Autumn Mountain Moments (part 2)

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We made it safely back to Pretoria and I think before anyone noticed we were missing. We enjoyed a glorious morning in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, bringing to a close a wonderful, if whistle-stop, visit to one of our favourite destinations.

Blesbok at sunrise
Skittish blesbok
Springbok at sunrise
Blesbok herd on the run at sunrise (photo by Joubert)
Big herd of blesbok at Golden Gate
Blesbok in the golden light of a Golden Gate sunrise
Plains Zebra on a hill at Golden Gate
Springbok in the Golden Gate landscape (photo by Joubert)
Springbok in the golden light of a Golden Gate sunrise
Sunrise scenery at Golden Gate
Sunrise scenery at Golden Gate
Joubert captued this spider sunning on a rock in the early morning
Sunrise scenery at Golden Gate
Sunrise scenery at Golden Gate
Bewildered Black Wildebeest (photo by Joubert)
Common Meadow White
Black Wildebeest dwarfed by the majestic landscape
Plains Zebra
Cisticola
Beautiful bloom
Golden Gate scenery
Herd of Black Wildebeest dwarfed by the majestic landscape
Plains Zebras and Red Hartbeest mixing on the slopes
Golden Gate scenery
Red-throated Wryneck
Red-throated Wryneck (photo by Joubert)

Autumn Mountain Moments (part 1)

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Pssst…

We sneaked out of Pretoria at five this morning and headed for a quick weekend breakaway at the beautiful Golden Gate Highlands National Park.

Gladstone Dam
Jackal Buzzard
Sandman Butterfly
Geranium Bronze butterfly
Eland hiding in the shade of an overhang
White-necked Raven
Dolerite Dyke
Jackal Buzzards
Cape Wagtails
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
Golden Gate scenery
View from our cottage at Glen Reenen in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park
Pied Starling and chick
Inquisitive Cape Weaver
Pied Starling chick (photo by Joubert)
Crystal clear water of the Little Caledon
Crested Barbet
Red River Lilies
Golden Gate scenery
Crystal clear water of the Little Caledon
Brandwag Buttress
Little Caledon River
Eland
Plains Zebra
Shy Black-backed Jackal
African Monarch
Mushroom Rocks
Golden Gate sunset
Black-backed Jackal

The Flying Handkerchief / Mocker Swallowtail Butterfly

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Papilio dardanus

Not only is the Mocker Swallowtail one of the biggest and most beautiful butterflies to be found in South Africa, but it can also be one of the most confusing! The males, also known as Flying Handkerchiefs, boast extravagantly shaped wings with striking black and cream-white markings, while the females are excellent at mimicking at least 14 other species of foul-tasting or poisonous butterfly across their sub-Saharan African distribution, with their comparably larger size usually the best clue to their true identity. Adults have a wingspan measuring up to 11cm and fly throughout the year, though much less numerous in the cooler months.

The Mocker Swallowtail inhabits riverine, montane and coastal forests. In South Africa it is commonly found from the Garden Route, through Kwazulu-Natal and along the escarpment of Mpumalanga and Limpopo to the Soutpansberg range.

Larvae feed on a wide range of food plants from the Rutaceae family which includes citrus plants. The feminine progeny of a single female can metamorphose into a variety of mimic forms and don’t necessarily all look like their mother. Larvae grow quickly and complete their transformation within a few weeks.

A Flying Handkerchief – the male Mocker Swallowtail – seen along the trail in Hilltop Camp
A Flying Handkerchief – the male Mocker Swallowtail
A Flying Handkerchief – the male Mocker Swallowtail
A Flying Handkerchief – the male Mocker Swallowtail
A Flying Handkerchief – the male Mocker Swallowtail
Female Mocker Swallowtail mimicking the Friar butterfly
Female Mocker Swallowtaill mimicking the Friar butterfly
Female Mocker Swallowtaill mimicking the Friar butterfly
Female Mocker Swallowtaill mimicking the Friar butterfly
Female Mocker Swallowtaill mimicking the Friar butterfly
Female Mocker Swallowtail mimicking the Novice butterfly
Female Mocker Swallowtail mimicking the Novice butterfly (photo by Joubert)
Female Mocker Swallowtail mimicking the Novice butterfly (photo by Joubert)
Female Mocker Swallowtail mimicking the Layman butterfly
Female Mocker Swallowtail mimicking the Layman butterfly
Female Mocker Swallowtail butterfly female
Flying Handkerchief – male Mocker Swallowtail butterfly

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

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Emberiza tahapisi

Cinnamon-breasted Buntings, or to call them by a previous colloquial name Rock Buntings, inhabit stony and rocky slopes and hillsides, rocky outcrops, dry rocky streambeds, bare stony patches and even abandoned quarries and borrow-pits in woodland, savanna and grassland, and are regularly seen foraging on road verges. They are mainly seed-eaters but include a fair number of insects in their diet, and require regular access to drinking water.

Usually encountered singly, in pairs or small groups of three or four, it is highly unusual to find larger congregations of Cinnamon-breasted Buntings. They breed during spring and summer, forming monogamous pairs that build cup-shaped nests at the base of grass tufts or next to a rock. Clutches of 2-4 eggs are incubated by both parents over a 2 week period. Both parents feed the chicks at the nest until they fledge about two weeks after hatching, and the chicks remain with their parents for another month or so thereafter before moving off. Fully grown, Cinnamon-breasted Buntings weigh about 15g and measure 15cm in length.

The Cinnamon-breasted Bunting has a wide distribution throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of deserts and the equatorial forest. In South Africa they’re found over most of the eastern half of the country. The IUCN considers the species to be of least concern.

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting (photo by Joubert)
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

World Wildlife Day 2021

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What better excuse to take another look at the 83 species of South African wildlife that we featured here at de Wets Wild in the past year than World Wildlife Day?

Beautiful African Leopard (Phalanta-butterfly)
Village Weaver (male)
Single-striped Grass Mouse
Violet-backed Starling
Rainbow Skink (male)
Gaudy Commodore (dry season form)
Brown Snake Eagle
Common Orange Tip (male)
Wood Sandpiper
Broad-bordered Grass Yellows
Amur Falcon
Common Hottentot Skipper (male)
Black-backed Puffback
Serrated Hinged Terrapin
Common Meadow White
Black-chested Snake Eagle
Small Orange Tip (male)
Buffy Pipit
Spotted Jokers congregating on rotting fallen fruit in Mpila
Purple Heron
Layman butterfly
Honey Bee on Cape Honeysuckle
White-throated Robin-Chat
African Common White
Ruff
Guinea-fowl Butterfly
Knob-billed Duck female
African Wild Cat
Male Lesser Masked Weaver
Geranium Bronze butterfly
Southern Black Tits
Swazi Lily
Brown-headed Parrot
Leprous Grasshopper
Cut-throat Finch male
Mating Purple Tips
Red-billed Buffalo Weaver in Satara
Wattled Starling (male in breeding colours)
Turner’s Thick-toed Gecko
Black Stork
A huge bush cricket (Clonia wahlbergii) that shared our open-air shower at Mapungubwe National Park
Diederik Cuckoo
Common Diadem (male)
Green-winged Pytilia (male)
African Migrant (Butterfly)
African Migrant (female form florella)
Little Bee-eater
Senegal Lapwing
Solifuge a.k.a. Sun Spider
Spotted Eagle Owl
Yellow-throated Plated Lizard
African Hawk Eagle
Free-tailed Bats roosting beneath the thatch at Mooiplaas’ ablutions
Lesser Striped Swallow
Sycomore Fig
Long-tailed Paradise Whydah
Male Red-backed Shrike (photo by Joubert)
Tree Creeper Scorpion
Green, or Red-billed, Wood-hoopoe
Variable Skink
Black-crowned Tchagra
Black-winged Stilt
Dung beetles
Little Swift reinforcing a nest
Spectacled Weaver
Patrician Blue
African Harrier Hawk
Common Dotted Border
Giant Plated Lizards
Matabele Ants
Ashy Flycatcher
Brown-crowned Tchagra
Forest Beauty
Fulvous Whistling Duck (photo by Joubert)
Red-faced Mousebird
Guttural Toad
Squacco Heron
Little Sparrowhawk
Brown Hyena at the junction of Thuthlwa and Tlou drives in Pilanesberg
Thick-billed Weaver
Greater Red Musk Shrew
Ghost Crabs
Crowned Eagle (captive)

Summertide Diary: Exploring iSimangaliso (final instalment)

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22 January 2021

It’s our last full day in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and it’s one of those beautiful mornings that you can only experience out in wild Africa. Clear skies, golden light, inspiring scenery and beautiful creatures along the Grassland Loop all conspired to make us want the moment to last forever.

Mfabeni landscape
Yellow-throated Longclaws
Yellow-throated Longclaw
Red-breasted Swallow
Rufous-winged Cisticola
Heavily pregnant Plains Zebra mare
Black-belliedBustard
European Honey Buzzard
Warthog
Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird
Herd of buffalo on the Mfabeni swamp
Red Duiker

Heading back to camp after our breakfast at the lookout point near Mission Rocks, from where we could see both the Indian Ocean to the east and Lake St. Lucia to the west while drinking our morning coffee, we couldn’t help but reflect on why this is one of our favourite corners of South Africa.

Kudu hiding in the shade of a small Wild Date Palm
Black Monkey Orange fruit
Natal Iron Plum fruit
Looking up into the branches of a Flat-crown tree
Lake Bhangazi
Bushbuck
Yellow-bellied Greenbul

Seeing as it may be some time before we see the sea again we opted to spend our final afternoon in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park on the beach at Cape Vidal.

Cape Vidal beach at low tide

23 January 2021

Sadly our time at Cape Vidal in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, and with it our Summertide Ramble through the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal, has come to an end. The 30km to the Bhangazi Gate goes by far too quickly for our liking, despite some good sightings along the way, and with heavy hearts we tackle the road back to Pretoria…

A huge thanks to each and every one of you that joined us for our daily recollections of this most memorable trip!

Spotted Hyena (photo by Joubert)
Spotted Hyena
Spotted Hyena
Crowned Hornbill
Amazibu Pan

Map of the eastern shores section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (from https://isimangaliso.com/)

Summertide Diary: iSimangaliso Rhinos

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The iSimangaliso Wetland Park is home to healthy populations of both White and Black Rhinoceros, jealously guarded by the reserve’s rangers and routinely dehorned to deter poachers. Rhino populations all over our country are under severe threat and seeing these animals in the wild, even without their trademark horns, is an experience we’re very grateful for.

Being diurnal in habit and much less skittish, the White Rhino is the easier of the two African species to find while driving around iSimangaliso.

White Rhinos
White Rhino
White Rhino rubbing mud from its face
White Rhinos
Lazy White Rhinos
White Rhino

Black Rhinos are solitary, shy, more nocturnal and consequently seen less often than White Rhinos.

Black Rhino on the eastern shores of Lake St. Lucia
Black Rhinoceros (photo by Joubert)
Black Rhinoceros

This muddy signpost in the park was used by a muddy rhino as a rubbing post. Rolling in mud, leaving it to dry and then rubbing the caked mud off against a sturdy rock, tree or …signpost, is a way for the rhino to rid itself of external parasites like ticks.

Signpost re-modelled by a muddy rhinoceros

Summertide Diary: Rock Pool Wonderland

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For landlubbers like us gawking with open mouths at the colourful life in a rock pool at the sea shore is one of the highlights of a beach holiday. Many of the life forms are so unique and different from what we’re used to as to seem utterly alien. We were fortunate in that, during our time in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, we had a chance to visit Mission Rocks at low tide in the cool of the afternoon, allowing us to clamber over the rocks from one pool to the next to our heart’s content.

Mission Rocks
Mission Rocks
Mission Rocks
Mission Rocks
Rock pools at Mission Rocks
Mission Rocks
Heart-shaped rock pool at Mission Rocks
Convict Surgeonfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Crab moving between rock pools at Mission Rocks
Convict Surgeonfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little Blenny fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little Blenny fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little Blenny fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Barred Flagtail in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little Blenny fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Crab next to a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Crab at Mission Rocks
Convict Surgeonfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Convict Surgeonfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Convict Surgeonfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Natal Rock Crab at Mission Rocks
Hermit Crab at Mission Rocks
Crab and little fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Crabs and little fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Crabs on the rocks at Mission Rocks
Crab in a pool at Mission Rocks
Barred Flagtail in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Convict Surgeonfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Halfmoon Butterflyfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Convict Surgeonfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Natal Rock Crab at Mission Rocks
Crab in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little Blenny fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little Blenny fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Little Blenny fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Crab on its way to a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Convict Surgeonfish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks

 

Summertide Diary: Exploring iSimangaliso (part five)

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21 January 2021

After a night of heavy rainfall our first encounter of the morning was with an amphibian, probably no surprize there. It was however the first time we saw the tiny Bush Squeaker frog – this one, no bigger than a thumbnail, was sitting next to our vehicle as we wanted to climb aboard for our morning excursion.

Bush Squeaker

Everything was crisp and clean along the Grassland Loop after the rainstorm the previous night.

African Pygmy Kingfisher
Sunrise over Lake Bhangazi and the forested dunes of Cape Vidal
Cuckoo Hawk
Immature Burchell’s Coucal
Red-breasted Swallows

Climbing to the top of the Kwasheleni Tower and taking in the beautiful views in the morning light with the smell of a wet forest all around was magical.

Kwasheleni Tower
Steps leading up to the Kwasheleni Tower
Thorny Bone-apple fruit
Indian Ocean from Kwasheleni Tower
View towards the north-west from Kwasheleni Tower
View southwards from Kwasheleni Tower
View to the south-west from Kwasheleni Tower, with Lake St. Lucia in the background

There was lots to see along the remainder of the road back to camp

Distant view of a Crowned Eagle in the forest
Buffalo close-up
Brown-hooded Kingfisher
Bell’s Hinged Tortoise
Crested Guineafowl leaving home for work (photo by Joubert)
Samango Monkey
Black-bellied Starling

With low tide arriving around 15:00 this afternoon we used the opportunity to go down to Mission Rocks and explore the wonders of the rocky shoreline there. This gallery is just a little teaser of what we have in store for you tomorrow.

Wild Date Palm
Mission Rocks
Interesting plantlife above the high water mark at Mission Rocks
Little Blenny fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Natal Rock Crab at Mission Rocks
Interesting plantlife above the high water mark at Mission Rocks
Little fish in a rock pool at Mission Rocks
Heart-shaped rock pool at Mission Rocks
Mission Rocks
Barred Flagtail in a rock pool at Mission Rocks

After a wonderful time around the rock pools at Mission Rocks the road back to Cape Vidal was buzzing with lots to see.

Cute little Vervet Monkeys – just look at that smile!
Flat-crown Tree
Scenery along the Vlei Loop on the Eastern Shores of Lake St. Lucia
Black-bellied Starling at its nest
Black-bellied Starling at its nest
Kudu bull close-up
Kudu bull

 

Map of the eastern shores section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (from https://isimangaliso.com/)

Summertide Diary: Exploring iSimangaliso (part four)

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20 January 2021

Morning broke at Cape Vidal with a thick blanket of fog covering the coast, and knowing that visibility along the Grassland Loop would be limited as a result we stuck to the main road out of camp, heading south as far as Amazibu Pan.

Thick fog blanket the Mfabeni swamp
Scruffy-looking Spotted Hyena
Scruffy-looking Spotted Hyena
African Pygmy Kingfisher
Spectacled Weaver
Immature Cuckoo Hawk
Crowned Hornbill

As per usual Amazibu Pan was abuzz with a variety of mammalian and avian wildlife when we arrived.

Burchell’s Coucal
Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters
Small herd of buffaloes
Black-belled Bustard
Rufous-winged Cisticola
Kudu cow

Next on our itinerary for the morning was a jaunt along the Vlei Loop, though in these early hours not much game were around the waterholes as yet.

Black-crowned Tchagra
Crowned Hornbill (photo by Joubert)
Common Duiker

Then followed a short detour along the Forest Loop…

Peek-a-boo! Mother and baby Vervet Monkey
Red Duiker
Black-backed Puffback displaying
Flat-crown Tree
Green Monkey Orange

…and the Dune Loop…

Female Fan-tailed Widowbird
Flat-crown Tree
Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

… before arriving back at our cabin in Cape Vidal where some interesting visitors were already in attendance.

Square-tailed Drongo
Eastern Coastal Skink
Collared Sunbird
Giant-leaved Fig growing precariously
Dark-backed Weaver

Having had to skip the Grassland Loop in the morning, that is where our attention was focused for our afternoon drive.

Flat-crown Tree
Wild Date Palm
Enormous Kudu bull in the Mfabeni Swamp
Bushbuck ram
Rainbow along the Grassland Loop
Trumpeter Hornbill

In the evening while having dinner on the deck of our cabin the Tropical House Gecko kept us thoroughly entertained by catching moths attracted to the outside light.

Tropical House Gecko

Map of the eastern shores section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (from https://isimangaliso.com/)