Office Bushbabies Back

The Leopard's View bushbabies provide us with our own wildlife soap opera.  For a long time we had two groups of bushbabies in residence, one in the roof of the viewing tower and one in the roof of the office veranda.  Then the tower group disappeared and we did not see them for ages:  however, we were pleased when they reappeared a few months ago.  Next the office group vanished and we neither saw nor heard them for at least the last 10 weeks, that is until a couple of days ago.  Initially we heard noises from their den and then on Wednesday 24th August saw one and heard at least one more we could not see.  The next day we saw them again and as I write, they can be heard getting ready to leave at dusk.  This new office group (or the same ones back again?) are relatively accepting of our presence and when they emerge in the evening they always sit in the adjacent acacia giving anyone watching an excellent view.  After a few minutes they head off into the bush in one direction or another.

Birds – old & new

Black-headed oriole

Recent weeks have seen a great deal of bird activity around the lodge, including many birding parties.  Most of the visitors have been ones that we have seen here before.  The white-bellied sunbirds continue to feed on nectar from the aloes, although the flowers are now beginning to die back.  Blue waxbills have been plentiful, along with arrow-marked babblers, white-crested helmet-shrikes, Burchell’s starlings, red-billed queleas, green-winged pytilias, firefinches, various hornbills and black-headed orioles, which, like the sunbirds, also feed on the aloes.

African spoonbill at our waterhole

On the 7^th of August, and much to our surprise, an African spoonbill spent the morning at our waterhole.  They frequent shallow rivers with pools, pans, lakes and estuaries but our waterhole is smaller than the norm for a spoonbill. It was the first time we have seen this particular wading bird at the lodge and it takes our tally of birds seen and identified here to 114.  There are also two owl species (African scops owl and the White-faced scops owl) that we have heard but not seen here, although have done so elsewhere in the past.

New-look game drive vehicle



The original (sorry about the photo!)

When we bought the Lodge in 2008, the game drive vehicle that came with it, a somewhat dilapidated old Toyota land cruiser, was white with zebra stripes.  The stripes were quickly removed, leaving it a rather stand-out white. 

White for the last 3 years, plus the new ladders fitted

Undercoat

Changing it has long been on our task list and we have finally got round to carrying out the threat.  At long last we have an environmentally friendly green colour, with our logo on the doors, and with ladders on the side so that guests can climb up to the seats with relative ease.  We have also added wooden trim to the doors and the cab area as well as wooden arm rests at the back.  There was a huge amount of work involved, building the ladders (like giant meccano), preparing the body work for painting and the actual painting itself and shaping and fitting the wooden sections.  The spare tyre has been fitted in neatly under the rear seat.  All told, we can now take guests out with pride and with confidence that we at least look the part!

The finished green vehicle, with logo, trim and all

Aloes and sunbirds

One of the delights of the lowveld winters, apart from the sunshine, the dry air and the warm (but not hot) temperatures, is that the aloes come into flower.  This in turn attracts sunbirds to the Lodge gardens.  Most frequent are the white-bellied sunbirds (Cynnyris talatala).  As the name suggests, both sexes have a white or off-white belly:  the remainder of the female’s plumage is white below and brownish on top.  The male, however, has dark wings above and a brilliant metallic green head, throat and mantle with iridescent stripes in purple and blue on the breast.  The male sings loudly (incredibly so for such a small bird) throughout the day – a monotonous and often-repeated ‘chuee-chuee-chuee’. They feed on nectar from the aloe flowers and their long bills are ideally shaped to reach it.

White-bellied sunbird (male)

Many other birds are drawn to the gardens as well at this time, frequently visiting the birdbath and the bigger birdpool.  Blue waxbills, various fire-finches, green-winged ptylias and many others.  Our resident African barred owlet is still about and often roosts in the gardens during the day.

Green-winged ptylia

African barred owlet

Blue waxbill



Jameson's firefinch

Winter animals

We have been enjoying typical lowveld winter weather of late:  cold nights and crisp mornings with dry, sunny days that are warm but not too hot.  The cold in the early mornings has resulted in some beautiful inversion layers with mist blanketing the valley below the lodge and the ridge poking through behind.

After the wet months of April and May (when game animals were widely distributed and visiting permanent water only infrequently) the dryness of the last six weeks has increasingly led to animals visiting our waterhole in numbers. We have seen large groups of zebra (20 or so), large herds of impala, wildebeest, kudu (groups of 4, 6 and 8), duiker, warthogs and giraffe. 

One giraffe group included a mother and one of the smallest calves we have ever seen.  It was fascinated by the water in the waterhole, peering intently at it in the classic giraffe drinking position but then running back to mother at the slightest noise or gust of wind.  We couldn’t tell whether it was actually drinking but we saw it suckling from its mother so we suspect it was curiosity as much as thirst. 

A grey heron has spent several evenings at the waterhole as well and the days see an almost endless procession of guinea fowl.

Social birds

Southern white-crowned shrike

There are three species of birds that we see often around the lodge and that are both social (moving and feeding in small groups) and noisy.  They come from three different bird families. 

Most common are the Southern white-crowned shrikes, mostly feeding on the ground. 

Next are the Arrow-marked babblers, also very much ground-feeding birds. 

Arrow-marked babblers

Least often seen are the Green wood-hoopoes, iridescent blue-green birds with long, curved red-coloured bills that they use for finding insects in the bark of trees.  However, all three make their own distinctive and quite continuous noises, generally as they move around and fly from point to point or from tree to tree but also whilst sitting as a group in a tree.  Indeed the wood-hoopoes are known locally as “bahlega mfasi” or “cackling women.” 

Green wood-hoopoes

There is a fourth species of social and constantly noisy bird that we see only rarely and have not spotted for a long time:  this is the White-crested helmet-shrike.  It was therefore a great pleasure to see a group of these birds on two occasions in the last week.  Although they moved on relatively quickly the second time, the first visit saw them flitting from tree to tree around the lodge for a while, enabling us to get a good view and take photographs.

White-crested helmet-shrike

Crescendo!

On Friday 16^th, soon after dusk, and as we waited for guests to arrive, a dark shape appeared at the back of the waterhole:  one white rhino. 

Then a second appeared at the other end of the water: two rhinos. 

After watching these for perhaps a minute or two, two more walked in from the left and drank at the front of the waterhole:  four rhinos. 

By the end of ten minutes, two had drifted off into the darkness while the remaining two grazed in the light. 

Although obviously focused on these two we then became aware of movement on the left of the water:  a leopard was finishing a short drink and then turned and moved off.  It was a brief glimpse only but nonetheless exciting. 

The grazing rhinos slowly moved up into semi-shadow, towards the lodge, and finally some 30 minutes after they first appeared were lost in the dark and the thick bush. 

Throughout this we kept hoping our guests would arrive but sadly that was not to be and all was quiet when they reached the lodge.