The sound of the sea is one of the most evocative natural noises – and one of the most mysterious. New research helps to explain why breaking waves sound as they do. The quality of the sound depends on the size of the air bubbles that are formed as the wave breaks. The size of these bubbles also determines the way that air is mixed into the ocean and water into the atmosphere – two processes that have a profound influence on climate.
The African stonechat is a species of the Old World flycatcher family. The males have a black head, a white half-collar, a black back, a white rump, and a black tail; the wings are black with a large white patch on the top side of the inner wing. The upper breast is usually dark orange-red, with a sharp or gradual transition to white or pale orange on the lower breast and belly depending on subspecies. In a few, black replaces the orange breast feathers in part or entirely. Its scientific name refers to its appearance and habitat and means “collared rock-dweller”.
PS: First time I’ve seen a tick on a bird?
On the 8th of November 1912 a railway line connecting the border town of Komatipoort with the gold fields at Tzaneen in the north-western Lowveld of South Africa, cutting across the Sabie Game Reserve for a distance of approximately eighty kilometres, was inaugurated. Known as the Selati Line, it played an immense part in the history of the Kruger National Park. The two metal train bridges across the Crocodile and Sabie rivers stand silent witness to a long departed era of Kruger Park’s history. In 1978 “The Railways” donated steam engine 3638, named “Skukuza”, to the then National Parks Board for permanent display at the replica station inside the camp.
