31 January 2019: Heading North

The North African part of this Big Year has kicked off with some minor hiccups, my flight has been delayed for two hours due to a very impressive thunder and lightning show here in Kimberley. Hopefully we will depart in time for me to catch my connecting flight from Johannesburg to Madrid, and then on to the Canary Islands. The plan is to bird the Canaries for a week, and then fly to Morocco where I will spend three weeks trying to find some local North African and European birds.

I have been on the road for just over a month, and my Big Year 2019 list at the end of January stands at 517 species, all found in Southern Africa. I realise that this has been the honeymoon phase of the Big Year, and that I had the home-ground advantage. Eleven months of hardcore and progressively more difficult birding lies ahead.

One of the prevailing impressions of this month was that there was never enough time to bird a region thoroughly and tick all the specials of the area. Nor was there time to just sit back and relax, to chill out and enjoy the moment, or to read a non-birding related book. Evenings are usually spent updating lists, writing the blog and editing photos until one’s eyes beg to go to sleep. I have learnt to seek out and nurture the quiet occasions, reminding myself to truly see and feel the moment, to breath deeply, and to be at peace.