THE FESTIVE SEASON 2022-23

 THE FESTIVE SEASON 2022-23

The festive season was lots of fun but, alas, it's over :( The weather, in the first half of the season, was exciting, mostly wet and tempestuous with glorious hour-long breaks of sunshine pretty much every day. So, even though it rained regularly, it was still possible to get out and have fun between the wet spells. And so, in December it was wet, with an average of 243mm falling on the estate over seventeen rainy days in the month. The most falling on the eastern parts of the estate, with 318mm recorded from the gauge at Rock Solid (unit 22), and the least falling on the southern parts of the estate, with only 208mm falling over Patrick's gate in the west (only 4,94km west north-west away, as the crow flies). Conversely, January has been dry, with an average of 110mm falling over the estate in just six days of rainfall! It looks, though, we may be getting some good rains in February. Let's hope. 

As far as I am concerned, the rain, unlike last season, has been hard on the environment. When it has rained, it has rained hard, with leavy drops, and lots of them. This is a recipe for erosion and run-off, but it certainly is better than too little rain. As you can see by the photo above, taken from the Miner's cottage road, close to the second zebra trail sign (see the cottage on the left), the estate is lush and green. And everything is just growing like crazy. Wow, I love all the life! 

Like the US postal service boasts about rain or shine, most of the families that visited did not let the rain dampen their spirits and were out and about in spite of it. I bumped into one such family, coincidentally, at a similar place to where the photo I just spoke about was taken (this time the Miner's cottage is in the back-round just to the right of the family). The Joostes from Coch-Y-bunddhu (unit 1) were all over the estate during their time here. In fact, I saw more families and groups exploring the wilderness areas of the estate than I have ever seen before.

An East African Lowland Honey bee, Apis mellifera ssp. scutellata, searching the flower of a Ribwort Plantain for even more pollen, although it appears its pollen sacks are overflowing already. Even that common name is quite a tongue-twister, eh? Well, you see, the taxonomy of Honey bees has been very difficult to interpret, mainly because they have been domesticated for at least 2600 years and have, therefore, been interbred and inbred since then and now occur, in abundance, on all continents. 

It is believed that the Apis genus originated in southeastern Asia and the Philippines, and the A mellifera type species then spread into Africa. Thereafter, the desertification of the Middle East separated the species which isolated the African genome. This genome went on to adapt to two very different climes within the continent, the summer rainfall regions which occur throughout the continent and, of course, the winter rainfall region which only occurs on the very south-westerly tip of the continent. So, in South Africa we have two indigenous species of honey bee from the Apis genus: Apis mellifera scutellata and Apis mellifera capensis separated by climate.

In 1990, beekeepers moved a bunch of Cape Honey bees from the winter rainfall areas to the summer rainfall areas of South Africa, which swiftly became a big problem for the indigenous East African Lowland Honey bees, residents of the summer rainfall areas! A queen bee of a hive produces pheromones in her mandibular glands that control the behavior of her worker population. These pheromones recognise her as the queen; prevent the workers from attacking her; ensure she receives better quality food; and prevents workers from developing their ovaries and laying their own eggs (although, if this does happen, these eggs are usually weeded out of the cells by more closely related workers of the Queen anyway, and those that do hatch are males and are therefore evicted the following winter). 

Unfortunately, Cape Honey bee workers can enter the hive of an East African Lowland Honey bee colony, can develop her ovaries and lay haploid eggs, by parthenogenesis, which are female, in cells which are ACCEPTED by the young workers who tend the eggs and pupae. By doing this, the Cape Honey bee paratisises the East African Lowland Honey bees' colony. The new female Cape workers do not forage for food or anything else that benefits the colony, and so, as the population of Cape bees grows, the indigenous workers' population decreases and finally the hive collapses. The female Cape workers then move to other East African hives and the process repeats itself many-fold! 

A barrier separating the two subspecies was established 1993 and beekeepers are not allowed to take the Cape Honey bee across it. This has saved the beekeeping industry in South Africa. 

Shaggy Ink Cap, Coprinus comatus, found on the Hidden Valley road around Christmas time. This mushroom is a close relative of the Snowy Ink Cap mushroom that I featured in my previous blog. The specific name, comatus, is the latin term for "long hair" or "leafy" referring to the hair-like scales on the cap, also the reason for the common name: Shaggy. This mushroom also has a negative effect on individuals if they consume alcohol as in the previous species, although not as pronounced. The fact that the effects are not as acute and the fact that they taste really good has made these popular eating. But only if one eats the young, unopened individuals like the one on the right in the picture above. 

To recap: The "Inkcap" part of the name comes from the ability to extract a permanent, browny-black ink from the mushroom. Once the spores are produced in the gills, the gills begin to deliquesce into a black, gooey slime. That which drips to the floor, impregnates the floor with spores. The stink of the slime also attracts flies who transport the spores that stick to its legs and when the remaining slime dries, the spores flake off and are transported by wind to far-away places. For those that want to get the ink from the mushroom, simply place a few whole mushrooms into a glass jar and seal the jar for a couple of days until the jar contains a gooey black mess. Sieve the contents through a baking sieve and, Viola, what remains is a good quality ink, albeit a stinky ink! 

The tall individual here was quite a robust mushroom, standing more than 400mm tall. Upon closer inspection, the shaggy cap is actually quite beautiful, with many colours and a lovely texture. One of the prettier mushrooms I have seen on the estate.

A poor photo because of very poor light, but a remarkable creature! This is an Ant-mimicking Jumping spider, Myrmarachne formicaria, that I found on the patio of my house. The male apparently has the long chelicerae, as in the photo, but I cannot seem to find the reason for that adaption. Besides the long chelicerae and the huge, forward-facing 'headlight' eyes, the mimicry is superb! Experiments have proved that these jumping spiders are preyed upon four to five times less that a non-mimicking species, so that is obviously the reason for the mimicry. Ants bite, sting and are filled with formic acid and so are preyed on less than other insects in general. There is also speculation that the mimicry allows the spider to get much closer to insects, like scale insects (see "ants and aphids", blog of January 2020; and "Scale insects", blog of May & June 2021), which it then attacks and devours. There have been no reports of this being observed yet, though.

But looks are not enough. The spider also behaves like an ant: When running, it purposely runs on a windy trajectory that changes every ten or so body lengths, mimicking an ant that is following a pheromone trail left by another ant in the colony. Also, although it runs on eight legs, like a spider, and not six like an insect, it stops periodically and lifts its front legs off the ground and waives them around, just like an ant does with its long antennae. This was all noticeable as I followed this guy around my stoep. A really clever survival tactic. Amazing stuff!

This lovely, colourful photo, taken by Ally from Ally D Photography (guest of the Bands of Finsbury House (unit 23)) of an adult Malachite Kingfisher, Corythornis cristatus, on the left, feeding pieces of frog to his / her fledged offspring. The photo was taken at K13, a weir where these spectacular little birds are regularly spotted. After the Pied Kingfisher, these are the most common and abundant kingfisher found on bodies of fresh water. They do prefer slower-moving water than what we get here at Finsbury, which explains why we don't see them at every second weir, because, along slow-moving rivers, you will find a pair on every two-hundred-meter stretch! So, along rivers where populations are saturated, a monogamous pair of Malachite kingfishers establish a linear territory stretching about two-hundred meters along the river, with perching space on both sides.

After brief displays by both sexes, copulation occurs and then both sexes begin digging a narrow (about 40mm in diameter) hole into a vertical sand bank. The tunnel is dug to a depth of about a meter, at a slight incline, and then a fist-sized chamber is hollowed out at the end. The adults, stooped, fit snuggly along this tunnel when accessing the nest and the constant backwards and forwards shuffling creates parallel ruts along the floor of the tunnel, a characteristic feature of an active Malachite kingfisher's nest tunnel. Once completed, there is no extra comforts or bling added, the female lays two to four eggs on the floor of the chamber.

Both sexes incubate the eggs, and within two days they will hatch. The chicks are fed minnows, tadpoles, insects and their larvae and nymphs, pieces of frog, crab and lizard, for just over two weeks when, suddenly, a few days before fledging, the constant supply of food slows dramatically, and the chicks visibly lose weight. It is believed this weight-loss allows the chicks to negotiate the tunnel easier, as they prepare to fly for the first time. Once fledged, the chicks will remain with the parents, as is the situation in the above photo, while the parents teach them how to hunt and what to hunt. The chicks are then evicted from the territory and must fend for themselves.

Then the whole show starts again! Although, if the nest was built in a suitable spot and there were no problems, the pair will use the same nest over and over again, raising as much as four broods in a season. Even using the nest again in the following seasons. One problem, though, is they do not clean the nest of scraps, bones, or even faeces. In fact, it's so gross in there that, at the stage before fledging, there is usually a slimy, stinky ooze dripping out of the hole entrance (the reason for digging the tunnel at a slight incline)! 

This is a nice close-up shot of a Dancing Acraea butterfly, Hyalites eponina, waking up on its night-time perch. It's a small (wingspan less than 40mm), common butterfly found in riparian bush and on the edges of forests on the estate. In fact, it is ubiquitous throughout the eastern side of southern Africa in wooded habitats. The female, whose colouration is very variable, can be seen flying slowly, low to the ground as she searches for plants belonging to the Malvaceae (Hibiscus family), particularly Triumfetta and Hermannia species, so she can then lay a batch of eggs on the underside of the leaves. The larva, a prickly little worm, will devour the leaves on the host plant before it will anchor itself to the bush and enter its pupa stage. If this happens early enough in the season it will exit the pupa in the same season, or if later, then it will over-winter in the pupa stage.  

Goody Gumdrops! A new species for our list. This is a Purple Gorse, Muraltia flanaganii, and I found it in a rocky area on the high-altitude grasslands above Knife-edge Ridge, in the extreme north-east of the estate, while hiking over Christmas time. It is in the Milkwort family (Polygalaceae), in the same order as the Pea family, all with a familiar flower design. The plant was described by Harry Bolus (1834 - 1911), a very well-known botanist from the day. He was an accomplished businessman, a philanthropist, a botanist, and a botanical artist. In fact, to those orchid fanatics, he is very well known for the immense work he did on the orchid family.

Of the 115 different species from the Muraltia genus, this one and only four more occur outside of the Cape Floral Kingdom, making it a typical fynbos plant, hardy and able to survive in nutrient poor soils with erratic temperatures and rainfall. Its close cousin, M. heisteria, is a popular garden subject because of these attributes and, so, this one should be a good one too, outside of the winter-rainfall areas. Perfect for a rockery, the rounded shape of the bush, the attractive leaves and copious white, mauve and purple flowers make for a jolly sight.

The hairy caterpillar of the Mountain White-spot moth, Mesocelis monticola, feeding on the leaves of a low-lying plant in our high-altitude grasslands. This species is the only one in the genus (monotypic), which is placed in the Lasiocampidae family. Lasio (Gr)= Hairy; Campa (Gr)= caterpillar; Meso (GR)= middle; ocelis (Gr) = eye (referring to the eyespots in the middle of the wings); monticola (Gr) = to love mountains. Very descriptive!

Once the caterpillar has had its fill, it will spin a tough, papery cocoon on a twig of a tree or bush that serves as a food source for the caterpillars. After pupation, the male emerges from the cocoon as a drab, bulky, brownish moth with a white spot on each forewing. The female is apterus, meaning she has little stumps instead of wings and she cannot fly. She will remain in the cocoon and release her reproductive pheromones into the air and the male will, hopefully, pick these up and find her and impregnate her while she is in the cocoon. She will then emerge and lay her egg batch on the host plant and the cycle will repeat itself. 

This is very exciting! This is the first confirmed sighting and photograph of the super-elusive Natal Cascade frog, Hadromophryne natalensis, from the very primitive family of frogs, the Heleophrynidae, the Ghost Frogs. The photograph was taken by Don Robertson while he and Heidi Robertson (Rainbow Rivers unit 17) were hiking to the Steenkamps' waterfalls!

In this ancient linage, the frogs lack ribs and have no dentate upper jaws. They have thin, translucent belly skin, through which the muscles and organs can be seen, and it is believed that that is where its family name, Ghost Frogs, comes from. Another primitive trait is that they perform amplexus, which is when the males clasp the females during mating, the old inefficient way. In frogs and toads, fertilisation is external, so the female lays the eggs while the males fertilises them immediately as they emerge from her. The males of modern frogs clasp the female under the armpits whereas, the more primitive and inefficient method sees the male clasping the female around the waist (inguinal amplexus).

The entire family contains only two genera and six species, five of them, the Ghost frogs, endemic to the Eastern and Western Cape and one species, this Cascade frog, alone in its genus, is endemic to the Drakensberg escarpment. 

Now there are some problems that a frog may face when living in cold, fast-flowing streams high up in the mountains that these frogs have adapted to overcome: Among a few unique traits of the tadpoles' head is the presence of a large suction cup around the denticles that help it stick to the rocks while still feeding; the adults have expanded disks at the tips of fingers and toes for the same reason; they have fully webbed feet to fight the current better; flattened bodies to fit inside cracks in rocks; and the eggs, from one to two hundred per laying, have a sticky surface to stick on rocks after amplexus.

Although the adults are hard to find for most of the year besides late summer when they breed, the tadpoles are apparently easy to find because they are quite unique, they are also visible throughout the year because, the water being so cold, it takes two years to develop into a froglet. I have also read that the adults like to emerge during full moon time so I will endeavour to visit the Steenkamps' waterfalls during a full moon soon. Thanks Don and Heidi :)

   

When I was doing the electricity readings in December, I found fresh male leopard tracks coming from the northern parts of the estate all the way down to the southern areas. So, after I had photographed the meter at Rainbow Rivers (unit 17), the last meter to photograph, I was headed back, on my motorcycle, to the office when I saw a huge African Black eagle / Verreaux's eagle standing on the grassy slopes just above the Majubane road as it passes the entrance to Tranquility (unit 15). 

I rode past so as not to scare it away and parked a little further along the road. I unsaddled and snuck closer using the bank on the side of the road as cover. I got to about twelve or so meters from him and was about to expose myself to get a good close-up shot of it when my foot disturbed a mass of flies on the floor. I looked down and saw the innards of a medium-sized mammal, covered in said flies, on the side of the road by my feet. This unexpected movement alerted the eagle and I just managed to get a couple of shots off while it was flying away. What an enormous bird! It's like a hang-glider! 

Anyway, I climbed the bank and approached the spot where the eagle was and found the freshly cleaned skull of a young warthog. I pictured what an amazing sight it must have been to see a Black eagle take a young warthog. It must have been a noisy affair indeed! On the way back to the road I found the fresh tracks of the big male leopard that I had been seeing the whole morning, moving quickly from the carcass to the thick riverine bush of the little gorge where unit 15 gets its water from.

So, I deduced that the leopard killed the warthog early in the morning (after it was light of course) and was eating it, under the watchful eye of a perched Black eagle, when I approached on my motorcycle on the way to Jackpot Cottage from Morrin Pools. This chased the leopard into the thickets and, after I had passed by and the leopard did not return, the eagle moved in to scavenge the remains, which is when I rode back after taking photos of the meters at those two houses. What an exciting turn of events!

Another first! This is a photograph of a Stonefly from the Notonemauridae family in the primitive Plecoptera order and this is the first photo of any individual from that order to be added to our insect list. 

The first true insects appeared in the middle Devonian, about 390 million years ago. They were rather simple and had no wings and resembled the only slightly more advanced Silverfish / Fishmoths that we find in the cupboard eating our books. Then, about 320 million years ago, the first winged insect appeared on the scene. They were the common ancestors of Mayflies (order Ephemeroptera) and Dragonflies and Damselflies (order Odonata). Now this was obviously a great improvement for their survival and, because of this, almost all insects today have, or have had, wings. The only problem these insects have, is that the wings are unable to fold over their backs, making it difficult for them to squeeze into small spaces.

Then, less than 300 million years ago, the first insects with wings that could fold closed over their backs appeared on the scene and these are the ancestors of the Stoneflies like the one photographed. They could finally fold their wings over their backs and could occupy many more niches in the ecosystem. 

I have been compiling lists of all the living creatures, fungi, protists and plants as I have found, photographed and identified on the estate since I got here ten years ago. Protists are sitting at only two species; then fungi, including lichens, at more than seventy species; Plants are sitting at 836 species; and Animalia, which includes earthworms, snails, arachnids, other athropods, insects, birds and mammals, at 560 species. 

These lists all occupy my laptop and iNaturalist (see after this), and so I decided to remove the animals from this digital habitat and into the real world! In the photo, you see an A2 sized, leatherbound list of all the estate's animals, which will be updated periodically, in their taxonomical order with a thumbnail photo of each. All the photographs, except for most of the birds, and the odd other of which I only had very poor photos of, were taken by me on the estate.

I will put this list, together with a magnifying glass, in the Natural History part of the museum where it can be accessed by members and their guests.

A screengrab as an example of the layout of the Finsbury Animalia list. The columns start at Phyllum, then move to Subphyllum; Class; Order; English Order (in bold); Suborder; Family; English Family (in bold); Subfamily; Taxon (scientific name); Common name (in bold); then there is a thumbnail photo bordered in white for the white columns and green for the green ones; then body length, the current SANBI Red List status; and finally a column for photo credits. You can use the list to compare against animals you have encountered on the estate and that will help you identify it. Once you have the proper name, you can google it and find out more or enter it into the search bar on this blog site and it will show if or when I featured it on one of my blogs.

iNaturalist is a website you must visit if you are interested in the identification and recording of any species, from plants to animals etcetera. It is an international site with members in any and every country who post their observations (photos or sounds) and specialists and others help you to identify them. So please visit iNaturalist.com, open a free account and get started!

I have created a project on iNaturalist called "Finsbury Estate Biodiversity" and, once you have opened your account, you can search the projects for it. If you go into the project, you can become a member and contribute to the species that have been found here so far. So if you are hiking in the Finsbury mountains and you come across an animal, plant or fungus that you would like to identify, just take a picture and post it as an observation and I, or somebody else will help you. Simple and fun!

So that's it! Another fun festive season done with and another beautiful year ahead! Remember to ask me for our new digital map of the estate so I can send it to you to load onto your device so that you and your guests will never get lost on the estate, even on the longest hikes. And, of course, if you want a guided walk or hike, contact me at jimmy@finsbury.co.za and we can arrange it. See you then!