Summer delights!

The plentiful rains of the past month or so have changed the appearance of the bush completely.  The vista down to the waterhole and beyond to the rise is now green and lush with the occasional flash of yellow from the African Weeping Wattle. 

'Baboon's tail' in flower

Game tends to be rather more sparse with all the water available in the surrounding bush, but there are other treats to be found – the very beautiful but short lived flower on the strange looking plant commonly known as ‘baboon’s tail’ is one example.  This stunning flower only appears after rains and then transforms the rather ugly stumpy plant with its lovely blooms.

Giant land snail

The giant land snail also makes an appearance after rains.  Normally we see the empty shells lying around in the bush, bleached white by the sun but recently they have been quite active in the gardens (eating the grass), extraordinary to watch as the giant foot ripples over the ground. 

 

 

 

 

One of our favourite sights at this time of the year is the arrival of the young impalas.  We have spotted the first of these in the last week and had a good sighting of them on the birdpool camera trap. 

 

Kudu and waterbuck have also been making early morning visits to the birdpool.  Look at the times on the pictures; it’s definitely a case of the ‘early bird catches the worm’ in terms of successful game viewing. 

 

To complete our news for this time, a wonderful cloud formation ‘snapped’ at sunset one afternoon from the top of the game viewing tower.