Part detective trail, part love affair and pure story telling at its best.

In 1990 an expedition of Cambridge scientists arrived at the Plains of Nechisar, tucked between the hills of the Great Rift Valley in the Gamo Gofa province in the country of Ethiopia. On that expedition, 315 species of birds were seen; 61 species of mammal and 69 species of butterfly were identified; 20 species of dragonflies and damselflies; 17 reptile species were recorded; three frog species were filed; plants were listed. And the wing of a road-killed bird was packed into a brown paper bag.

It was to become the most famous wing in the world.

When the specimens finally arrived at the British Natural History Museum in Tring it set the world of science aflutter. It seemed that the wing was unique, but they questioned, can you name a species for the first time based only on the description of a wing, based on just one wing?

After much to and fro, confirmation was unanimous, and the new species was announced, Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala, (solus:only and ala:wing). And birdwatchers like Vernon began to dream.

Twenty-two years later an expedition of four led by Ian Sinclair set off to try to find this rarest bird in the world.

Vernon R.L. Head captivates and enchants as he tells of the adventures of Ian, Dennis, Gerry and himself as they navigate the wilderness of the plains, searching by spotlight for the elusive Nechisar Nightjar.

This remarkable collection of birding stories, written by some of our most intrepid bird observers, will convert a new generation of South African ornithologists and watchers of wilderness.

Birds and their names sing from the pages; owls, Shoebills, sandgrouse, Hooded Pittas, Rhinoceros Hornbills, Brown Kiwis, Rock Doves, Cape Eagle Owls, Greater Flameback woodpeckers, Inaccessible Island Rail, Superb and Beautiful Sunbird, Violet Turaco and the African Crowned Eagle.

Contributors include: David Allan, Mark D. Anderson, Mark Brown, Callan Cohen, Susie Cunningham, W. Richard J. Dean, Morne du Plessis, Vernon RL Head, Alan Kemp, David Letsoalo, Rob Little, John Maytham, Adam Riley, Peter Ryan, Claire Spottiswoode, Peter Steyn, Peter Sullivan, Warwick Tarboton, Mel Tripp and Ross Wanless.

All author royalties will be donated to the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology to support ongoing ornithological research.

From the bestselling author of The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World comes On That Wave of Gulls. An audacious novel, the tale is told by three characters – an architect, a Khoisan vagrant and a seagull, all of whom recount their lives in Cape Town.

Hieronymus Vos is an overweight, white architect, recently fallen on hard times, and married to a beautiful, black British-Caribbean woman. Although he hates the ocean, his practice has, until recently, been doing very well by designing glitzy millionaires’ mansions on the Atlantic Seaboard. Pooi is a homeless man, recently arrived from the Kalahari, with a patchy grip on reality. He thinks he is the moon and wants to teach himself to swim so that he can reach Robben Island and fulfil a promise. The third narrator is Calypso, a female seagull who needs to find a mate and lay an egg to pass on her legacy and her identity.

On That Wave of Gulls is a shrewd and lyrical tour de force by a natural storyteller. By times heartbreaking and thrilling, this unforgettable novel propels the author into the lives of the novel’s three main characters, throwing light on living and being in Cape Town – a Cape Town that is part wilderness, part glamorous high-rise developments, part ocean. Their interactions are at times fleeting, at times profound, and behind them lies the joy, pain and tragedy of living at the southern tip of Africa.

Part detective trail, part love affair and pure story telling at its best.

In 1990 an expedition of Cambridge scientists arrived at the Plains of Nechisar, tucked between the hills of the Great Rift Valley in the Gamo Gofa province in the country of Ethiopia. On that expedition, 315 species of birds were seen; 61 species of mammal and 69 species of butterfly were identified; 20 species of dragonflies and damselflies; 17 reptile species were recorded; three frog species were filed; plants were listed. And the wing of a road-killed bird was packed into a brown paper bag.

It was to become the most famous wing in the world.

When the specimens finally arrived at the British Natural History Museum in Tring it set the world of science aflutter. It seemed that the wing was unique, but they questioned, can you name a species for the first time based only on the description of a wing, based on just one wing?

After much to and fro, confirmation was unanimous, and the new species was announced, Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala, (solus:only and ala:wing). And birdwatchers like Vernon began to dream.

Twenty-two years later an expedition of four led by Ian Sinclair set off to try to find this rarest bird in the world.

Vernon R.L. Head captivates and enchants as he tells of the adventures of Ian, Dennis, Gerry and himself as they navigate the wilderness of the plains, searching by spotlight for the elusive Nechisar Nightjar.