THE JOLLY SEASON 2018

THE JOLLY SEASON 2018

The festive season has come and gone, and what a great one it was! After an extremely dry start to the season, the rains have finally arrived with 171mm recorded during the month of December. This naturally affected activities at Finsbury, especially as there was a lot of lightning involved, but it didn't put a damper on things. The place was filled with joggers, cyclists, cross-country runners, hikers, dawdlers and, of course, fly-fishers! Below is a gallery of some of the things that were done and seen:

These minute mushrooms, only a few millimeters tall, are the fruiting bodies of the fungal part of this Crustose Lichen covering some rocks. Lichens consist of a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and an algae. The algae provides the fungus with sugars resulting from photosynthesis while the fungus provides support, protection and various minerals that it absorbs from the substrate. Once the spores are released from the mushroom, they need to meet with a compatible algal partner before a functional lichen can form. Most lichens, however, produce diaspores which contain a fungal and algal element when they reproduce.

A Yellowjack, Notogomphus praetorius, a Dragonfly high on the list of many Odonata-lovers with a value of 5 on the DBI. This indicates that they are seldom seen. DBI, or Dragonfly Biotic Index, is a system developed in South Africa that uses dragonflies as an aid to monitoring water quality in aquatic systems. Species are given a ranking from 0-9 on the basis of their geographical range; red list status; and sensitivity to pollution and disturbance. 0 = widespread, abundant and tolerant to habitat change and pollution, while 9 = restricted range, threatened and sensitive to change. The DBI of a body of water is determined by assessing which species of odonata are present, summing their respective DBI's and dividing the total by the number of species recorded at the site.

One of the activities on offer this festive season was a flower walk around the summit of Mount Anderson without the grueling hike to get there. We paid our R30 entrance fee to Emoyeni and drove out to the brewery on the Long Tom pass road, entered Emoyeni (Our south eastern neighbor) and got within a kilometer and 180m of the summit in the vehicle. This outing was with Liz Steyn and her family and friends from Finsbury House.

A picture of the beautiful Brunsvigia radulosa gracing the summit of Mount Anderson with the Sabie Valley in the backround. Once the seeds form and the massive inflorescence dries up, it becomes a tumble weed and it tumbles in the wind while throwing it's seeds in the grasslands.

This is a shot of an African Monarch butterfly, Danaus chrysippus, laying a single egg on the underside of a leaf on a Starry Milkweed, Asclepias stellifera. Milkweeds are a genus of poisonous plants containing toxic cardio-glycosides and Monarch butterflies are also poisonous, containing cardio-glycosides. Now most poisonous insects synthesize their own toxins as a protection against predation. African Monarchs, however, rely on the female laying her eggs on a poisonous host plant so that when the larvae feed on the leaves, they ingest the toxins and store them in their bodies so that the adult, once pupated, is poisonous to eat!

The single African Monarch egg on the underside of the Milkweed's leaf. On hatching, the larvae immediately consumes the shell of the egg then begins feeding on the leaves of the host plant. She only lays one egg on this species of plant because the plant is very small. On bigger species, she will lay more than one egg...

A wide open flower of the Dainty Sugarbush, Protea parvula, found only in high altitude grasslands. Another type of suffrutex or underground tree found on the Estate.

In the previous blog, I posted a photo of three female Monkey Beetles on a flower head. This is a photo of a male who is easily identifiable by his enlarged rear legs. He uses these to dislodge rival males from desirable females.

A lovely family shot of the Rogans from Morrin Pools enjoying a spectacular view of South Valley while slugging it out on the 10 kilometer long Amphitheater Hike. It often pays off to go on a hike even in poor, rainy weather because the clouds sometimes clear temporarily, offering breath-taking views.

A Stylogaster fly from the Conopidae family. Another important pollinator of plants because the adults are nectar feeders. The larvae, however, are parasitic on other insects, especially wasps. The hooked eggs are attached to a wasp while in flight. The larva hatches and burrows into the body of the host while it is still alive and then begins to devour the wasp from the inside, slowly killing it, yeuch!

The glistening "dewdrops" at the ends of the hairs on the leaves of a Sundew, Drosera sp. The "dewdrops" are actually sticky, sweet-tasting fluids produced by the plants that attract and then catch and entrap insects while the plant absorbs the minerals from their corpses.

A clump of Pearsonia growing from the crack in a Quartzite rock right up on the summit of Mount Anderson.

Don MacCrimmon and family overlooking the Sabie Valley with the moon rising above. Another successful full moon hike where we arrive at the summit of Mount Anderson at sundown time during the full moon. We enjoy a drink while watching the sun set and the moon rise simultaneously before hiking all the way back to the office area in the moonlight. This time the sunset was hiding behind thick clouds but we got to see the moon at least. The hike ended off with us being chased down the last leg of the mountains with our tails between our legs as lightning struck all around us!!! 

A close up of a Millipede Assasin, Ectrichodia crux, from the Reduviidae family of bugs, feeding off a millipede. Millipedes are highly toxic to most predators, allowing them to move around slowly, unhindered. Their worst enemy is the Millipede Assasin who, after paralyzing their victim with an injected venom, sucks up the bodily fluids. These bugs can also inflict a very painful bite to careless humans.

A pair of Grass Jewel Blue, Freyeria trochylus, butterflies mating with the more colourful male on the left. He aggressively patrols and guards a small territory to secure the female. A new species to add to my Finsbury list, not because it is rare but because they are very small and easily go unnoticed. The larvae feed on Indigofera species. 

I led a 12 kilometer Amphitheater hike with Paige from Rod's Rest, including a trip to the Haartebeesvlakte lookout point and a trip to the summit! It was also rainy and cloudy for a lot of the hike but it opened up beautifully at all the right times. Here we see Paige taking a photo of a flower in quite a precarious spot!

The daisy flower of a False Gerbera, Haplocarpa scaposa. The flowers are usually a dull, creamy-white but I found a whole colony of yellow ones on and around the summit of Mount Anderson, which I have not noticed before.

The typical colour form of the flower of a Common Sugarbush, Protea caffra. Unlike the previous photo, this is the normal colour of this Sugarbush's flower but it's the only one I have come across on the Estate. Although the tree is very common here, ours bloom with a lemon yellow flower.

The Cotterel's from Rainbow Rivers resting at the top of the mountains opposite Little Joker Koppie. Note the Majubane waterfall in the distance in the centre of the photo.

The biggest African ant, Streblognathis aethiopicus, from the most primitive of the subfamilies of ants, the Ponerinae, reach more than 20mm in length. These common Finsbury ants live in small colonies of up to a dozen individuals only. They forage for insects alone and subdue them with a powerful sting. I can attest to that because I accidently put my hand on one and the sting was worse that a bee sting! Interestingly, the colonies do not have a queen. Eggs are laid by a mated worker female.

The weather didn't always clear up at the right time. Here I am on the summit with the Moore's from Rock Solid. We never got a view but the clouds cleared as we approached Clivia Valley from the east, revealing a spectacular view of Steenkamp's Valley.

Well, that's it for now. I hope 2019 will be a soooper year for you! It's already started well for us with 65mm of rain for the new year so far. See you soon....