I really, really like birds.  So there was no better way to spend last Saturday than at Montecasino’s charming bird gardens in Johannesburg, South Africa.  You could almost call it a Vanishing Species outing, with Kate Booker and I hopping about the gardens (okay, I was hopping and she was walking normally), pointing, ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ at every fabulous bird in sight.  And there were plenty of fabulous birds in sight.  Throughout the afternoon, our attention was pulled back and forth, with familiar birds competing with the strange and exotic for our attention.

While trying to decide whether a Knob-billed Duck was in fact a Knob-billed duck (it was- they only have knobs on their bill during breeding season and females don’t have them at all), something unusual swum through the scene.

What a striking little goose!  It was swimming with a smattering of local ducks and geese, but it…