THE Bude Cornwall Wildlife Trust group welcomed Colin and Patricia Humphrey from Bideford to the Parkhouse Centre recently to give an illustrated talk on ‘Our Africa’ at their latest meeting.

The couple are expert photographers who have won awards for their photographs and their love of wildlife was evident in the photos they showed to the group.

Africa is too large to encompass in one night but the audience were treated to a guided tour of the flora and fauna of the southern part of the continent, moving from the Cape area up to Victoria Falls and on to Lesotho.

Among the many sea birds shown was the African darter or snakebird that spears its fish with its elongated beak, and when swimming has its body submerged so that its long neck looks like a snake resting on the surface.

Moving into the bush, the assembled crowd were shown a brown-hooded kingfisher, which is arboreal rather than water-based and the vervet monkeys who are mostly herbivorous and love to eat spider’s webs.

Colin was once given the advice that to take good wildlife photos you need to get close to your subject and then get closer still, and when faced with a black rhino that shows a lot of courage but the pictures were worth the risk as were the ones of some of the big cats they have seen.

Along with the roar of the lion, another iconic sound of Africa is the cry of the African fish eagle. The female can have a wingspan up to eight-foot across and they live near fresh water rivers and lakes where they feed off fish and waterfowl.