Tag Archives: outdoors

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: The thrill of finding lions on the road!

DeWetsWild conducted a two-week tour of the Kruger National Park with altogether nine people to see out 2025 and ring in 2026 and every day for the month of February I’ll be sharing just a few of the many memories our group collected.

The central reaches of the Kruger National Park is lion country. On our first morning of the trip, taking an easy drive from Tamboti to Satara, we had no less than 4 lion sightings – two of them right on the road. The first of these was of two magnificent males lazily patrolling their territory along the Timbavati River, while the second was of a mating threesome – two males and a female – at the Nsemani Dam.

Lions on the road between Tamboti and Satara

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: An assassin caught in the act

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One of the things I love to do with my guests in the evenings is to take a walk through our camp looking for nocturnal wildlife. On one occasion we were strolling through Tamboti Tented Camp when we came across an Assassin Bug attacking a rather large Millipede. Now matter how much the millipede squirmed, trying to wriggle and writhe the assassin bug off its body, this was a fight it was not going to win… We watched as the assassin stabbed its prey with its proboscis (modified mouth parts), injecting its victim with saliva that is a concoction of toxins and digestive enzymes which eventually kills the millipede and liquifies its insides, allowing the assassin bug to suck its fill.

Assassin Bug attacking a millipede

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Summer Snapshots from Kruger: The Sound of Summer

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Now, if there’s one bird who’s song can be considered to be the summer anthem of the Lowveld, it has to be the Woodland Kingfisher, loudly and proudly proclaiming its presence from early morning right through to the evening. I love their song so much that it is the ringtone on my phone. No matter where I am when I hear this sound my mind immediately wanders to one of our beautiful wild places and the cares of the world vanish for a while.

Have a listen here.

Woodland Kingfisher

If you’d like to join me on a guided tour of South Africa’s wild places, of even if you’d just like a bit of help putting your reservations together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Common Arum Lily

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Zantedeschia aethiopica

The Common Arum Lily, also known as the Calla Lily, is a plant grown for over three centuries in many gardens the world over that originally comes from South Africa, where it is indigenous to moist areas from the Western Cape’s mountains to the montane forests on the escarpment of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. They’re well adapted to growing in constantly wet areas as they are capable of getting rid of excess water through their leaves.

Arum Lily plants grow between 60cm and 1m tall. Insects like bees and beetles are responsible for pollinating the flowers, which are mainly borne in spring and early summer, while birds are the major agents of seed distribution as they’re especially fond of the berries that remain after the flowers have died back. The rootstock is occasionally eaten by wild pigs and porcupines.

Common Arum Lily

Woodville Forest – Common Arum Lily

Common Arum Lily (photo by Joubert)

Grey Climbing Mouse

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Dendromus melanotis

As its name would suggest the Grey Climbing Mouse is wonderfully adept at climbing up grass stalks, being well adapted for the job by having semi-prehensile tails and toes capable of a firm grip. Grass seeds and insects make up most of their diet. They inhabit thickets of bush and grass and are nocturnal. The Grey Climbing Mouse is found over most of sub-Saharan Africa and in South Africa is found in all the provinces, being absent only from the very dry interior and western coastline.

Grey Climbing Mice are small and fully grown adults weighs only about 7g. They may build their own ball-shaped nests using fine grasses or adapt another creature’s burrow for the purpose. Females give birth to about four babies in a litter during the summer months and probably has more than one brood to raise in a season. It is unlikely that they live longer than 18 months in the wild.

Grey Climbing Mouse

Little Stint

Calidris minuta

The Little Stint is a migrating shorebird that visits our country in the summer months, arriving from about August and departing back to their breeding grounds in Scandinavia and Siberia by March. While here they’re found at both inland and coastal wetlands with muddy shorelines all across the country, and are highly nomadic, moving around in response to the explosion of populations of invertebrates that follow localised rainfall filling seasonal water bodies.

The IUCN estimates that there’s at least a million Little Stints in the world today and lists the species as being of least concern.

Little Stint

Little Stints

Little Stint

African Marsh-Harrier

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Circus ranivorus

The African Marsh-Harrier is an agile raptor that favours wetlands and feeds mainly on rodents, being particularly fond of the diurnal Four-striped Grass Mouse. They’re constantly on the wing, flying low over their wetland patch in search of prey, and it is estimated that they may cover as much as 200km on a single day!

Like many other birds of prey African Marsh-Harriers form monogamous pairs with a very strong bond and defend their territories year round. They may breed at any time of year, though nesting activity peaks through the spring season. They build their nest of sticks, reeds and grass in reed beds in their marshy habitat, often over the water. The female is solely responsible for incubating the clutch of up to 5 eggs for around a month, while the male will bring food to her at the nest during this time. He diligently continues providing food to the family for about the first 3 weeks after the chicks hatched while the female looks after the young at the nest but after that their ever expanding need for food requires that the mother starts helping in the process of hunting. The chicks leave the nest at about 6 weeks of age and become independent of their parents at about 10 to 12 weeks old.

In South Africa the African Marsh-Harrier is found mainly in the wetter parts of the Western and Eastern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, the Free State, Gauteng and Highveld of Mpumalanga, with occasional sightings from other parts of the country. In the rest of the continent they’re found in a broad band stretching north to Kenya, Uganda and parts of the DRC. Despite a declining population attributed mainly to loss of habitat, which is the reason they’re listed as endangered in this country, overall the IUCN considers the African Marsh-Harrier to be of least concern.

African Marsh Harrier

African Marsh Harrier coursing over Kwelamadoda Pan

African Marsh Harrier coursing over a canola field (photo by Joubert)

African Marsh Harrier coursing over a canola field

Orange River Mudfish

Labeo capensis

The Orange River Mudfish is endemic to the Orange-Vaal River system, South Africa’s largest freshwater ecosystem and one that is under considerable pressure from both pollution and extraction. It has also been accidentally introduced into the Great Fish River system due to water being pumped from the Orange-Vaal system.

Naturally this streamlined fish prefers the flowing waters of large rivers though they’ve adapted quite well to living in large dams like the Gariep, Vaal and Bloemhof. They feed mainly on algae growing on underwater structures and detritus settling on the river bottom.

In summer Orange River Mudfish congregate in large numbers at rocky rapids to spawn. The eggs hatch within a few days of laying and the fry grow quite quickly. They reach about 50cm in length and weigh around 2kg when fully grown.

Orange River Mudfish

Black Sparrowhawk

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Accipiter melanoleucus

The Black Sparrowhawk occurs widely over sub-Saharan Africa, and in South Africa is found at least in parts of all our provinces, though they’re very sparsely distributed in the arid central and western parts of the country. They prefer denser habitats, like forests, mature woodland and riverine thickets and have adapted to plantations of exotic trees, which aided an expansion in their range locally.

Black Sparrowhawks feed almost exclusively on a wide variety of birds, usually hunted from a secreted perch. They have a particular liking for doves and pigeons (as in some of the images below), francolins and domestic poultry but even owls, cormorants and egrets have been recorded as prey! Though persecuted by pigeon fanciers and free-range poultry farmers it doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on their population and the IUCN considers the Black Sparrowhawk to be of least concern.

The Black Sparrowhawk usually breeds from late autumn to early summer. Monogamous pairs work together to construct a stick platform densely lined with green leaves in a tall tree to use as a nest. Here the female will incubate a clutch of up to 4 eggs over a 6 week period while the male brings her food. The chicks are brooded by the female for the first 3 weeks after hatching and only then will she start helping the male catch prey for the young ones. The youngsters become independent of their parents at about 4 months of age. At about 900g in weight the female is almost double the size of the adult male.

Black Sparrowhawk

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed being mobbed by a Pied Crow

Black Sparrowhawk with a dove it killed

Berg Adder

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Bitis atropos

The Berg Adder, or Mountain Adder, is a smallish viper restricted to the mountain ranges of South Africa’s southern coast, the Drakensberg range on the border of Lesotho and Kwazulu-Natal province, the escarpment of Mpumalanga and Limpopo and the mountains on the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. They prefer relatively open montane heathland and grassland on mountains in high rainfall areas and may be found from sea level even to the crests of our highest peaks. They feed on a variety of amphibians, reptiles and small mammals and birds.

Usually towards the end of summer female Berg Adders give birth to litters of 4-15 live babies measuring about 13cm in length.

Their small size of only about 30-40cm in length notwithstanding these are rather aggressive snakes that strike easily, with mountaineers often falling victim when they’re climbing and putting their hands on or near one of these snakes basking on a rock. While there’s no record of human fatalities from their neurotoxic venom the effects of a bite may include temporary paralysis of parts of the nervous system, including the senses, and difficulty breathing, requiring hospitalisation to manage the symptoms.

According to the IUCN it is not in any danger of extinction.