We’re still having a wonderful time in the Kruger National Park, and we’re going to have so many stories to tell you when we get back home!
Today’s weather was a complete opposite to what we experienced on previous days of this visit to the Kruger National Park. It was drizzly and windy, with temperatures dropping by more than half from the low to mid-40ºC’s of the previous days to a maximum of 21ºC today. Still, we had some amazing sightings, especially in the early morning. These predator photographs were all taken by Joubert today.
Another day of exceptional and wildly diverse encounters with the wildlife and scenery of the Kruger National Park.
Tonight just a quick collection of photographs taken today in the Kruger National Park.
Thank you also for all the comments received on posts in the previous days – I will still get around to answering them all!
It’s the summer holidays in South Africa and we find ourselves back at Satara, in the Kruger National Park. We encountered these Painted Wolves, or African Wild Dogs, on the road heading into the Park from Orpen Gate today. These are all Joubert’s photographs.
The Koppie Foam Grasshopper is a large (up to 8cm long) insect whose brilliant red-and-black colouration advertises to any would-be predator that it is poisonous enough to kill a dog. This poison is accumulated in the body tissues of the Koppie Foam Grasshopper when it feeds on poisonous plants from the milkweed family and is exuded in the form of a bloody foam when the insect is attacked. Their wings are far too short to permit flying. Koppie Foam Grasshoppers occur over most of South Africa, being absent only from Kwazulu-Natal and the eastern Free State. They live in open, sparsely vegetated and often rocky areas and are regularly encountered on hills (koppies in Afrikaans) and mountain tops.
The housing complex where we live here in Pretoria has seen a proliferation of Garden Acraea butterflies and their caterpillars over the past few weeks.
These in turn have been a boon for the Diederik Cuckoos that visit our part of the world in summer. Caterpillars are a staple for them.
An added bonus for the Diederikkies are the number of nests of Southern Masked Weavers to be found in our complex gardens. The Diederik Cuckoo is a brood parasite that is especially fond of using weavers as foster parents for their chicks. Of course this isn’t going down too well with the weavers, who frequently dive bomb any Diederikkie found exposed.
These photographs were all taken by Joubert in the past couple of days. His examinations are over and for all intents and purposes his Grade 6 year is concluded – all that he still needs to do is collect his report card and certificates. The dramas of the Diederikkies and their neighbours has been great entertainment and Joubert quickly got very adept at using both stories of our townhouse as photographic hides from which to capture their antics. Of course I am very grateful that he loves photography so much rather than vegetating on the couch with tv games.
The European Bee-eater is mainly a summer visitor to southern Africa from its breeding grounds in Asia, Europe and Africa’s Mediterranean coast. While visiting in our summer, the European Bee-eater can be found over most of South Africa, being strangely absent from most of Kwazulu Natal and the Eastern Cape though. Their melodious calls are certainly part of the summer soundtrack here in Pretoria. Interestingly there is a breeding population of a few thousand of these birds in our Western Cape Province that appears to migrate only as far as equatorial Africa during our winter months. The IUCN considers it to be of least concern, estimating a population of at least 14-million for the species, of which the vast majority is found in Africa south of the Zambezi during the austral summer.
European Bee-eaters inhabit a variety of habitats, ranging from shrubland to woodland, though it appears they avoid both the driests and wettest extremes. As both its common and Latin names suggest, it feeds primarily on bees and wasps and other flying insects. They’re social birds and almost always encountered in sizable flocks.
Most European Bee-eaters arrive here from about October and depart again by April. These slender, colourful birds nest in tunnels they excavate into sandbanks, usually as small colonies. Pairs are monogamous and incubate clutches of 2-8 eggs. The eggs hatch after 3-4 weeks and the chicks fledge when they’re about a month old.
The Twin Dotted Border is a butterfly occurring over much of Sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa they’re found in the savanna and forest regions stretching from the Eastern Cape through Kwazulu-Natal and into Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng and North West. Adults are seen throughout the year and have a wingspan of 5-6cm. They usually fly slow and high and are fond of settling on flowers. Females lay eggs in clusters numbering up to 100, usually on the leaves of different kinds of mistletoe which are their major foodplants. The larvae are gregarious and remain together until it is time to pupate.
Mountain Wheatears are shy birds, inhabiting rocky and mountainous terrain where they feed mainly on insects and other invertebrates, only occasionally ingesting berries and seeds. They’re also quite at home around abandoned open mines, quarries and old stone-built farmyards.
Mountain Wheatears form monogamous pairs that may last several breeding seasons (spanning spring and summer). While the male defends their territory it is the female that is responsible for building the nest – an untidy cup made of almost any material available – placed in a sheltered spot beneath a boulder, in a cave or in a hole in a cliff face or wall. Clutches of 2-4 eggs are incubated for 2 weeks, also by the female only, and once hatched both parents provide food for the chicks at the nest until they fledge at between 2 and 3 weeks of age. The youngsters will remain with their parents until they’re about 2 months old.
The Mountain Wheatear is a bird restricted to the southern part of Africa, occurring only in Angola, Namibia, Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho and South Africa (parts of all provinces). According to the IUCN, the Mountain Wheatear is of least concern.
DeWetsWild 