25, 2012

Having already made two trips to Lekki Conservation Center in Lagos, I was out of other options for more birding in Nigeria. There are no other reserves near the city that are feasible for a day trip, and access to further flung sites is somewhere between unpredictable and impossible, given general infrastructure and security concerns. The best bet was simply to take to the skies and visit another country for the weekend. Ghana has long stood as the top birding destination in West Africa for a number of reasons: there are a variety of national parks and reserves, the country has been relatively stable and peaceful for the last few decades, and English is the lingua franca. Thanks to a slow but steady trickle of tourists and volunteers drawn to the country’s rich cultural past and natural beauty, there is a decent variety of transport and lodging options as well.

I first entered in contact with Ashanti African Tours, inquiring about a weekend trip.  They sent me a proposal for an action-packed itinerary, hitting a variety of sites with a focus on seeing the Yellow-Headed Picathartes, but the cost was way out of my price range.  In fact, I was a bit incredulous that they would charge nearly $500 USD per person per day for a short trip.  I lived in Tanzania for a year, where tourists commonly pay $300 per day for even a rustic trip to Serengeti National Park, where at least they offer some of the most impressive wildlife viewing in the world, such as the wildebeest migration.  I reached out to a few of my friends and former colleagues who have lived in Ghana, and they all laughed at the price, advising me to arrange my own trip with a car and private driver.  While I wouldn’t see as many birds, I would certainly spend a lot less and not scare off my colleague Mike from coming along.

The most current and comprehensive birding trip report about Ghana is Herve Jacob’s report covering his trip there with Noelle Jacob from March to April of 2012.  He had rented a car for about $100 per day from Taqwa Transport Service, and explored the country at leisure without setting up any reservations or guides in advance.  This sounded much more like my style, so I promptly arranged a private car and driver for the weekend ($120 per day), scheduling to meet us at the airport on Friday evening and take us to Cape Coast, located a few hours’ drive west of Accra, for the night.  We would visit some of the historic forts and castles along the coast on Saturday before heading inland to Kakum National Park, to bird the famous canopy walkway.  Although the itinerary wouldn’t include a visit to the picathartes site, at least we were getting out of Nigeria for the weekend and seeing some birds.

Although it’s never easy getting out of Lagos, Nigeria, we arrived in Accra in high spirits on Friday night, making small talk with George our driver along the way to Cape Coast.  I had picked out a modest hotel with the help of the Lonely Planet West Africa guidebook, and we managed to arrange for a few rooms and hit a restauarant at the beach before the clock struck midnight.  Sitting back with a few beers while listening to the waves pound the coastline, I was convinced the trip was going to be a modest success.   Ghana was already proving remarkably easy to navigate, as well as being friendly and relatively cheap.  Mike and I talked over the plan for the following day, which would eventually take us to Kakum NP in the afternoon, where I would arrange for early access to the canopy walkway on Sunday morning.  Hopefully, we would also have a chance to do some late afternoon birding as well.  The following night we agree to stay closer to the reserve at Hans Cottage Botel.

After visiting the historic forts at Cape Coast and Elmina in the morning, we headed inland towards Kakum NP.  Arriving just after 3pm, we pulled into the crowded parking lot and were shocked at the hoards of people milling about and waiting to get in.  There were literally dozens of school groups, and excited kids were running around and shouting everywhere, eyeing us in our birding gear from afar.  I had heard that the park was popular with tourists, but this was not a good sigh.  Picking my moment carefully, I walked up to the ticket counter and discussed my intentions with the distracted agent.  I was firmly rebuffed by my inquiry to bird the walkway both this afternoon and the following morning, forcefully being told that I would need a guide.  Happy to pay for a guide and the additional fees required to linger on the walkway for a few hours, I asked for help in procuring one.  Given the crowds and lateness of the day though, no one was much interested in helping me.

After laying on a little pressure, I was finally slipped a piece of paper with a phone number of a guide, who materialized in a half hour with the help of George’s cell phone.  We made arrangements for the following morning and decided it wouldn’t hurt to hit the walkway for some birding this evening as well, which our guide explained was a great time of day to spot several of the specialty hornbill species.  After paying the entrance fees for birders (about 20 USD per person), we marched off into the forest towards the canopy walkway.  I tried to engage our guide about the birds we might see, hoping to determine his knowledge and enthusiasm, but he was a young guy and frequently interrupted me to answer his cellphone or make small talk with other guides and guards.  The trail passed through good forest, but with all the foot traffic it was like a highway, and there was little chance to do any productive birding.

When it was finally our turn to take to the walkway, the sun was already low in the sky. The walkway connects six canopy towers built into trees, suspended 30 meters above the forest floor.  The canopy is relatively broken in this area and looks more like secondary rainforest with a few remaining emergent trees.  The views from the towers are excellent though and extend several kilometers to the opposite ridges.  We hustled out to platform 3, which offers the most expansive views.  The canopy of the tree spread out above us and was filled with ripe fruit, which shortly attracted several bird species, including Naked-Faced Barbet, Common Bulbul, and Splendid Glossy Starling.  While we scanned the trees further in the distance in hopes of spotting a White-Crested or Brown-Cheeked Hornbill, hundreds of screaming school kids completed the canopy circuit, bouncing noisily on the suspended walkways.  Our guide would shot at them occasionally to hurry up, but that only contributed to the chaos, which I worried was getting under Mike’s skin.

We locked onto a few more birds before it grew too dark, including a group of Yellow-Mantled Weavers, some Lead-Colored Flycatchers in the distance, a pair of Velvet-Mantled Drongos, and a single calling Yellow-Spotted Barbet.  Our guide seemed less than interested, but he was without his binoculars due to the short notice of our outing so I cut him some slack regarding the paucity of birds he pointed out to us.  I should note he was also without a field guide and audio equipment, but that’s not unusual in Sub Saharan Africa in my experience.  Before heading out of the park, where some European tourists were camping, we finalized our plans for the following morning (we would pick up our guide in a nearby town at 6:00am).  We passed a pleasant evening at the hotel restaurant pounding beers and eating fries, trying to keep our expectations for the following day in check.  Sure, I was keen to see the hornbills, but my top target bird for some reason was the Chocolate-Backed Kingfisher.

Everything went according to plan the following morning, although I was a bit anxious to finally get started birding after a series of short, minor delays.  Our first bird of the morning was the outrageous White-Crested Hornbill, as one was busy preening in a distant tree in the early morning light.  A true punk rocker of a bird with its marvelous crest, the hornbill also has a dramatically long and narrow tailed tipped white at the edges.  We saw a hulking Brown-Cheeked Hornbill in flight shortly afterwards, but I kept coming back to the White-Crested Hornbill as it followed a troop of monkeys through the canopy.  Above us in platform 3 hundreds of Common Bulbuls grouped noisily, irritating Mike to no end as he kept spotting the same bird in his binoculars.  Eventually, we picked out a few different species, including Violet-Backed Starling, Green Hylia, Forest Wood-Hoopoe, and Western Black-Head Oriole.  Even with binoculars are guide was not proving to be any more knowledgeable than me, and repeatedly grabbed the field guide out of my hands to do his own research.

Mike then got us onto what was probably the bird of the day, a pair of Yellow-Billed Turacos, nearly at eye level in a nearby tree.  We watched transfixed as they raced up the tree branches and swooped off to another tree, their gloriously colored wings crimson and blue in the sunlight.  They continued to bark and display for each other and were joined by several more individuals.  Mike also pointed out a Yellowbill later, putting me on the defensive as I scrambled to find a better contribution.  It didn’t take long before I then pointed out two diminutive but interesting forest finches, the Grey-Headed and White-Breasted Negrofinches, both of which are canopy dwellers.  The African finches are some of the most exquisite birds in the world, in my opinion, at least when seen up close.  Finally, our guide put us onto a few birds, including a distant Blue-Throated Roller, a well-camouflaged African Green Pigeon, and a pair of Red-Fronted Parrots flying past.

As we moved onto to platforms 4 and 5, we had quick looks at Johanna’s Subird, Rufous-Crowned Eremomela, and Sharpe’s Apalis.  Wandering off on my own a bit, I also found Speckled Tinkerbird, Honeyguide Greenbul, Red-Headed Malimbe, and Klaas’s Cuckoo.  Thinking we had actually done pretty well this morning, I slapped my guide on the back and told him it was finally time to reel in the Chocolate-Backed Kingfisher that had already called a few times in the distance.  He gave his best impression of its call, but it failed to materialize for us (I’ve seen photos of one perched on the railing of the walkway itself).  Afterwards, we fought over the identification of a drab, olive-colored sunbird feeding from small flowers in the canopy, which he claimed was an Olive Sunbird, but I assured him must be a Little Green Sunbird based on size and habitat (the relatively common Olive Sunbird in East Africa is definitely a forest/woodland interior species with a long decurved bill and no discernible eyering).  We would spar considerably more afterwards when he tried to tack on a variety of additional charges to our excursion including a twenty-dollar inconvenience fee, but Ghana being Ghana, we eventually worked things out in friendly fashion.

Notable birds seen: African Green Pigeon, Red-Fronted Parrot, Yellow-Billed Turaco, Klaas’s Cuckoo, Yellowbill, Woodland Kingfisher, White-Throated Bee-Eater, Blue-Throated Roller, Forest Wood-Hoopoe, African Pied Hornbill, Brown-Cheeked Hornbill, White-Crested Hornbill, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Speckled Tinkerbird, Yellow-Spotted Barbet, Naked-Faced Barbet, Common Bulbul, Honeyguide Greenbul, Wood Warbler, Green Hylia, Rufous-Crowned Eremomela, Sharpe’s Apalis, Lead-Colored Flycatcher, Collared Sunbird, Little Green Sunbird, Johanna’s Sunbird, Western Black-Headed Oriole, Velvet-Mantled Drongo, Splendid Glossy Starling, Violet-Backed Starling, Orange Weaver, Village Weaver, Yellow-Mantled Weaver, Red-Headed Malimbe, Grey-Headed Negrofinch, White-Breasted Negrofinch.

Lekki Conservation Center, Lagos, Nigeria: Nov 17 & 22, 2012

I never imagined that my first trip to West Africa would be to Lagos, Nigeria. Who hasn’t heard the stories about the country’s fate: a failed oil state, plagued by corruption and fraud, its population spiraling out of control due to high birth rate, decrepit infrastructure, and violent religious extremism? But the country can’t all be bad, I supposed, and birding is a way of making the best of a place. Hopefully, I would have a few opportunities to explore the natural side of Lagos while I hammered out three weeks of temporary duty in this infamous megacity. My trip back to the African continent from Brazil had already proven fruitful with a 24-hour rest stop in Johannesburg, complete with a full-day trip birding several nearby nature reserves. There was also a chance to visit nearby Ghana for the weekend, another fabulous birding destination, if the possibilities in Nigeria were too limited. My outlook was no less than optimistic as we arrived at the airport, and I eagerly took in the sights and sounds of the city as we transferred to our quarters. Welcome to Lagos!

I had done some research in advance on the Internet, starting with the excellent African Bird Club website, and learned that there is a decent reserve within Lagos itself, located not far from one of the large islands where I would be staying. Lekki Conservation Center was founded in 1990 with funding from several multinational oil companies, and is now administrated by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation. An elevated boardwalk and a trail network offer access to 80 hectares of swamp forest and savanna, and there are also several bird hides, viewing platforms, and a canopy tree house. The infrastructure is currently in excellent condition, and the park is smartly administered and popular with visitors, school and church groups in particular. Opening at 8am, admission is less than 1000 Naira, although the price might vary depending on the gullibility of the foreign visitor (just ask for a ticket before handing money over to a guard). There’s also a respectable museum and gift shop at the reserve headquarters.

I was able to visit the reserve on two separate mornings, staying 4-5 hours on both visits, which was more than enough time to sweat through my clothes in exchange for seeing a small handful of unique and beautiful birds. Transportation in Lagos is a challenge, to say the least (we took a boat to work everyday to avoid traveling on the choked and angry roads). Even with the car service we had available, it was still difficult to talk the driver into leaving at 7:30am on a Saturday and then waiting around in the parking lot until we were finished (I imagine one could make a similar arrangement with a taxi driver, but I would discourage a foreigner from trying to use pubic transportation). Traffic in Lagos is notoriously bad, and the 30-minute trip stretched into well over an hour as we sat for ages in the new tollbooth go-slow. The downtime gave me the chance to page through my new Birds of Western Africa field guide and to comb over the best trip report I found on the Internet about the reserve. 

Before visiting the reserve for the first time, I had also had the chance to get acquainted with the common birds of Lagos throughout the week. Somehow, these hardy survivors have managed to hold out in the remaining gardens and few tree-lined avenues of the upscale residential neighborhoods: Green Wood Hoopoe, Western Grey Plantain-Eater, Woodland Kingfisher, Common Bulbul, and African Thrush.  Along the waterways, Cattle Egret, Long-Tailed Cormorant, Western Reef Egret, and Pied Kingfisher were often present. In the skies, Black Kites swirled endlessly overhead, while Little Swift, Rose-Ringed Parakeet, and Pied Crow headed from one place to another. Speckled Pigeon and Laughing Dove hung out everywhere, undaunted by the rapidly growing concrete jungle. In the garden of our quarters, I spent a few minutes photographing this voracious Woodland Kingfisher that was making practical use of the playground equipment to hunt for grasshoppers.

My colleague Mike joined me on my first Saturday morning visit to the reserve.  The early morning skies were gray and swollen with humidity, but after a week of observing similar conditions I was confident it wouldn’t rain. We eagerly set out into the swamp forest along the boardwalk, proceeding in counterclockwise direction around the loop. Inside it was remarkably still and dark, with only a few birds calling from high above in the canopy. In fact, we went nearly an hour without seeing a single bird, only finally getting a visual on one of the Little Greenbuls that had been sounding off since we arrived. Drab and indistinct except for a slight pinkish gape, the bird was hardly the start for which we had hoped. Ascending the ladder to the tree house, we did see a few more birds in the canopy, including African Pied Hornbill and White-Throated Bee-Eater, both regionally common. At least there weren’t a lot of mosquitoes, I remember saying cheerfully, happy to be birding instead of sleeping off a hangover.

We pushed out into the blinding sun of the savanna section of the reserve, where bird activity was significantly greater. Several sunbird species, including Collared and Variable, dashed about in the shrubs at the forest edge, and we finally found a boisterous group of Swamp Palm Bulbuls, in a palm no less. The action continued as I introduced Mike to a calling Yellow-Throated Longclaw, and as we moved into the shade to admire it in comfort, we flushed a pair of Long-Tailed Nightjars from the leaf litter that resettled nearby. I moved in for a photograph but flushed them again, at least providing us with sufficient views to confirm the identification. Further along, we noted a Yellow-Billed Turaco in flight, a calling Tawny-Flanked Prinia, a pair of noisy Splendid Glossy Starlings, and a flock of Bronze Mannikins.

Returning to the swamp forest, now rather swampy ourselves, we joined forces with another British birder who has been living in Lagos for nine months. Although his knowledge of the birds of reserve didn’t seem any better than ours, having another set of eyes was certainly useful as we located Piping Hornbill, Blue-Breasted Kingfisher, African Goshawk, and Speckled Tinkerbird. The kingfisher in particular was magnificent, perched motionless but vibrantly colored on a liana quiet near the boardwalk. Unfortunately, our exclamations scared it off before I could fire away on my camera. We also made a brief stop at a bird hide and a viewing platform, both offering obstructed views over marshy, forest edge habitat. Here we had African Jacana, more bee-eaters and sunbirds, and lots of African Palm Swifts. As we left the reserve, I was buoyant about our expedition despite the low bird count and resolved to return, if only to get a photograph of the kingfisher.

The following Thursday was a holiday, and I was able to arrange another trip to Lekki Conservation Center, this time going by myself (the reserve is a perfectly safe place to walk around with birding equipment; outside the wall is another story, I suspect). This time I took a clockwise route through the swamp forest, spending at least an hour on the first viewing platform, where I enjoyed several good birds, including the Blue-Billed Malimbe, Blue-Breasted Kingfisher, and African Emerald Cuckoo. Inside the forest, I searched patiently for the dapper White-Browed Forest Flycatcher, which had been reported in previous trip reports, but came up empty.  Back in the savanna section of the reserve, I picked up a female Carmelite Sunbird, which is restricted to the coast of Western Africa, as well as a more distinct male Olive-Bellied Sunbird. A final pass through the swamp forest yielded African Pygmy Kingfisher and Willow Warbler at the forest edge. Again it was not an overwhelming haul of birds, but the opportunity to bird in a megacity like Lagos shouldn’t be skipped.

Notable birds seen: African Goshawk, African Jacana, Red-Eyed Dove, Yellow-Billed Turaco, African Emerald Cuckoo, Long-Tailed Nightjar, African Palm Swift, African Pygmy Kingfisher, Blue-Breasted Kingfisher, White-Throated Bee-Eater, African Pied Hornbill, Piping Hornbill, Speckled Tinkerbird, Yellow-Throated Longclaw, Swamp Palm Bulbul, Little Greenbul, Willow Warbler, Tawny-Flanked Prinia, Spotted Flycatcher, Collared Sunbird, Carmelite Sunbird, Variable Sunbird, Olive-Bellied Sunbird, Splendid Glossy Starling, Blue-Billed Malimbe, Bronze Mannikin.

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, South Africa: Nov 11, 2012

While I have certainly enjoyed the last year working and birding in Central Brazil, I jumped at the chance to do three weeks of temporary duty in West Africa when the opportunity was recently offered to me. I had to cut my time in Tanzania short a few years ago, and I’ve been yearning to get back to the continent ever since, where challenges and hardships combine to make birding a more rewarding adventure than in more developed parts of the world. On our way to Lagos, Nigeria, where my colleague Mike and I would be working, we stopped overnight in South Africa, setting up a day trip to several reserves outside of Johannesburg with the help of Chris Lotz from Birding Ecotours. Despite arriving sleepless after an overnight flight from São Paulo, we hit the ground running, meeting Martin Benadie, who was to be our guide for the day, and heading out to Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve located just an hour’s drive away.

As a birder, surfer, and oenophile from San Diego, I’ve always wanted to visit South Africa, which strikes me as a wilder more troubled version of California. I knew the country was a world apart from the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, but I was still amazed by the quality of the airport, roads, and general infrastructure, which no doubt received a recent face lift in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. Along the way we peppered Marin with a few naïve questions about South Africa’s current development trends and socioeconomic issues, passing several informal shantytowns that have sprung up back from the highway. Martin himself had grown up in Zimbabwe, and his family resettled in South Africa in the late 1990’s after being forced out during Mugabe’s land reform movement. He speaks five languages and is trained as a biologist, working as a free-lance guide and leading high-end trips for Wilderness-Safaris. As we left Johannesburg and its problems behind, the conversation to turned to birds.

Before entering the reserve, which protects high-altitude rocky grasslands, we birded the lower altitude grasslands along the entrance road. Martin impressed me immediately with his visual and aural command of the tricky cisticola genus, a group of African warblers that are small, secretive, and similarly patterned. For the uninitiated, cisticolas are hard as hell to identify without extensive knowledge of their calls and respective habitats, but Martin soon had me differentiating between Levaillant’s, Cloud, Wing-Snapping, and Zitting Cisticolas (we saw a formidable total of six cisticola species over the day). For Mike, a novice birder, the grasslands and their avian inhabitants were probably short of spectacular, but he definitely seemed impressed by the display flights of the many male Long-Tailed Widowbirds present. Other good ticks in this area included Cape Longclaw and White-Backed Duck at a pond, although we couldn’t get our binoculars onto a calling Southern Black Korhaan, a bustard endemic to South Africa.

As it was Saturday, the reserve was already bustling with weekend warriors, wildlife enthusiasts and athletes in training alike. With no large predators present in the park except for a few leopards in the woodland sections, visitors are free to run or bike the paved roads, and we regularly dodged cyclists as we stepped out of the car to track down a bird among the rocky highlands. Martin’s well-trained ear had us stopping every few hundred meters to train or binoculars on a new bird.  Bokmakierie, a colorful bush-shrike, Rufous-Naped and Eastern Long-Billed Larks, and Cape Grassbird were all good finds, while more common birds included Common Stonechat, Capped and Mountain Wheatears, Ant-Eating Chat, Mocking Cliff Chat, and Cape Rock Thrush. The late morning weather was sunny and breezy, and we continued to rack up more new birds, fighting off sleep with brief moments of action and swigs of hot coffee.

There are several rest stops and campgrounds in the woodland areas of the park, and these also proved productive birding areas where we added to our list. White-Bellied Sunbird, Cape White-Eye, Chestnut-Vented Tit-Babbler, Crested Barbet, and Diederk Cuckoo were all noteworthy ticks. Mike also had the chance to admire more widespread but showy African birds, such as Green Wood Hoopoe and African Hoopoe. Back in the rocky grasslands again, we marveled at a pair of Secretary Birds, striding off into the distance on their impossibly long legs. Martin was particularly impressed with this find, a rarity at Suikerbosrand according to him. As we pushed deeper into the reserve along the driving circuit, we started to come across a variety of ungulates, including Eland, Greater Kudu, Black Wildebeest, Red Hartebeest, Blesbok, Common Duiker, and the lively Springbok, the national animal of South Africa. Not a bad haul for one’s first safari, I was telling Mike, who might not have been entirely satisfied with only a 100 plus bird list for the day.

Towards the end of the loop the habitat became noticeably more arid, and we picked up a few more good species, including Rufous-Breasted Wryneck, Ashy Tit, and Kalahari Scrub Robin, all birds I would have driven right by without being able to differentiate their calls. With the sun sinking lower in the sky, Martin finally decided it was time to move on to another site to close out the day. Marievale Bird Sanctuary is a wetlands reserve thirty minutes away, offering good infrastructure for visitors included several viewing platforms and hides, where birders can get off the dirt roads and set up their scopes and telephoto lenses in peace. Just like at Suikerbosrand, Martin has this place wired, timing our stops perfectly to maximize our birding potential. We got started with Greater Flamingo, Pied Avocet, African Jacana, and African Swamphen, and then moved on to Lesser Swamp, African Reed, and Little Rush Warbers. Grey-Hooded Gulls and Whiskered Terns swirled overhead while we ticked Common Greenshank, Little Stint, and Ruff.

To close out the day, we drove past the reedy wetlands and into the marshy grasslands, where we spotted an African Grass Owl hunting silently on the wing, looking very much like a Barn Owl but being much darker in color. A Goliath Heron then took to the air as we approached slowly in the car over a bumpy road. Martin had assured us that this area was ideal for African Snipe, and soon enough we picked out a few in the emergent vegetation poking their bills deep into the mud. Resorting to playback, we finally dug out an African Rail alongside the road from the cover of the car. With this impressive final handful of birds in the bag, we called it a day, and drove back to Johannesburg in the dark drifting off to sleep in between snippets of conversation.

Our flight to Lagos was scheduled for early afternoon on the following day, and we were laying up that night at Outlook Lodge, a charming and affordable bed and breakfast in the suburbs near the airport. Sitting back with first a couple beers and then a bottle of wine, Mike and I marveled at how well our African adventure had begun. Martin also joined us for an ample repast, including ostrich steak, and we cranked out the day’s bird list before saying farewell. Understandably, I slept in rather late the following morning, but still had time to run down to the nearby Korsman Bird Sanctuary where the usual ducks, gulls, and coots were present. Access is restricted now to the perimeter of the wetlands, and birders are forced to peer through the fence, but the sanctuary’s proximity is yet another reason to stay at the lodge. I even spotted a pair of Black-Collared Barbets on the way there.  Given its remote location at the tip of the continent, Johannesburg is not a common place for a layover, but my short experience was very rewarding, and I can’t wait to return.

Notable birds seen: Common Ostrich, Swainson's Spurfowl, White-Backed Duck, Spur-Winged Goose, Egyptian Goose, Yellow-Billed Duck, Cape Shoveler, Red-Billed Teal, Hottentot Teal, Southern Pochard, Little Grebe, Greater Flamingo, Sacred Ibis, Hadada Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Goliath Heron, Black-Headed Heron, Long-Tailed Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Secretarybird, Black-Winged Kite, African Rail, Purple Swamphen, Spotted Thick-Knee, Black-Winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Blacksmith Plover, Crowned Lapwing, African Jacana, African Snipe, Common Greenshank, Little Stint, Ruff, Grey-Hooded Gull, Whiskered Tern, Speckled Pigeon, Ring-Necked Dove, Laughing Dove, Diederik Cuckoo, African Grass Owl, White-Rumped Swift, Speckled Mousebird, European Bee-Eater, African Hoopoe, Green Wood Hoopoe, Black-Collared Barbet, Crested Barbet, Red-Throated Wryneck, Bokmakierie, Common Fiscal, Pied Crow, Ashy Tit, Rufous-Naped Lark, Eastern Long-Billed Lark, African Red-Eyed Bulbul, Brown-Throated Martin, White-Throated Swallow, Barn Swallow, Greater Striped Swallow, South African Cliff Swallow, Cape Grassbird, Willow Warbler, Lesser Swamp Warbler, African Reed Warbler, Little Rush Warbler, Wailing Cisticola, Levaillant's Cisticola, Piping Cisticola, Zitting Cisticola, Cloud Cisticola, Wing-Snapping Cisticola, Black-Chested Prinia, Bar-Throated Apalis, Chestnut-Vented Tit-Babbler, Cape White-Eye, Common Myna, Cape Starling, Pied Starling, Karoo Thrush, Cape Robin-Chat, Kalahari Scrub-Robin, Common Stonechat, Capped Wheatear, Mountain Wheatear, Southern Ant-Eating Chat, Mocking Cliff Chat, Cape Rock Thrush, Fiscal Flycatcher, White-Bellied Sunbird, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, Cape Sparrow, Southern Grey-Headed Sparrow, Grosbeak Weaver, Cape Weaver, Southern Masked Weaver, Red-Billed Quelea, Southern Red Bishop, Yellow Bishop, Fan-Tailed Widowbird, White-Winged Widowbird, Red-Collared Widowbird, Long-Tailed Widowbird, Common Waxbill, Pin-Tailed Whydah, Cape Longclaw, African Pipit, Long-Billed Pipit, Cape Canary, Black-Throated Canary, Yellow Canary, Streaky-Headed Seedeater, Cape Bunting.

Freshwater Fish of Texas Field Guide Review

My wife and I ,or mostly me, have become interested in keeping native fish in an aquarium. She is great about supporting my wild ideas about all the stuff I bring home. I felt like it would be a great way to get the grand kids interested in learning the different species of native Texas fish. I ordered a little field guide that has impressed me with the pictures and how well they actually show the fish. We have been able to identify every fish we have caught in our nets with this little book. Many of the minnows, chubs and shiners are hard to identify but this little guide shows the differences well. It has a lot of information on each species and where they are found along with great color illustrations of each fish and sometimes both sexes if they are colored differently. The pages are coated with some kind of waterproof substance that performed very well on the creek this last weekend. As no one gives me books to recommend I only recommend what I buy and like. This is one of those you should have. Have a great time on the water, Wild Ed

Bagamoyo: September 25, 2010

Aimee and I escaped from Dar a few weekends back to a small, historic coastal town about an hour to the north called Bagamoyo. Once a thriving port in the slave trade during the colonial era, where over a million Africans were shipped off for sale in nearby Zanzibar, Bagamoyo has since passed into a long and steady decline, now with only a few thousand residents. While staying at the Traveler's Lodge or one of several other atmospheric resorts in the area, visitors can explore the decrepit but interesting buildings in town and learn more about it's dark past at various landmarks, including the Holy Ghost Mission, which contains perhaps east Africa's oldest church, located a kilometer to the north along the tarmac road. Indeed, Bagamoyo is affectionately known as the Town of Palms, and tens of thousands of long and narrow palms blowing about in the sea breeze create a fine affect as you wander about. Of course, there are good birds to be found in the area too, especially on the lush grounds of the lodge where we stayed, where highlights included the Brown-Breasted Barbet, African Green Pigeon, and Scarlet-Chested Sunbird. On Sunday morning, Aimee and I also drove a few hours north to the Waimi River, which forms the southern border to Sadaani National Park, spotting the uncommon Swallow-Tailed Bee-Eater along the way. The park itself warrants several days of exploration, although it's difficult to access and will require at least four days to make a proper visit from Dar.

Notable birds seen: Water Thick-Knee, African Green Pigeon, Brown-Breasted Barbet, Speckled Mousebird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Bronze Mannikin, Green-Winged Pytilia.

Bongoyo Island, Dar es Salaam: September 18, 2010

Bongoyo Island is a lovely retreat a short boat ride away from Dar es Salaam, with trips leaving every few hours from the Slipway, a dock near our house on the peninsula. The island is uninhabited and has been established as a marine reserve (5 USD), protecting the surrounding coral reefs from overzealous fisherman as well as the coastal scrub and woodland on the island itself from charcoal production. Although the earliest you can arrive on the island without your own boat is around 10am (the first boat leaves at 9:30am, and the cost is 12,000Tsh), the access to untrammeled coastline and woodland is unparalleled in central Dar, and visiting birders should consider the island as a safe and easy introduction to coastal scrub and woodland habitat. Aimee and I spent a half day lounging around the beach a few weeks ago, and I took a short walk around the self-guided trails after lunch to get a sense of the birding potential of the site. Activity wasn't high, but I found a few good birds, including African Fish Eagle, Mangrove Kingfisher, and Klaas's Cuckoo. Aimee also saw her first African Paradise Flycatcher, a tiny but spectacularly long-tailed bird that isn't seen as much in Dar since the introduction of the mischievous House Crow. The island looks to be a good spot for the migrant Crab Plover as well, a unique wader which is one of Dar's finer birds.

Notable birds seen: Sacred Ibis African Fish Eagle, Black Kite, Mangrove Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Klaas's Cuckoo, African Paradise Flycatcher, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye.

Sampling Brushy Creek for Native Aquarium Fish

My wife and I made a trip to our local creek today to gather rock and gravel to re-create the Brushy Creek bottom landscape in a 55 gallon aquarium. I took the cast net along to see what native fish I could find after the recent flooding. In about 30 minutes we cast netted several different species and return them to the water as this was just a trip to see what was available. We found Largemouth and Guadalupe bass, channel catfish, Creek Chubs, Blacktail Shiners, Threadfin Shad and multiple species of Sunfish. We soon had a following of kids as we threw the cast net and returned the catch to the water. As soon as the Aquarium is cycled and ready for fish we will be going to look for those special looking fish to bring home. Get out and enjoy the outdoors in the beautiful Texas fall weather and take some kids with you, Wild Ed