Recently, wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick had the privilege to spend 10 days in the Addo Elephant National Park. During this time it rained virtually continuously and this brought an unexpected hive of activity of seldom seen species and animal behavior that provided excellent photographic opportunities. Flying ant emergences provided the most spectacular viewing with many species making the most of this seldom occurring event to feed on the nutritious ants.

The Important Bird Areas (IBA) Programme is one of BirdLife South Africa’s most important conservation programmes. It speaks to all four focal areas of BirdLife South Africa – species, sites, habitats and people.

After a rebirth at the end of 2009, the IBA Programme has grown from strength to strength. In 2012 the programme will grow to eight staff members, including a national coordinator, four regional conservation managers, an IBA data manager, and three education and community development staff. The IBA Steering Committee continues to offer valuable guidance and decision-making support to Daniel Marnewick, the national coordinator, and the rest of the team.

We are confident that soon the IBA Programme will once again be at the forefront of conservation in South Africa, becoming the guardian of our birds’ most important habitats.

As the seasons start changing from summer to winter in the Cape, the weather becomes less predictable and the autumn colors provide a vibrant visual display that beckons to be photographed.

Rhinos are increasingly appearing in the media due to the relentless and brutal onslaught against them that is driven by greed and the ridiculous belief that they hold miraculous cures against a number of diseases. Sadly, they are only one of countless species under threat, with crimes against wildlife listing in the top three of global crimes and falling just below illicit arms and drug dealing.  

Recently, wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick had the privilege to spend 10 days in the northern reaches of KwaZulu Natal covering sections of the Zululand Birding Route and meeting up with some of its community guides. Peters route covered the forest patches of Dlinza and Ongoye as well as the mangroves of Umlalzi Nature Reserve. Further north, rare sand forest at Bonamanzi, False Bay and the Sand Forest Lodge were explored, while the bushveld areas of the Zululand Rhino Reserve, Pongola, False Bay, uMkhuzi and Hluhluwe-IMfolozi were also covered.  

This week Photodestination brings you some amazing photographs, by Lloyd Edwards, of the Killer Whales (or Orcas) of Algoa Bay in Port Elizabeth from the South African east coast. Lloyd runs a boat based whale watching charter business called "Raggy Charters" and is busy writing a book on the marine life of Algoa bay.

The text below is an extract from his chapter on Killer Whales.

On the last leg of his Kenyan journey, wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick left the rugged landscape of Tsavo West, which must be one of Africa’s true wilderness areas, to travel the road to Mombassa which was rather uninteresting apart from taxi’s keen to overtake on blind rises, while trucks hurtled towards them from the opposite direction. 

The coastal drive from Mombassa produced Sooty Falcon and Grasshopper Buzzard sitting on the telegraph lines and small flocks of Fischer’s Lovebirds flew amongst the Baobab trees. House Crows were everywhere and constantly chased away any of the indigenous birds. Stopping in at Mida Creek, which is well known as a water bird and wader destination, we were greeted by the sight of an Osprey swooping down and catching a fish. 

On the second leg of his journey across Kenya, wildlife & conservation photographer Peter Chadwick, journeys across the Nyeri Desert to the famous Tsavo National Park. This incredible reserve hosted an amazing array of birdlife and unusal game species.

Leaving Amboseli, the dryness of the Nyeri Desert soon heralded the rather strange looking Gerenuk, stately Grants Gazelle and Beisa Oryx. Eastern Chanting Goshawks sat on top of the stunted vegetation and Rosy-Patched Bush-Shrike flew with labored flights between cover. 

Flocks of Fischer’s Sparrow-Lark’s were seen alongside an occasional Swahili Sparrow trying to feed amongst the scant grasses. Surprisingly a Cheetah showed itself on the edge of a small village where it was trying to drink from a dam, together with a lone Secretary Bird. A family of five Ground Hornbills walked totally unfazed amongst the scattered huts and people moving around in one of the many small villages near Oloitokitok.

This week Photodestination brings you the outdoor and wildlife photography of Morkel Erasmus. Since picking up a DSLR camera for the first time, a little over 3 years ago, Morkel has been invigorated with an unbridled passion for the photographic art form. He has grown at a tremendous pace and put immense energy into the creation of his images.

The Cape Buffalo is a charismatic species and one of the stalwart Big 5 on the African continent. This portfolio of Cape Buffalo was photographed within the Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya, by wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick.

Veteran of a previous ‘rhino war’, Dr Ian Player has a special connection with these charismatic animals and is following efforts to combat poaching with great interest.

This world respected conservationist has valuable insights into how we can tackle the current crisis, and shares them with Africa Geographic’s Rachel Lang.

Sean Pattrick is the founder of Natural Exposure CC, a company that was born in 2002 to offer others the exposure and experience of wildlife that Sean himself is passionate about, be it through the lens of a camera or in the form of guided nature safaris.

Samson Mulaudzi and Christopher Nethonzhe rode home last week on their new bikes bought by the Ben de Boer Trust and BirdLife South Africa.

These brand new Honda XR125 scramblers were bought to empower these Bird Guides to expand their guiding businesses, undertake avian research and conservation projects and maintain the Community Campsites, Golwe and Gundani.

Neither Samson nor Christopher had ever been on a bike before, but after receiving intensive training from biking expert, Trevor van Niekerk, they rode from Kurisa Moya to Haenertsburg gaining the skills of riding on public roads.

Cousin Island is a special nature reserve, in the Seychelles, managed by Nature Seychelles. Wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick had the privilege of spending some time working on Cousin Island recently. 

In today’s society there is much debate about the importance of protecting the environment and deciding how best to restore critical areas to their natural state.

Cousin Island stands out as a global conservation leader, demonstrating that it is possible and that the benefits are well worth it.

The Photodestination team of Peter Chadwick and Arne Purves are proud supporters of the ARKive project and have been making submissions since 2005. We encourage others to contribute to this worthwhile effort. Through the showcasing of powerful images of our natural assets we can further encourage support for conservation and for protecting our fragile Earth!

Liesel Kershoff, is a talented landscape photographer, from Caledon in the Western Cape, South Africa.

"Liesel Kershoff may use a camera and a tripod to make her images, but in spirit she is more like painter. Like Banes and Pierneef, who would take their easels out into the veld, Liesel spends many hours in remote locations, watching the light and waiting for the right moment to press the shutter button. And, like a landscape painter, there is a degree of subjective interpretation in her work”

- Jon Minster (Weg/Go! Magazine, March 2011)

As someone who has a passion for marine conservation, Peter Chadwick is always on the look out for innovative ideas to reduce our negative impacts on the oceans. One of his biggest bugbears is the amount of fishing line that gets irresponsibly discarded along our coastlines.

This line is non-bidigradable and can last for hundreds of years, entangling and snaring reef systems, marine mammals and birds and causing any entangled wildlife to suffer an unnecessary slow and often painful death. 

It can be really challenging to find innovative ways to photograph a subject, to capture images that makes us think a little harder about the subject or teach us something new. After spending a few days on Malgas Island in the West Coast National Park, photographing the Cape Gannet colony, i was getting frustrated with trying to find this"innovation".

Since being the general manager at De Hoop Nature Reserve and Marine Protected Area, wildlife and conservation photographer, Peter Chadwick has kept a close eye on the fish tagging project that has been ongoing in the De Hoop Marine Protected Area for over 25 years. The project is the largest of its kind in the world, having tagged and released well over 50 000 fish.

The information that has been gathered from this project has helped researchers determine the movement patterns of many inshore fish species and has helped with the setting of line-fish management strategies for South Africa.