Spring-time gallery

SPRING-TIME GALLERY

Spring has come and gone here in the mountains and during that time, unfortunately, there has been less rain than there should have been. I was going through the rainfall data in the archives and it seems that Finsbury experiences a four to five year dry cycle alternating with a four or five year wet cycle. This would be the fourth year of a dry cycle. We had more rain last year than our average but that was only because of the Dineo weather pattern, otherwise the rainfall would have been below the annual average. We still have had around 150mm so far and that is enough to get a lot kick started.

Following is a brief gallery of some of the things I have encountered in the field in the last few weeks...

Murray Beaumont's fit friends on the summit of Mount Anderson

The flower of an Eland's Bean, Elephanthorrhiza elaphantina. The enormous roots suggested in the proper name are not actually the roots but the underground stems and trunk. Yes, it is a suffrutex, an underground tree with just the twigs and leaves protruding above the ground. This is an adaption allowing trees to grow in grasslands while protecting themselves from frost and fires!

Opistacanthus validus. A relatively harmless scorpion waiting for darkness so that it can begin hunting...

The first of the Gladioluses to flower in the grasslands, Gladiolus longicollis shows off it's beautiful flower.

Also an early flowering grass, Harpochloa falx Caterpillar grass in full bloom high up in the grasslands.

A Gaudy Commodore, Precis Octavia, hill topping on the summit of Mount Anderson. Very ambitious! 

The Gaudy Commodore in the previous picture was competing with this rare colour form of the same species of butterfly!

Another suffrutex that is found in our grasslands but this one much higher up. This is a Protea parvula, Dainty Sugarbush, with a flower bud showing. They will be flowering by Christmas time so if you are in the mood to climb then, then you will get to see the spectacular flower.

A Northern Cragg Lizard, Pseudocordala transvaalensis, checking me out from the safety of his cragg! This lizard's body is camouflaged against the bright orange lichen that you sometimes see growing on the high altitude quartzites.

I am currently cutting a hiking path around Mount Prospect in time for the festive season. While doing this I exposed the nest of a Wailing Cisticola. Here one of the chicks notes my interference.

I also exposed the nest of what I believe are the eggs for a pair of Red-necked Francolin

This year I have noticed an abundance of galls in our population of Bankrupt bushes, Seriphium plumosum (previously Stoebe vulgaris) Although they appear a bit like flowers, the white pom poms are actually galls formed by the invasion of eggs laid by a Gall Midge from the Cecidomyiidae. The insect lays it's eggs in a slit in the stem of the plant and the plant reacts to this foreign invasion by swelling up. The swollen plant flesh forms the food of the midge's larvae.

Unbelievably, it's already November and we are preparing for the festive season. It's going to be great this year and we here at the Estate look very forward to seeing Y'ALL!