Karoo Thunder

Today we were awed by the power of several thunderstorms following each other over the plains and hills of the normally arid Great Karoo, as well as by the flash floods and rainbows that followed in their wake.

Thunderstorm over the Karoo National Park

A normally dry Karoo streambed transformed into a flowing river

The Rest Camp at Karoo National Park inundated

Thunderstorm over the Karoo National Park

Waterfall in the Karoo

Rainbow over the Karoo National Park

History remembered in Bloemfontein

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Day one of our December holidays and we spent quite a few hours walking the grounds of the National Women’s Memorial and War Museum of the Boer Republics in Bloemfontein, South Africa’s judicial capital, reminding ourselves of the horrors of the worst armed conflict ever fought in this beautiful country and the many thousands of lives so needlessly lost and wasted between October 1899 and May 1902.

National Women’s Memorial in Bloemfontein

Bust of Christiaan Rudolf de Wet, legendary Boer general.

Grave of Christiaan Rudolf de Wet, legendary Boer general.

Yellow Weaver

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Ploceus subaureus

The Yellow Weaver, or Eastern Golden Weaver, is a very social bird closely associated with reedbeds lining coastal rivers, lakes, dams and other permanent waterbodies, venturing into the surrounding savanna to search for the seeds, insects and nectar on which it feeds. Fully grown they weigh approximately 31g and measure 15cm in length.

Yellow Weavers breed colonially during spring and summer and will often occur alongside other weaver species. The males are polygamous, weaving several circular grass nests, often directly over the water, and trying to impress as many females as possible. The female is solely responsible for incubating the clutch of 2-4 eggs and caring for the chicks, which leave the nest at about 3 weeks old.

In South Africa the Yellow Weaver is confined to the coastal plain along the Indian Ocean coastline from the Eastern Cape to far northern Kwazulu-Natal. Beyond our borders their distribution extends as far as central Kenya. According to the IUCN the Yellow Weaver is of least concern.

Yellow Weaver

Eastern Golden (or Yellow) Weaver male (female in the background)

Eastern Golden (or Yellow) Weaver

Eastern Golden (or Yellow) Weaver female

Eastern Golden (or Yellow) Weaver

Yellow Weaver

Collared Pratincole

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Glareola pratincola

The Collared Pratincole is a migrant to South Africa, usually arriving to breed from about July and departing again by February. They’re found in open habitats – overgrazed grasslands, floodplains, sand banks and so on – near reliable large water sources like dams, lakes and estuaries. They’re most active by dusk and dawn, catching insects in flight and on the ground, and often follow herds of game or stock to catch the invertebrates they flush.

Adult Collared Pratincoles measure about 25cm in length with a weight of around 75g. While they’re usually seen in substantial flocks, often numbering into the thousands, they are monogamous breeders, laying clutches of 2 eggs in shallow depressions (like animal footprints) on the bare ground. Incubation takes a little less than 3 weeks and is shared between the parents. The chicks start flying when they’re about 4 weeks old.

The Collared Pratincole is very widely distributed over Africa, Europe and west and central Asia. and the IUCN lists it to be of least concern overall. In South Africa they are found, mostly during our spring and summer months, in the Lowveld and northern Kwazulu-Natal, and are considered rare and near-threatened.

Collared pratincole

Collared Pratincole

Collared Pratincole taking flight

Flock of Collared Pratincoles

Collared Pratincole

A rainy day spent on the Western Shores of Lake Saint Lucia

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The Western Shores section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park was opened to visitors a lot more recently than most other parts of the Park, and in many ways it is still being rehabilitated to its natural state – in fact there are still several exotic eucalyptus plantations in this area that still need to be harvested.

Just about 2km outside of St. Lucia town, on the main road to Mtubatuba, visitors will find the Dukuduku Gate providing quick and easy access to this interesting area. Unfortunately during our visit early in November Charter’s Creek was off limits due to flooding, but there’s other very rewarding areas where visitors can stretch their legs at: uBhejane Picnic Spot, kuMgandankawu Hide and uMthoma Aerial Boardwalk. The road network, while still rather limited, provides access to various interesting habitats and the birds and animals that find refuge there.

Buffalo at sunrise

Blue Wildebeest

Waterbuck bull(seye)

Bluegum Plantation on the Western Shores of Lake Saint Lucia

Yellow-throated Longclaw

Waterbuck bull

Giraffes

Giraffe youngster

A serene corner of uBhejane Picnic Site

Young African Jacana

Blue Wildebeest and Bluegum plantation on the Western Shores of Lake Saint Lucia

Crested Francolin

Tailor Ant nest

Pathway to the uMthoma Aerial Boardwalk

uMthoma Aerial Boardwalk

View from the uMthoma Aerial Boardwalk towards the marshes on the banks of Lake Saint Lucia

Female Spectacled Skimmer dragonfly

Nyala bull

Tailor Ants

Broad-billed Roller

Kwelamadoda Pan on the Western Shores of Lake Saint Lucia

Giraffe bull

Yellow Floating Heart

African Jacana

Black-bellied Bustard in soaring display flight

Spur-winged Geese

White-faced Whistling Ducks

Family of White-faced Whistling Ducks

Collared Pratincole

Looking out over Lake Saint Lucia and the forested dunes on Indian Ocean coast

Hamerkop close-up

Bushbuck ram

Typical scenery on the Western Shores of Lake Saint Lucia

Wild Date Palms

Buffalo Bulls and Red-billed Oxpeckers

Alert young Buffalo bull

Buffalo calf

African Marsh Harrier coursing over Kwelamadoda Pan

Blue Water Lily

Fulvous Whistling Ducks

Great White Egret struggling to swallow a Tilapia

Lesser Striped Swallow

Reed Cormorant at the uMphathe Bridge

Southern Reedbuck ram

Papyrus flowerhead

If you are interested in visiting St. Lucia and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, remember that De WetsWild can assist you with reservations in the Eden Park and Sugarloaf Campsites in town or at wonderful Cape Vidal set on the Indian Ocean in the Eastern Shores section of the Park.

Rufous-winged Cisticola

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Cisticola galactotes

The Rufous-winged Cisticola, also known as the Black-backed Cisticola, occurs only in a rather limited portion of Southern Africa, stretching from southern Malawi and central Mozambique southwards to the Kwazulu-Natal / Eastern Cape border in South Africa. It is very common where it occurs and the IUCN lists it as being of least concern.

As with others of its family the Rufous-winged Cisticola is a small bird, measuring about 13cm long and weighing only about 13g. It inhabits low-lying wetlands, reedbeds, adjacent grassland and sugarcane plantations, living mainly of insects. They are usually seen singly or in pairs. Rufous-winged Cisticolas are monogamous and build their ball-shaped nests just slightly above ground or water level in dense vegetation in marshy areas. Their breeding season spans spring and summer, during which the pair raise a brood of 2-4 chicks. The incubation period lasts about 2 weeks, with the chicks leaving the nest about the same length of time after hatching.

Rufous-winged Cisticola

Southern Banded Snake Eagle

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Circaetus fasciolatus

The Southern Banded Snake Eagle inhabits coastal forests and their edges where they feed primarily on reptiles, including venomous snakes, and amphibians. They will also venture into commercial timber plantations that replaced their native forest habitat over much of their local range.

Monogamous and territorial, pairs of Southern Banded Snake Eagles construct their stick-platform nests in the canopies of tall indigenous or plantation trees and usually use these for several consecutive breeding seasons. The female lays a single egg in spring and takes most of the responsibility for its incubation over a 7 week period and for caring for the chick at the nest for its first few weeks after hatching, while the male does most of the hunting to provide food for the female and chick. Fully grown they measure about 58cm long, boast a wingspan of around 1.25m and weigh approximately 1kg.

With a very low density population, estimated between 1,000 and 3,000 spreading over a distribution stretching along Africa’s Indian Ocean coast from southern Somalia to the northern corner of Kwazulu-Natal Province in South Africa, the IUCN considers the Southern Banded Snake Eagle to be near-threatened. Most of their very small local population, probably numbering well below 100 individuals and considered vulnerable, is found in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

Southern Banded Snake Eagle

Southern Banded Snake Eagle (photo by Niel de Wet)

Green Twinspot

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Mandingoa nitidula

The beautiful little Green Twinspot, a tiny member of the finch family that is only 11cm long and 10g in weight, is easily overlooked in its forest habitat where it feeds mainly on seeds. They’ll also readily venture into plantations and gardens where there are grass seeds to be had. When disturbed they always fly high into the tree canopy to wait there quietly until the threat has passed.

Green Twinspots are often seen in small family groups of up to 10, though they form monogamous pairs in the breeding season (and sometimes for more than one season), which spans the months of spring and summer. Their nest is a rough ball of plant material with a side entrance usually built quite high among dense foliage in which both partners roost together at night. The female lies between 4 and 6 eggs and both parents incubate the clutch for a period of 2 weeks. The chicks fledge at about 3 weeks of age but will keep coming back to the nest for about another week or so before becoming totally independent.

Green Twinspot

According to the IUCN, the Green Twinspot is of least concern, despite occasionally being trapped for the pet trade. It has a very patchy distribution over much of sub-Saharan Africa, while in our country they’re largely restricted to coastal Kwazulu-Natal and the escarpment of Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Green Twinspot

Green Twinspots

Green Twinspot

Green Twinspots

Green Twinspot

Tailor Ants

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Oecophylla longinoda

Tailor Ants, or Weaver Ants, naturally inhabit humid forests, which limits their South African distribution to the northern coast of Kwazulu-Natal (where their unique nests are a common sight in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park). Beyond our borders they’re distributed throughout Africa’s equatorial regions.

A single colony of Tailor Ants usually have several nests within their territory, which they fiercely defend by injecting formic acid when biting assailants, be they other ants, birds or animals and even humans. These nests are constructed using silk produced by the larval ants to bind together living leaves. In one nest the queen, which produces about a hundred eggs per day, lives, while the other nests are used by the workers (which measure up to 11mm in length) to care for the young ants or – fascinatingly! – farm with scale insects. The ants subsist on the honeydew these scale insects secrete as well as on other insects they hunt in the trees or on the ground.

Tailor Ant nest

Tailor Ants nest

Tailor Ant nest

Tailor Ants

Tailor Ant nest

Tailor Ants

Tailor Ant nest

Tailor Ants

African Pygmy Goose

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Nettapus auritus

With a weight of only 260g, the African Pygmy Goose is one of the smallest members of the duck family to be found in South Africa. They’re seen in close association with bodies of clear water densely vegetated with water lilies, the flowers and seeds of which forms the bulk of their diet, and other floating and emergent plants amongst which they’ll often sit entirely motionless to avoid detection. When threatened they’ll more usually dive below the water surface than fly away.

African Pygmy Geese (photo by Niel de Wet)

African Pygmy Goose male (photo by Niel de Wet)

African Pygmy Goose female (photo by Niel de Wet)

African Pygmy Goose male (photo by Niel de Wet)

African Pygmy Geese form monogamous pairs with a very strong bond and are usually seen in pairs or family groups. They make their nests in holes in trees and will readily use nest boxes erected for them. The breeding season stretches from the start of spring to the end of autumn. Clutches may number up to 13, but more usually 7-9, eggs. The female is solely responsible for incubating the eggs, which takes about 4 weeks. Soon after hatching the chicks jump from the nest to follow their mother to the water. The chicks can fly by the time they’re about 6 or 7 weeks old.