Successful Flower Walk!

Louise Twiggs (The Crofts / Unit 19) and I decided to challenge ourselves to try to identify 50 flowering plants in a day. So Louise, her lovely daughters Kenna and Ashley, the pooches, Graham and Rosa Leigh (Grilse Cottage / Unit 18) and their guests, and I headed off to the extreme North East end of the Estate and enjoyed a walk through the gorge East of Pebble Stream (Unit 25) on a perfectly clear day. We managed to photograph and identify 52 species of flowering plant in the day! Success!

The next two months are ideal for this sort of adventure, so if you come down here and are interested in this sort of excursion, contact me on the radio on your arrival or email the office prior to your arrival and we will make a date...

Updated checklists

Further to Jimmy's post below regarding the updated checklists, you can now view, download or print the checklists from the Checklists page (see tabs above).

With Thanks

THANK YOU FINSBURY

It has been over six weeks now so there is no chance of complications. I had a cataract removed from my right eye and now I can see like I probably haven't since I was a teenager.

THANK YOU Dr CHARLES STEWART (UNIT 16)

THANK YOU TO THE BOARD

THANK YOU FINSBURY

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!

Chairman's report for 2014 AGM

Neville's report for the forthcoming AGM can be found here.

SOME UPDATES FROM OUR CAMTRAPS

Rob and I have been hoping to catch a Brown Hyaena on one of the CamTraps since I first got here. Until now,all we had to show for it is one very blurred photo that may or may not be a Hyaena. Then, about a month ago, Rob noticed a new Hyaena midden located at the junction of the Razorback South road and the new cycle path. I promptly set a CamTrap up at this spot and it has turned out to be one of the best spots so far. In the first two weeks a Brown Hyaena visited four times; a Serval visited three times and, amongst a bunch of general animals, a leopard cub (perhaps around 7 or 8 months old) visited the site twice!

Our first shot of a Brown Hyaena sniffing droppings at the midden

Three quarters of an hour later, another (or the same?) visitor.

This was the last shot taken before the CamTrap was ripped off it's anchor by the above culprit. Fortunately, the CamTrap was found nearby with minimal damage that was easy to repair.

This is the better of the two shots of a leopard cub that visited the CamTrap a week apart. Yesterday I found tracks of our big female leopard and one cub (Female about 7-8 months old) coming from the gorge between houses #24 and #25. In fact, Rob and I saw a young leopard on the road between the same houses on Saturday. The tracks headed into the gorge alongside house #9 so we should be getting sightings of Mom and Daughter around central for the next while.

This Serval visited a number of times over a period of a few nights. In this shot it is clearly entertained by the CamTrap. I love the way it lies like a domestic cat.

Just one of the many day-time shots to let you see the view from the CamTrap. According to the time stamp, the Eland on the right lay in the same position for more than two and a half hours, from when it was dark till the sun had risen.

Now for a selection of other CamTrap shots. This is a shot of a Warthog male rooting at K24.

A poor shot taken between K24 and K23 of, what appears to be a young female Leopard. Perhaps the previous daughter of our big girl.

This is the young but now big male Leopard that I just missed on the Miner's Hut path in one of my previous blogs. I call him Funny Boy because of his comical face, although it is not so comical anymore. In fact, I think he may just be taking the area over from our Big male. This was taken at K24.

The same male Leopard (Funny Boy) just over four months later also at K24. Definitelygetting bigger and meaner!

A lovely shot of a Large Spotted Genet with her baby taken at M14.

A Honey Badger taken between K23 and K24.

I don't know about anyone else but this sure looks like a Red Duiker to me. This was taken at K24.

And finally, a shot of a Civet that is expressly diurnal! She hangs around the central area and along the Whisky River. She is easy to identify with her scruffy hind quarters and very pretty face. We have no shots of her in the night time from the camtrap that was at W9, but many of her during the day! She is so commonly seen that Rob has christened her "Cedric the Psycho Civet"! 

Help has arrived!

HELP HAS ARRIVED

Well, after over a year of negotiations and persistence, the Working on Fire's High Altitude Team (HAT) has finally arrived! My little team and I are in the foreground of the photo and the HAT is in the rear.

The arrival of the team has had a very positive effect on the fight against alien plants at Finsbury. The HAT team has started where my team has left off in the Upper Majubaan and they have already cleared more than 40ha in that area.My team and I can now concentrate on areas that need urgent attention.

  

Newsletter March 2014

You can find the March 2014 newsletter here.

Trootkloof Waterfall Valley overnight hike

After the success of the Moore family's overnight hike with Jimmy in the August holidays, Fraser, Helen and I did another during the December holidays.  We set off in unpromising circumstances with low cloud and drizzle.  But the rain didn’t last too long and we were rewarded with some stunning light in the evening.

At the base of some cliffs we found a couple of fantastic spots where Jimmy and Fraser rolled out their sleeping bags under ledges.  Helen and I took a slightly softer option and pitched our tent higher up the mountain.  As you’ll see in the gallery, we all had rooms with a view.  After setting up camp we climbed to the top of Goudkoppie from where we witnessed some magical light as the sun set.  Of course, without sleeping out one would not experience sunset in that location and we were well rewarded for our efforts.  The next morning we climbed up to Goudkoppie again before dropping down to the miner’s cottage road and returning from there.

Visit the gallery here.

Weeping Wall Gorge walk

During the December holidays Jimmy and Fraser Moore did lots of walking and adventuring.  In particular, they explored a number of gorges, climbing up through the indigenous forest to the top of the gorge with various degrees of scrambling involved in the process.  Needless to say, Fraser loved these days out in the mountains with Jimmy and always returned with lots of (tall) tales to tell. 

Visit the gallery here.

Camtrap shots

We have a few camera traps on the estate that we use mainly on the rivers to document the otter and Water Mongoose populations. We have had sparse luck with the target species but we have captured some interesting species.The traps have also produced some fine shots of our more common animals.

This is a great shot. It's so Finsbury. SPK10

We have caught three different leopard individuals on the traps. One big male (but a poor shot), one younger male and a big female. The younger male and I had a close encounter, according to the camtrap, on the path to the Miner's hut where I was staying at the time. Got home late one evening and landed up walking the path in the dark. Check the date/time stamp on these two shots:

Male leopard on his way down..

Male human on his way up...

Below is a selection of camtrap shots that we have on file.

Look how full Mom's mouth is.

A beautiful Bushbuck ram with his hair up.

Bushpigs at K24

Old, scarred male Caracal at K24

Civet is the predator we catch the most.

African Finfoot at SPK10. What a gem!

Big Female Leopard at K24

...and her preferred meal, a Common Duiker 

Spotted Genet heard the flash charging.

The younger Male on Miner's Hut path.

Pumba at K24

Young Serval at SPK10

A rare shot of a Clawless Otter at M14

We got 4 shots of this big Serval in a week. All in the day!

A Robin at K9

October newsletter published

The latest newsletter has been published here.

Four Peaks overnight hike in August

Over the August holidays, Fraser, Helen and Nick Moore did the Four Peaks hike with Jimmy Whatmore.  As a twist on an old favourite walk, we slept out in the mountains mid way on the hike.  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time this has been done at Finsbury.

Carrying overnight gear - tent, sleeping bag, clothes for mid-winter, food, etc - is a different proposition than a day hike and we all had heavy packs.  While Nick's pack was filled with tent, warm clothes and spare water, Jimmy's was largely made up of lots of delicacies to eat.  At the last minute, Jimmy decided actually to bring a sleeping bag which was a blessing since even with the bag, Jimmy froze solid overnight.

Still, great fun was had by all and our intention is to do a repeat performance at some point over the Christmas holidays (weather dependent of course).

A gallery of images can be seen here.

Nick