We’ll be spending Christmas at this beautiful cottage on the Aloe Canyons Guest Farm, just south of Swellendam in the Overberg, surrounded by beautiful scenery and rich wildlife. We sincerely wish all our friends and followers a very merry and blessed Christmas.
Aloe Canyons Guest Farm, December 2022
We spent most of our morning at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, roundly considered one of the seven best gardens in the world. We certainly see why it would rank so highly and would love to share more pictures of this beautiful place when we are back home after the holidays.
We’ve spent the whole day exploring Cape Town’s scenic attractions – from Chapman’s Peak Drive to a seal tour out of Hout Bay, to a picnic in Tokai and a ride up-and-down Cape Point with the Flying Dutchman funicular (and many points in between). Lots to tell you about when we’re back home!
We’ve arrived in Cape Town where we’ll be visiting the Table Mountain National Park and surrounds for the next couple of days. Here just a quick look at two of the city’s most iconic landmarks; Table Mountain and Robben Island. and one less well known, the memorial to Cecil John Rhodes.
There’s more to see here in the West Coast National Park than you can point a lens at!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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