High Altitude Team on the rope

We've had the government sponsored High Altitude Team (to eradicate alien invasive plants in unreachable places) at the estate for some months now. But the absence of a safety officer has kept them off the ropes because the cliff areas in the Upper Majubaan gorges, where we have started the eradication programme, do not have suitable anchor points. They have then been operating as a ground team, clearing aliens from the river and slopes, with good progress.

The problem with the team is that, with their absailing qualifications, they are quickly snatched up by the private sector where salaries are much larger. So, this week we lost another chunk of the team. With only four guys left, I thought we should put them, for the first time, on the ropes on a cliff that sorely needed attention.

The cliffs below Unit 18 in the Steenkamps Valley are heavily infested with Wattle and the trees are becoming seed bearers. There are plenty of anchor points from the house itself so a safety officer was not neccessary.

What a pleasure to see those Wattles falling...

Added and updated checklists.

I have finally updated the checklist that appear in the house files. The Animal list (Mammals, Reptiles and frogs) has been updated with reference to the camera traps and personal and other confirmed sightings. Some common trees and shrubs have been added to the tree list and the names have been updated. The bird list has had the biggest changes with all the names updated and many changes to the species. Once again, it is guided by very concrete sightings.

I have also added a new checklist to the group, FLOWERS. This was difficult as there are so many to choose from so I decided to make it a checklist of 50 top flowers. To tick off all the flowers on the list, one will need to visit all the habitats on the estate, which means lots of adventuring.

These list are now in the house files or you can view them on the Finsbury Website.

New leopard shot!

Wow! Look what the CamTrap up on Razorback South has fetched for us. Young female (a year or less) in the day, finally! The date/time stamp is out of sync but judging by the shadows I'd guess between 07h00 and 08h00. Beautiful!