Small animals

SOME SMALL ANIMALS

I've been seeing some pretty nice small animals around lately, too. Check some of them out:

The second or third spring rains are always accompanied by swarms of winged termite alates, Termitidae: Isoptera. Potential future queens and kings. Of course, only a fraction of them will ever establish a new termite colony because the rest become a super energy-packed treat for anything that is not entirely vegetarian. Here, the workers emerge from their subterranean refuge for a rare glimpse of daylight in a frenzied carnival as they protect the carefully groomed royalty, emerging en masse, to take to the skies.  

I think it was in March I posted a photo of an adult antlion, from the family Myrmeleontidae. Looked similar to a droopy dragonfly. Anyway, this is the larvae (pity I cut off the tips of the mandibles!). This is the creature that sits just beneath the sand at the base of those perfectly cone-shaped pits you see in soft sand. See the patches of bristly hairs along it's body, well those pick up the slightest movement of sand as an unsuspecting victim, like an ant, slips into the pit. The antlion then immediately begins tossing it's head backwards to throw sand up at the victim to help bring it down towards those formidable jaws. Tickets! Star Wars: Return of the Jedi got the idea of those desert pits from these guys.  

Monkey Beetles, from the tribe Hopliini of the Scarabeidae, are very important pollinators of plants, so it stands to reason that South Africa, especially the Cape, is a hot-spot with more than 65% of all species on the planet! Monkey beetles, as you can see, are very hairy beetles that feed on pollen. But the flowers on which the pollen is found is also the social centre of the beetle. Males meet females on the flowers. The beetles mate on the flowers. Once the male has mated with the female, he guards her while she enjoys her meal of pollen, and it is not unusual to see a male standing over his mate and fighting off a rival male. All of this social activity is bound to get a lot of pollen trapped on all those hairs, to be transported to the next flower. Pollination.

Now, this is quite exciting for me. It is definitely a Coppet butterfly, Aloeides sp. (by the underwing pattern) but I didn't get a good look at the upper wings. I think, though, that it is a Cloud Copper, an endemic found in rocky spots in our grasslands. I followed this on as it walked along the ground for some time. The literature says that it is a female searching for the pheromone trails of ants, on to the larval food plant, on which she will lay her eggs. The ants then tend and protect the larvae until they pupate.

Ha ha! I got this guy coming out of a hole he originally fled into. A Spotted Skaapsteker, Psammophylax rhombeatus, is one of the more common snakes encountered at Finsbury. It actively hunts and chases down rodents, frogs and lizards which it subdues after injecting a neurotoxic venom. It is completely harmless to sheep, though (Skaapsteeker means Sheep-poker)! After laying her eggs in a suitable hole or under thick leaf litter, the female incubates and protects her eggs before they hatch.  

And lastly, today I stumbled across a millipede, Diplopoda, a detrivore and herbivore, grazing lichen, just like a cow! He must be a fungi! Har Har!

So get down here, already, and explore. We look forward to seeing you!

SPRINGTIME

Springtime is coming to an end after a devastating fire and only 119mm of rain falling. The great advantage of the rainfall is that it has been soft and at regular intervals. This has maximised absorption and reduced runoff, allowing new growth to establish and thus reducing sheet erosion when the big rains do come.

The photo above is of South Valley, taken from the east at high altitude with Goudkoppies flats in the distance. Regenerating nicely. And with the new grasses comes the animals! We've had a breeding herd of Kudu hanging around the Central area for a few weeks now and it is not uncommon to see five or six Mammal species on a drive up the Kliprots (Nowhere for them to hide right now.).

Lewellen and James, guests at Morrin Pools, enjoy a close encounter with more than 100 Eland, Including more than 30 calves.

We've also been graced by a breeding herd of Eland enjoying the fresh new grasses sprouting. A herd of one hundred plus! (From a ecological point of view, another pro of the fire was it's expanse. At least 2000 hectares of our property. The grasers will not be concentrated when enjoying these new grasses so reducing the stress in small areas.) I encountered them up on the Rock Kestrel Trail on many occasions and then, more recently, up on the slopes just below Goudkoppies towards the Miner's Cottage. Animals galore!

Springtime also marks the arrival of many migratory birds. Some from afar, like the Steppe Buzzard, all the way from the Russian Steppes, 13 000 odd kilometers away. Others from nearby, just moving away from us to lower altitudes in our cold winters and rejoining us at springtime, like the Amethyst Sunbird or the, of what I've heard, elusive Bush Blackcap.

Bush Blackcap, Lioptilus nigricapillus, in the thickets near Solitude.

 Previously, I had only had sightings of the Blackcap in the Afromontane forests near the Steenkamps waterfalls and once at S12. This season, though, I have seen one at unit 5, unit 1, and Bushpig Alley, twixt unit 24 and 25. I've actually got to know the call so well that I even identified it at the Agri Show in Nelspruit a week or so ago!

The flowers are also beginning to abound. The Blue Squills, Graderias, Gnidias, Minature Hyacinths and many others have already bloomed but the big stuff is on the way. Expect a bumper flower season this summer after the fire! Some less noticeable flowers, because of their size and lack of sepals and petals, are the grasses. The grasslands are a wonderland right now, check these grass flowers out:

Blackseed Grass, Alloteropsis semialata ssp. ecklonii. The white feathery things are the Stigmas (female flowers) and the yellow things are the Anthers (male flowers)

Brachiara serrata, with male and female flowers.

Heteropogon contortis, with both flowers.

The last few weeks have seen twenty new species of plant been added to our Finsbury plant list, bringing the total dangerously close to the 600 mark. Below is just two of them:

A new suffrutex, Lannea edulis Wild Grape, growing on the now exposed banks east of K9. A suffrutex is an underground tree that has evolved to withstand regular natural grassveld fires by growing underground. Only the tips of their branches stick out! This brings the number of suffrutices in the estate, that I have found, to four. The specific name refers to the fruits edibility but I found that there is little flesh and the skins are terrible. the little fruit there is, though, is sour but invigorating!

Well, how funky is this! A Holothrix scopularia orchid growing on the summit of Mount Anderson last week. This strange specimen brings the total orchids I have found on the estate to 40! Groovin'

I expect Finsbury to be a haven of flowers over summer so I will organise many flower walks over the festive season. We will even arrange a trip where we drive around to Emoyeni via the Long Tom Pass so that we can access the summit area of Mount Anderson without the normally required 4 kilometers of  uphill hiking.

THE MOUNTAINS ARE A CALLING, FOLKS! LET'S GIT IT ON.