I know this is a post that will be very pleasing to several of our regular followers!
With bright sunshine and warm autumn weather in the Drakensberg the butterflies come out to play in their numbers, and we go chasing them with camera in hand. These little beauties were all fluttering around Mahai in the Royal Natal National Park on Monday.
Mahai is the larger of the two camping areas at Royal Natal National Park, and there aren’t very many camping sites that can compete with it for scenic beauty!
Camping at Mahai in the Royal Natal National Park
Camping at Mahai in the Royal Natal National Park, March 2020
With South Africa preparing for a nationwide “lock-down” of a minimum three week duration in the face of the global pandemic, we’ve returned from the Drakensberg grateful for having had a chance to recharge our batteries in beautiful natural surroundings. We’ll be sharing many more photos from our latest trip in days to come and hope that they’ll bring you as much joy as the memories will for us in these trying times.
Well, not really – our bookings were made long before the current health crisis and we opted not to cancel, figuring that it is nice to know that for a while at least we can breathe the fresh mountain air of the Royal Natal National Park again. So here we are.
The Rainbow Skink, or Five-lined Skink, is an active lizard occurring in rocky terrain in savanna habitats from Kwazulu-Natal, through the Lowveld and Limpopo Valley to as far north as Kenya. They feed primarily on insects and other invertebrates. Males are territorial. Females lay one, perhaps two, clutches of 6-10 eggs in summer, with the baby skinks emerging around two months later. Females, adolescents and immature males exhibit the distinct lines and brilliant blue tails associated with this species, while the adult males have an olive base-colouration speckled with tiny white spots. Adults may grow to 20cm in length, including the tail. The IUCN lists the Rainbow Skink as being of least concern.
The Violet-backed Starling is one of the smaller members of its family, growing to about 18cm in length and weighing around 45g. The males and females are so dimorphic that they may easily be confused for two different species.
Usually seen in monogamous pairs, or small flocks (fewer than 20 birds) at the end of the breeding season before starting their migration back northwards, Violet-backed Starlings breed in holes in trees or fence posts. The female is singly responsible for the incubation of the clutch of 2-4 eggs over a 2 week period, though the male takes an active role in feeding the chicks until they fledge about 3 weeks after hatching.
A commonly encountered rodent thanks to its diurnal nature, the Single-striped Grass Mouse is found in a wide range of habitats, from dry scrub to savanna and even the edge of cultivated farmlands wherever good grass cover is available. Grass and seeds make up the bulk of its diet, with other green plant material and a wide range of invertebrates making up the remainder.
Single-striped Grass Mice dig their own burrows at the base of grass tussocks or bushes, from which a network of paths radiate under dense vegetation leading to their favourite foraging grounds. Home burrows may be inhabited by solitary individuals, pairs or family groups. Females give birth to litters of 2-11 babies (usually 4 or 5) during spring and summer after a 4 week gestation. The young are weaned within 3 weeks of birth. In the wild they seldom live longer than a year. Adults grow to a total length of up to 30cm, of which the tail makes up roughly half, and weigh around 60g.
The Single-striped Grass Mouse is considered of least concern and has two centres of distribution: a north-eastern in Kenya and Tanzania, and a southern from Zambia and Malawi to South Africa’s northern provinces (Limpopo, North West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Kwazulu-Natal).
Village Weavers are often encountered in large, noisy flocks, inhabiting open savanna and woodland habitats, usually near water, as well as gardens, parks and agricultural fields. They’re omnivores, feeding on seeds, invertebrates, fruit and nectar and often found scavenging for scraps at picnic sites or around houses. They’re also often encountered in mixed flocks with other kinds of weavers and other small seed-eating bird species.
They breed colonially, males weaving their nests in trees, reeds or palms, often hanging over water, and trying to court as many females as possible – males can construct as many as 20 nests in a season! Females will also mate with several different males during the breeding season. There may be as many as 1,000 nests at the breeding colony. Their breeding season stretches from late winter through to autumn. The male plays no role in incubating the clutch of 2-5 eggs or raising the chicks. The eggs hatch about two weeks after being laid, and the chicks leave the nest when they’re about 3 weeks old. Adults measure around 16cm in length and weigh about 37g.
The strikingly beautiful and very active African Leopard butterfly inhabits savanna, woodland, forest edges, parks and gardens and is found over much of South Africa, excluding most of the Eastern, Western and Northern Cape Provinces. It is also known as the Common Leopard and is widely distributed over Africa, Australia, southern Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Eggs are laid singly on a wide range of larval food plants, including exotic poplars and willows. Adults have a wingspan of between 4 and 5.5cm and are on the wing throughout the year.
DeWetsWild 