To view the full content of each post, please click on the title, featured photo or on “read more” after the post intro.
For a list of all posts without images and preview text, click here. Thank you!
ePostcard #15: Lions at Sunset (Etosha National Park, Namibia)
ePostcard #15: Watching Lions at Sunset (Etosha National Park, Namibia) The sublime joy of spending a sunset evening watching a pride of African lions is a profound gift. These kinds of opportunities are usually only possible in parks and preserves where both...
ePostcard #14: Hidden Water (Namibia and South Africa)
ePostcard #14: Hidden Water (Namibia and South Africa) The ability to locate a hidden spring or waterhole—reading the landscape and recognizing subtle clues—is a survival skill that must be learned by all desert dwellers at an early age. In Namibia’s northeastern...
ePostcard #13: Sociable Weavers
ePostcard #13: Sociable Weavers Sociable weavers, which are endemic to southwestern Africa, are members of a gregarious group of sparrow-like finch species. These weavers are best known for constructing—grass blade by grass blade—enormous communally-thatched nests....
ePostcard #12: Zebra Society
ePostcard #12: Zebra Society Burchell’s zebra, unlike the more familiar mountain zebra, has a stripe pattern that features a distinctive brown “shadow” stripe that can be seen between the black stripes. This pattern is especially prominent on the hind quarters. Each...
ePostcard #11: An Elephant’s Life
ePostcard #11: An Elephant's Life In Namibia’s Etosha National Park, waterholes and elephants are a magical combination when you want to observe elephant behavior. Elephants of different ages are often present and this makes it especially fun to just sit and watch the...
ePostcard #10: African Fur Seal Family Life (Namibia)
ePostcard #10: African Fur Seal Family Life (Namibia) Looking at these napping African fur seals, I’m reminded that they evolved from the same land ancestors as dogs and bears. Although these fur seals spend much of the year at sea, they never fully abandon their...
ePostcard #9: Life in an African Fur Seal Colony
#9: Life in an African Fur Seal Colony I admit to having an inordinate fondness for seals. There is nothing in the world like the total sensory experience of settling in with binoculars and camera at the edge of an enormous seal colony. I wish that I could magically...
ePostcard #8: Life in the Sand (Namibia)
E-Postcard #8: Life in the Sand (Namibia) Rows 1, 2 and 3: Travel with me to the dune country of Namibia. The dunes of the Namib Sand Sea cover most of the southwestern portion of Namibia, an area roughly 93 miles (150 km) wide and 248 miles (400 km) long. The...
ePostcard #7: Camouflage Perfected!
E-Postcard #7: Camouflage Perfected! The current standing order for “sheltering in place” takes on a very different meaning in the natural world. Survival for some animals in the wild depends on camouflage (or cryptic) coloration or patterning, an adaptation that...
ePostcard #6: Tide pooling anyone?
E-Postcard #6: Tide pooling anyone? A tide pool walk along the Cape Peninsula is an amazing experience! Patrick Cardwell, our South African guide and a naturalist in the classic tradition, opened our eyes to an extraordinary world. None of my images have been...
ePostcard #5 Spring in Namaqualand (South Africa)
E-Postcard #5: Spring in Namaqualand (South Africa) Namaqualand is a narrow stretch of semi-arid and arid country along the west coast of South Africa. The region is home to a unique assemblage of plants and its floral biodiversity is without equal among the arid...
ePostcard #4
E-Postcard #4: South Africa is famous the world over for the incredible diversity and beauty of its native flora. Although it represents less than 1 percent of the world’s total land surface, South Africa accounts for 10 percent of all known species of flowering...
ePostcard #3: Giraffes
Greetings! The excellent 2018 documentary, The Woman Who Loves Giraffes, is based on the life of Dr. Anne Innis Dagg, the Canadian zoologist, feminist and pioneer in the study of animal behavior in the wild. Dagg is credited with being the first to study wild giraffes...
ePostcard #2 Rhinos
Greetings! During my 40-year career as a naturalist guide, I’ve often been teased for my bias towards exploring remote islands in Polar regions, glaciated landscapes almost anywhere, and iceberg-dotted fjords. I’d been fascinated by Africa since childhood, but the...
ePostcard #1 African penguins at the Boulders Penguin Colony
Today’s Caption: African penguins at the Boulders Penguin Colony (South Africa). My “personal" photo memory for the day (admittedly a bit somber) is of a small “procession" of African penguins walking away after visiting the site where a colony member...
ePostcards – Intro
Greetings, I launched our Cloud Ridge ePostcard Blog in late March of 2020, as the unfolding tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic encircled the globe in a shroud of sadness. With the help of our skilled webmaster, Clyde Lovett, I wanted to provide a respite from the daily...