About Me

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Canberra-based naturalist, conservationist, educator since 1980. I’m passionate about the natural world (especially the southern hemisphere), and trying to understand it and to share such understandings. To that aim I’ve written several books (most recently 'Birds in Their Habitats' and 'Australian Bird Names; origins and meanings'), and run tours all over Australia, and for 17 years to South and Central America. I've done a lot of ABC radio work, chaired a government environmental advisory committee and taught many adult education classes – and of course presented this blog, since 2012. I am a recipient of the Australian Natural History Medallion, the Australian Plants Award and most recently a Medal of the Order of Australia for ‘services to conservation and the environment’. I live happily in suburban Duffy with my partner Louise surrounded by a dense native garden and lots of birds.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Sahel Sunset

The Sahel is a vast swathe of semi-arid grassland and scrubby woodland immediately south of the Sahara, crossing Africa from west to east. It crosses some of the poorest countries on earth, including Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Niger and Sudan, so is not an easy place to visit, both because the infrastructure is understandably rudimentary and because the plight of many of the people, and the degradation of the land, is challenging to any thinking, empathetic being. 

Waza National Park is in far northern Cameroon. This sunset photo gives a feel of the dust in the air from eroding soils.
Waza National Park, northern Cameroon.
More on Cameroon and Waza in posts to come.

Meantime, back tomorrow!


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