A month of cats, a book launch to remember with Tony Park and a cold weather snap in Spring
The past 6 weeks have been very special at the camp.
We have enjoyed some great sightings, seen lots of guests come and go and the highlight was hosting Tony Park for a book launch of his 22nd and latest novel, The Protector. The weather has also been up and down and, as I write this, we are experiencing the coldest weekend of the year even though we are nearly a month after the 1st day of Spring! While other parts of South Africa are experiencing snowfall up to a metre deep we are getting the associated cold winds and temperatures here in the lowveld.
The trees are desperate for the first rains and the Shepherds trees and Long-tailed Cassias are showing their fresh green leaves, while all the others seem stuck in the depth of winter with few flowers showing yet. Maybe they knew this colder spell was still predicted. The kudu and giraffe have been enjoying the new leaves, but I can’t help feeling they would be happier with the warmer weather that Spring usually brings.
Predators galore and some rather unusual visitors
There have been at least 9 lion sightings and 6 leopard sightings at the waterhole since the start of August. For once many of these were while guests were in the camp and more especially in the hide, allowing some guests to get some great photos. Anita Botha and Neal Cooper both managed to get fantastic photos of Minona, one of the first sightings they had at the hide during their visit.
We have even had a couple of sightings of black backed jackal. Those of you that have been at the camp will recall that I have rarely recorded them in the past. Hopefully this is the start of many more sightings in the future. A pair of honey badgers visited too one night and even decided they were going to raid the dustbins. The guests in camp weren’t sure what all the noise was about and weren’t prepared to go and investigate, probably for good reason! A civet has also shown up on 2 or 3 nights. These rarer sightings are always so special because they are unexpected.
Game drives have also been successful with a variety of wildlife
Away from the camp we have been very lucky on some of the drives. We have enjoyed sightings of the wild dog pack enjoying a meal of impala shanks. All 7 puppies are still going strong, and the pack is now highly mobile, and no longer confined to any of the den sites. However, this does make it more challenging with finding them.
Lions have been active across the reserve, with possibly more cubs on the way in 3 months’ time. The males in the eastern section of the reserve have been very busy courting their females. The one pride took down a buffalo although it was too far off the road to be able to get any photos. A week later they took a giraffe in the same location. We were able to at least enjoy some good vulture photography.
In the previous blog I wrote that the one young lion was not seen again, and we feared the worst. He had looked extremely thin, and I honestly believed that he had succumbed. Well, I am super glad to bring you some special news in that I saw him again with the pride and he has even managed to gain some weight and although still not 100% better he is certainly improving. The resilience of wildlife continues to surprise me.
Leopards have been seen a few times and we recently enjoyed a sighting of Ramses with his impala kill up a tree, to which he retreated when a curious hyena ambled past.
Other interesting species have been several Sharpe’s Grysbok, a couple of which have been extremely obliging and allowing for great photo opportunities (although this particular individual chose to pose behind the shrubbery, but he was totally chilled and only about 2-3 m away from the vehicle.) Some great sightings have been had of our newly introduced animals on the reserve which we don’t talk about for obvious reasons. Those of you that have been here will know the species I am referring to.
Highlight of the month must be the book launch with Tony park
The highlight of the past 2 months has surely been the hosting of a book launch for our good friend, Tony Park. The Protector is his 22nd novel, and the camp features a great deal in the book as does Mel. It was an obvious decision that we had to host a book launch for him, and we took the decision to use this opportunity to raise funds for Provet and their very important pangolin work. In total we raised just under R50k which will go a long way towards helping to save many pangolins from the terrible illegal trade. Tony highlighted that possibly as many as 1 million pangolins are illegally poached and trafficked annually, making them by far the most trafficked mammal in the world. Should you wish to continue donating to this fantastic cause you can donate through scanning the QR code below. Please use the reference “Provet pangolins” to ensure that the funds go directly towards the pangolins
The camp gardens are aflutter with avian antics!
The hornbills have been busy with their spring cleaning and have been frequently seen going in and out of their nesting hole in the Marula tree. It won’t be long before our guests will be able to get some more regular photos of the male coming in to feed his mate while she stays imprisoned in her tree incubating the eggs.
The barred owlets were also observed mating in the past week so they too should be starting to nest soon, and we hope they will use their regular hole in the Marula tree outside the kitchen window.
Other regular visitors to the waterhole recently have been a grey heron, green-backed heron, Egyptian geese, hamerkop and of course all the regular finches and buntings. A little sparrowhawk is frequently seen in the large leadwood tree above the water. The green pigeons have been quite vocal in the nearby trees but rarely come down for a drink which is a shame as their exquisite colours make for great photography.
