A month of predators and the animals enjoy a feast of marulas
As always time has flown by once more and it’s hard to believe it’s been over a month since the last blog already.
The hot dry weather has persisted over the past month, although we have been blessed with some much-needed rain in the past week. The bush is looking incredibly dry and autumnal. The combretum trees are all in the autumn colours and ready to start dropping their leaves soon. The weather gurus had predicted that an El Niño would make an impact on our regional weather, and it certainly seems to be doing so in this part of the country. Elsewhere in the country there has been talk of excessive rains, but we sadly have not had that.
Despite the worrying concerns of a possible impending dry period, this may be welcome news for those of you that want to visit the camp and spend time in the hide. Drier conditions mean more likelihood of animals visiting the waterhole in more abundance.
A pride of lions visit Umgede Hide on several occasions
One thing that we have noticed this past month is the increase in lion sightings. Last year the lions were relatively scarce. They had their cubs on the far eastern side and central area of the reserve and seemed to spend most of their time on that side. Now with the cubs having grown up and much more mobile, the pride is visiting other areas of their territory and we have had no less than 7 or 8 sightings at the camp in the past month. On some occasions it may have just been a lone male come down for a drink but on other occasions the rest of the pride (up to 15 individuals sometimes) paid us a visit.
Other predator activity at the waterhole
One early morning a clan of at least 5 spotted hyenas visited the waterhole. Most of the time we see individuals or just a couple of hyenas at a time. Its always rewarding when a larger clan appears.
We had a visit by a leopard the one night. This individual seemed to be quite nervous on the camera and I don’t believe we have seen her here before. It was on the same night as the one pride of lions, so maybe there was good reason to be nervous. Trap cameras are wonderful for collecting information while we all sleep!
A marula fruit feast for the animals
A couple of Dagga boy (bull buffalo) sightings, some zebra, a hippo and a giraffe or two have been welcome variations to the regular Impala, Bushbuck, Duiker, Kudu and Nyala that have been coming down. Towards the end of February, the Marula tree was producing a great deal of fruit and so to try and reduce the risk of elephants breaking into the camp and feeding on this irresistible temptation, we gathered it all up and left it for them on the far side of the water. The animals loved this, and we had a wide variety of species take advantage; warthogs, duiker, kudu, nyala, giraffe, impala, baboons and monkeys, tree squirrels and of course elephants.
The camp gardens are aflutter with avian antics!
Birdlife in the and around the camp has been very active this past month with some great sightings. An African Harrier Hawk flew past the camera one morning, African golden orioles, green pigeons, a variety of cuckoos, all put in appearances. The guineafowl flock and their babies are roosting in the trees every night and offer some great photographic opportunities at both sunrise and sunset. The Woodland kingfishers have been very active, and the Barred owlets have been heard calling again recently.
The yellow-billed hornbills continue to occupy their nest in the Marula tree and can be photographed all day long from Hornbill deck. It would be very interesting to be able to spend time and document their behaviour thoroughly at some point. They have been in permanent residence in the nest since October/November last year so they must be on at least their second brood of the season if not third.
